Mozilla's open source home automation project is a very big silver lining to this kind of news. Google has not shown any interest in creating a truly open platform, or in creating lower cost hardware alternatives (no not everyone wants an audiophile speaker in a simple home automation controller).
It's probably just my Stockholm syndrome of being 100% invested in Apple's ecosystem, but I'm kind of less interested in how open something is (because open often means "slow, takes forever to get anyone to agree"). I'm more concerned about companies actually having an attention span of more than a couple of years.
Is Mozilla's thing going to last for 10 years? Is HomeKit? HomeKit has a better chance. But look at things like Google Weave. What even happened with that?
All that said, HomeKit, even though it seems superior to everything else from a security standpoint, has been moving at a glacial pace. Hopefully this software authentication stuff will make a difference.
The only ecosystems that seem to be sort of thriving are closed, but extensible ones (Alexa, Google Home) and their originators seem incentivized to keep them going.
> The only ecosystems that seem to be sort of thriving are closed, but extensible ones (Alexa, Google Home) and their originators seem incentivized to keep them going.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out, but I think Amazon has a big advantage in that it has sold a massive number of Echo and Echo Dots and is fairly open in all respects except the actual voice data captured.
Right this is my point. The "openness" kind of doesn't matter in practical terms, mostly because the platform is SO extensible and everyone has integrated with it.
