Matter, an industry alliance sponsored by Apple, Google, Amazon and other tech companies will begin certifying smart home devices later this year, a next step in making the technology more widely accepted.
The Zigbee Alliance, an organization of hundreds of companies creating, maintaining, and delivering open global standards for the Internet of Things (IoT), today announced its organizational rebrand to the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA). The organization announced a second brand, Matter, formerly known to the industry as Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP), the future of reliable connectivity. The newly developed Matter mark will serve as a seal of approval, assuring that any object built on this standard is reliable by nature, secure by design, and compatible at scale. The Alliance will continue to develop Zigbee technology and will retain the Zigbee technology brand.
Matter, the name of the alliance, will let smart devices, such as lightbulbs you turn on with Amazon Alexa or a video doorbell you monitor with Google Home, use its logo on their packaging. The logo looks like a trio of round-tipped arrows pointing toward a common center.
Tobin Richardson, chief executive of the Connectivity Standards Alliance that’s behind Matter, said in an interview he expects the logo to become as “ubiquitous” as the Wi-Fi logo currently is.
“As these different devices become more complex networks, it’s all the more important that they’re all talking the same language,” Richardson said. “That mark will be a helping hand to make sure that you can add whatever lightbulbs, whatever door locks, whatever you want to add.” Richardson made the comment in an interview ahead of a Matter press event on Tuesday.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance, formerly the Zigbee Alliance, is the foundation and future of the Internet of Things (IoT). Established in 2002, its wide-ranging global membership collaborates to create and evolve universal open standards for the products transforming the way we live, work and play. With its Members’ deep and diverse expertise, robust certification programs, and a full suite of open IoT solutions the Alliance is leading the movement toward a more intuitive, imaginative, and useful world. The Connectivity Standards Alliance board of directors is comprised of executives from Amazon, Apple, ASSA ABLOY, Comcast, Google, Huawei, IKEA, The Kroger Co., LEEDARSON, Legrand, Lutron Electronics, NXP Semiconductors, Resideo, Schneider Electric, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), Silicon Labs, SmartThings, Somfy, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Tuya, and Wulian.
MacDailyNews Take: If it doesn’t sport the Matter logo:
How long until they all get sued over this. Should we open up a pool now?
I didn’t see Eve Home on the list. They exclusively make HomeKit products that are really good. I wonder if that means anything.