I think our experiences with bicycle ‘standards’ tells us that this is probably not going to get better over time:

Right now vendors have no real incentive to offer any kind of compatibility with each other. Instead they’re all trying to define their own ecosystems with their own incompatible protocols

http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/37522.html

I can see why Apple and Google are so keen to get a foothold in the domestic control market – once someone has a product they’ll look to buy something compatible and once they’ve spent a few hundred pounds then they’re customers for life.

But the market is always best [ as is competition] and having competing standards must therefore be better…see alos railway gauge for lines

Or one could simply get out of bed and turn his light off….

market always best? did that happen in the VHS/Betamax fight?

Pointless technology, 1st World problems of the highest order.

WTF would you want to control a light with an app?

Almost as useless and pointless as those central heating apps.

WTF would you want to control a light with an app?

Not just a light – a whole lighting “solution”

😈

Maybe as a less controversial example, my car will only directly control Apple iTunes when it comes to music, if I want music from my Android device I have to make it look like a usb drive.

Lights are aren’t a great example but maybe burglar alarm/security cameras v central heating controller would be an example – you already have one from a manufacturer, buying another do you go for a compatible product or buy into a whole new infrastructure to support a another?

loving the way he calls having a few incompatible gadgets a “dystopian future”.

What we need is a new, ‘open’ standard!

Almost as useless and pointless as those central heating apps

I quite like being able to turn CH on / off from under the covers!

Maybe as a less controversial example, my car will only directly control Apple iTunes when it comes to music, if I want music from my Android device I have to make it look like a usb drive.

There is a simple solution, just buy an Apple product 🙂

“I quite like being able to turn CH on / off from under the covers!”

I quite like the fact my wife cant….

I like that fact that I never have to think about my central heating because it knows if I’m at home, work or on holiday.

I want something that tells me if I’ve left the cooker on or failed to shut the fridge door/lock the front door before I get 10 miles away.