Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11) and Bluetooth are two competitors in wireless area. Around 1990s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth had a big battle, and they are both winners: Wi-Fi in charge network of home and office, while Bluetooth occupied computer relative products.

Now, in things of internet area, there is almost same situation: Bluetooth and ZigBee are two majors. And which one will you choose, ZigBee or Bluetooth? And the result of this completion will have similar result like the one between Wifi and Bluetooth? The following tips maybe helpful:

 

 

 

Bluetooth

BLE(Bluetooth low power consumption) solved the problem of low duration of battery of tradition Bluetooth BR/EDR. This new technology reduced power consumption to pretty low, enable devices longer duration.

Bluetooth 4.1 and 4.2 were released in 2013, which have good performance in safety and privacy, worked much better with 6lowPAN/IPv6.

Bluetooth are used a lot in mobile phone, and as you know, mobile phone will be one of the main controller of home automation.

Bluetooth-Smart-Mesh-Working-Group is another important new point of Bluetooth. Theoretically, this technology make Bluetooth like device in the mesh network which similar like wifi. But at present, Bluetooth mesh don it have so many applications as ZigBee.

 

ZigBee

The biggest advantage of ZigBee are mesh network and 6lowPAN. These enable ZigBee to control more devices which are in same network.

Currently, ZigBee has more application in home products, such as lighting, HVAC control, etc, especially in products which need big data base.

To end users, ZigBee is not so convenient to operate as Bluetooth. But ZigBee has 12 years experience. It was born in 1998, and 802.15.4 was released in 2003i??802.15.4-2006 version was released in 2006 -2011 amalgamated with PHYsupdate to 802.15.4e in 2012 with MAC and ZigBee3.0 was released in 2015 which is aimed to solve the problem of not so user friendly.

 

 

There is a saying: history is always similar. Bluetooth and ZigBee will take there own place in different area of smart home, and become concurrent like wifi and Bluetooth? Most smart home products manufacturers think that Bluetooth is the trends of future because its lower power consumption and Bluetooth mesh. But currently,  Bluetooth and ZigBee will both have their own place in smart home just like wifi and bluetooth. And most people hope Bluetooth and ZigBee could cooperate with each other. Bluetooth and ZigBee both has its own advantages and disadvantages, if they work together, Bluetoothai is advantages could compensate for ZigBeeai is  disadvantages, and itai is same in the opposite.