You'd be surprised. There is a threshold where a company can become large enough to become a self-perpetuating mechanism keeping them afloat.
And I can tell you from experience being deep into the Google ecosystem....their ish is falling apart.
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Entropy is a law of the universe. Size means more opportunities for entropy. Or as my son said, "Dad, the big lego car I built fell apart again!" 
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Not quite true. HE would need an additional zigbee radio to enable thread so they wouldn't have to do time slicing with a single radio. @mike.maxwell talked about this a while ago.
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I admit to getting really confused between "matter" and "thread". Thread looks like a improved Zigbee mesh. Matter is more like MQTT + Homie, tying together disparate systems under one standardized communications protocol?
Is it possible to run a thread network without matter?
Thread is part of matter and yes, apple home kit devices run thread
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Thread uses 6loWPAN. TCP Lighting had 6loWPAN bulbs more than 10 years ago.
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But Thread is not a requirement for Matter - For example Hue will support Matter not Thread and your example newer Home Hubs (like the HomePod Mini) support thread but not Matter (yet?).
I certainly can see the need for standardization of the application layer but since all the big players have competing interests not sure how it will flesh out or how the smaller players will be affected. I guess it's a wait and see kind of thing.
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This has a better explanation
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Thanks for that!
So it appears Thread is just another type of (improved) IoT device communication protocol like Zigbee or Z-Wave.
A device supporting Matter is different then a Thread device - which has been part of my confusion. You can have a Thread "border router" that supports Matter but like with the HomePod Mini - it doesn't have to.
Hubitat Inc could also release a new Hub that handles the Thread Protocol (as a border router I guess) but not necessarily Matter.
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As said, @mike.maxwell specified it would require another zigbee radio so as not to time slice the main one.
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That's right I did read that thanks.
I guess I am more interested in the capabilities / possibilities of Thread at this point than Matter.
Not sure Matter matters just yet but there is a lot of promise and hype - it all depends on how the big players implement things for their ecosystems. Will they really "share" with others?
Apologies on going off topic a bit..
Anyway Thread or not, I bet my Nest Protects will still not be visible on any Matter system.
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Lol, I agree. I love mine but at least I can use ecolink firefighter's with them...
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This is true only if Hubitat wants to be a Thread border router. A Thread network requires only 1 border router and that can be any hard wired device. There is not even any hub required in a Thread network.
More than 1 companies has dual Thread and Zigbee radios, this one says "concurrent". https://eepower.com/new-industry-products/ultra-low-power-dual-core-wireless-mcus-support-bluetooth-5-thread-and-zigbee-3/
Thread is an IP-based radio. And supports more than Matter. Nanoleaf and Eve speak HomeKit over Thread today. Nest Protects use an older version of Thread. Lutron is a member of the Thread group. so I imagine that RadioRA 3 Clear Connect X is some proprietary mix of Thread and Zigbee radios as Lutron has made no public statements on either Thread or Matter.
Matter is an IP based language that supports communication on Thread, WiFi/Ethernet, and Bluetooth networks. Hubitat should be able to "do" Matter without a Thread radio as long as they follow whatever requirements exist from the CSA.
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Good article. To try and summarize is still slightly difficult even with a degree in networking. To me it sounds like Thread itself is just a way to create a mesh network using IPv6 over the same frequencies as Zigbee. Where Zigbee (and Zwave) standard are for both the mesh itself (physical) and the communications standards (network/application), it seems like Thread is only about the mesh itself as the physical level and leaving the communication part open to whatever you can do with IPv6?
Matter is an application layer stack (running off network stack IPV6) which has standard ways for devices to talk to each other, something similar to how we have specific ZWave command classes for each type of communication. Matter style communications can be used on multiple physical layers, such as a tradition network (Wifi) or also on Thread mesh since that also uses IPv6. If multiple parties come together and can agree on a single communication method (matter) it would be a huge win and worth the hype.
I know we have our beloved hubitat hub as the one that controls them all, but imagine if Alexa, Google, and Siri all spoke the same language. If you could tell the Siri in your office to turn off a light and the Alexa (or the home hub / hubitat) on the other side of house would also get notified of that change immediately, and locally, without a homebridge server, connected to hubitat (or other hub), connected to a cloud integration with Alexa. It would take a lot of complexity and confusion out of the device for people who don't want or need a complicated hub setup.
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"It Doesn't Matter, until it Matters"
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Which I think is a huge bit of the dream. Will it shake out quite that way? Who knows, but the degree of commitment to both projects so far looks pretty promising. On the technophile, but not HA-geek side of things I haven't seem really any of the pessimism I see even in this thread.
As it is now I'd like to consider myself moderately savvy with these things, but I would still call nearly everything beyond my Caseta lights bordering on technological dystopia. The idea that things will simply play well together Is key to improving that. Not just in that it will make it easier for me, but that it will spur way higher adoption which will put consumer pressure on better design.
I would very much hope Hubitat is early to the market in it. I strongly suspect they the argument in their favor starts evaporating quickly when the bigger players have functional border routers with presumably better UI.
Did I miss the announcement?
On latest Internet Of Things podcast Stacey said that hubitat said they will support matter. Either I missed it or she has the inside scoop.
You can hear it at about 34:25 mark. She was answering a listener question.
I think supporting Matter is just a case of firmware or software. But the current hubs obviously can't accept direct Thread radio communications. I guess what we might be able to hope for is Matter might make it possible to integrate other Matter-supporting brands of hub into our Hubitat system. Or maybe there will be a new Hubitat hub after all.
How about neither. There was no announcement and she doesn't have "inside scoop" more than everyone else in the community has.
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