Whether or not this particular initiative takes hold, I think it’s a given that standards will settle down and enable the sort of system level and device level interoperability that we all know is possible.

It’s difficult to envision what things will look like when that happens. However, one way or another we have to come to terms with that interoperability and adapt to it.

For that reason, I think it’s useful to look at this specific initiative and what they are trying to accomplish. That will hopefully tip is off as to what the future looks like and how we best can adapt.

To make this more concrete, we can look at ZigBee vs Thread and try to understand what this working group is hoping to accomplish regarding the harmonization of these two competing standards.

Zigbee vs Thread feels to me like Blu-ray vs HD DVD, where there was a war and not any effort for harmonization. So, I’m really puprlexed as to what why the ZigBee Alliance and Google have banded together.