Image: Z-Wave Alliance
When Apple, Google, Amazon, and Zigbee announced that they were going to work together on a common smart home standard yesterday, one huge name was missing: Z-Wave, a system meant for low-power smart devices like locks and lightbulbs.
The competing smart home system has long been criticized by rivals as not truly being an open standard — despite outward appearances otherwise — and it’s easy to imagine that’s why it was left out. So today, The Z-Wave Alliance is making an announcement that would seem to fix that. It’s going to open up a part of the standard that’s long been locked down as a money-making scheme, theoretically turning Z-Wave into a fully open rival.
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