Another link to read also.
https://www.connectedhomeip.com/
Magic soup
Beyond that headline though, it’s hard to know what will happen: Google has said it will throw in its Thread and Weave protocols (Thread will likely emerge intact; Weave, not so much); Amazon will put in its Alexa system; Apple its HomeKit approach (which has been a mess tbh); Zigbee will put in its Dotdot approach. And somehow out of all of this, a new wonderful single standard will emerge.
Here’s hoping the dedication to a single standard runs deep because there are inevitably going to be trade-offs and winners and losers.
The biggest losers from this announcement though is Intel and The Open Connectivity Foundation’s Iotivity standard, as well as Zigbee rival Z-Wave (Betamax won, fellas). Plus all other smart home wannabes, who must have known that it was only a matter of time: X10, LightwaveRF, Brillo - we’re sure we’ve forgotten some more.
The good news is that all those involved have promised that their current kit will continue to work, so no more bricking of very expensive electronics. The even better news is that there is a real opportunity here to massively raise the baseline of security in smart home devices.
The bad news is that while existing products will still work, you will need to buy all new kit if you want to benefit from full interoperability. So if you have decided to take the plunge and equip your whole house with smart home tech, you would be well advised to wait a year.
You mean human beings will finally get along!? 
This has been posted about a few times before:
I'm not sure I really see it as a loss for Z-Wave (or maybe even a win for anybody, except maybe Apple will now actually have devices that work with HomeKit if they can agree on a way to communicate regardless of the specific device--like many of us are faking with HomeBridge). I'm not even sure like it looks like a "win" for Zigbee, either--the Alliance is obviously involved, but I'm not sure it extends to Zigbee itself as a protocol, possibly just another standard (cue obligatory xkcd) that could ride on top. The desired end result isn't really clear to me.
Old news... new hype... no changes... except now they will all agree to share in our data?
The war will never be over for Apple, Google, or Amazon. Each one has a vested interest on locking you into their platform and perhaps any standard developed will have a "token" that behaves like your sim locked phone for devices once they are connected to their respective platforms. Even though ZigBee is on board there are still ZigBee device types that have their own profiles that prevent them from interacting with HA controllers. A good example of this is the Ecobee sensors. I read an article that they are ZigBee in nature but their signaling and profile is locked to the Ecobee thermostat.
I believe the IoT wars will not be over until technology stops advancing......
It might not be over ever but this atleast will drive the prices down especially with Z-Wave devices.
It might not be over ever but this atleast will drive the prices down especially with Z-Wave devices.
I'm not sure I agree, perhaps if the Z-Wave licence costs drop a little but the rest is based on mfg cost.
Everyone seems so disappointed in this news. Makes me wonder if everyone likes paying high prices instead.
I don't think it's disappointment but apathy... this isn't the first big collab news and things are open and we're all going to get along news event. Just the latest one this year.
Of the "releases" so far... they aren't new. The Homekit release is a minor step as it was and has been available and free for DIY non-commercial integration and use the only thing "new" is now the docs and code is on GitHub... The Z-Wave release of going "open" is only partially new. The spec/documentation was released last year maybe longer in a big hoopla with Open Zwave to further things... the news now is to reduce/remove the license costs and allowing 3rd parties to actually manufacture the chips (which is big and may reduce costs). In the same token Z-Wave Alliance has improved and increased requirements for certification and enforcement of the standards... did they increase the cost? dunno yet.
Remember the old days when Microsoft held you hostage with the high cost of upgrading windows ? I remember having to pay almost $200 for a upgrade. Windows 10 for the longest time was FREE if you owned a Windows7/8 license. That wasn't the case for decades. Now Windows 10 also has a linux kernel that can be installed and used. Windows sees the benefits of including linux in its OS now.
The point being that companies understand that licensing costs is the #1 reason why people don't buy or upgrade. From reading the article the the Z-Wave Alliance released seems to going in that direcftion. To reduce the cost and remove the "We are the only ones who can license any Z-Wave device" clause.
I do believe that after reading many articles in the past few days is actually going to help the sales of devices especially the Z-Wave ones for everyone and reduce the prices for them. Z-Wave is not going to under sold and you can bet on that.
Be a "doubting susan" if that fits you but this bit of news is a great start for everyone... manufacturers and end-users.
Nobody doubts that removing the license cost for Z-Wave use and having 3rd party manufacturing options is not good or has the potential to make things cheaper.
You missed the other item in my original post though. The Z-Wave alliance is also revamping the Z-Wave certification process and requirements which is a good thing but they have not provided details "IF" there will be a certification price increase or not.
The good thing is they are finally enforcing certification requirements for "Sensors" which they haven't in the past. So this will be a very positive thing for Z-Wave sensor compatibility and support. Yet back to the topic of cost. They may give away the "Right to Use" License for Z-Wave BUT with an increase in certification costs. I don't know yet and I haven't heard anything specific yet.
There's a lot of noise and things in the "news" sites that are "reporting" and some of it is rehashed information from previous things. It's just going to take a bit to see where this lands for sure.
I'm more of a reservations rob. Yet another standard is not a positive development.
[quote="sgrayban, post:14, topic:29824"]
Remember the old days when Microsoft held you hostage with the high cost of upgrading windows ? I remember having to pay almost $200 for a upgrade. Windows 10 for the longest time was FREE if you owned a Windows7/8 license[/quote]
" Step into my web said the spider to the fly"
Offering free upgrades to Windows 10 was not an altruistic act by Microsoft. They wanted to get everyone on Win10 as soon as possible. I believe their ultimate plan is a subscription based model. You can be assured Microsoft will end up with more of subscribers $$ than when they sold (licensed) software with no end date. I just upgraded from Office 2010 to 2019, held off paying anything for 9 years. Microsoft does not want folks like me (keep fully functioning software years and resist cloud based features)
Regarding the consortium news. My guess is they wish to make home automation "plug and play" with a goal of more non-tech customers. Perhaps this new system will also somehow be subscription based.
The only thing I am positive is the companies involved see a way to bring in more sales and more profit. If you doubt this I have a bridge I'm looking to sell.
..doubting Susan
I have no doubts, my position is based on years of observing how companies work. And the fact that to grow they need to bring in more revenue.
I don't know, but believe they'll leave Windows free and just keep slurping up data to sell. I had no problem paying for the OS as long as I (and my information) wasn't the product. I replace PCs often enough to where keeping a current Windows version has never been an issue.
One thing they've done with Windows 10 is strip if of different parts/pieces (media specifics) and those are now add-on payments. Example I went to play a movie and I had to pay the $4 for the codec through the MS Store.... a few other items pop up from time to time as well. So they're getting their money
Easy way around that is to install VLC:
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html
If you need codecs that aren't already installed in VLC, then download K-Lite:
https://codecguide.com/download_kl.htm
I make VLC a default install on all customer Windows PCs. The only customers that I've had to install K-Lite on are those needing to play videos from security camera DVRs.
