I don't love that Samsung is involved, but I'm actually OK with this, depending on how it all shakes out. I've said all along that I just want everything to be able to talk to each other.
At some point we'll still have the problem of multiple standards. ZWave isn't going to go away just because Thread is here. I've personally spent at least a couple thousand dollars on outfitting my home with ZWave, so there's no chance I'm going to switch to Thread overnight. So I'll either need to stick with ZWave or hope that someone figures out a way to make the two work together (I don't see why not).
Mainly, I want to see how the prices shake out. I think the main problem with Zigbee is that there just aren't that many types devices supporting it. I can't get a wall switch, for example. And there aren't many popular controllers that I've seen.
The primary problem I've always had with ZWave is the cost, and I've always assumed that has a lot to do with its proprietary nature. I'll be interested in seeing if Thread devices will be cheaper, because right now none of these devices are in the price ballpark for wide adoption.
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Matt