Nokia joins Z-Wave

Nokia has joined the Z-Wave Alliance, an organization that aims to push the Z-Wave standard into smart homes.

The mobile phone company joins nearly 400 companies that are backing the low-power wireless internet of things (IoT) standard. Currently Z-Wave is the most popular IoT technology on the market, at least in terms of products. It enables small devices to share data over short distances with minimal power usage. But it not an open protocol and companies licence the right to use it.

A number of competing standards such as ZigBee, Thread and Bluetooth also exist, as do related smart home and IoT standards that both work and do not work with Z-Wave.

The decision of Nokia to join the alliance will be a small boost for the technology which has been losing favor among some IoT manufacturers. Last month, Samsung was pushing its new IoT online platform which it hopes people will use in conjunction with its specialist IoT Artik chips. The chips do not support Z-Wave. ®