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Future of home IoT – consolidated/single hubs instead of dozens?

<*** class="md">Like many in here I have a lot of devices at home. Fine. But good ***, I'm starting to amass a huge collection of hubs.

  • Bond hub for my ceiling fans
  • Apple TV hub for Homekit
  • Arlo hub for my older security cams
  • Philips Hue hub for Philips Hue lights + some others
  • Lutron hub for my light switches
  • Milight hub for my esp8266 box
  • IKEA hub for my blinds
  • Likely another one to relay bluetooth to my exterior bluetooth floodlights

I'm getting that same feeling that I did, decades ago, when the number of old power bricks started overflowing my powerbrick box (because you never know when you might need a 27VAC negative-center 240V with Australian plug brick. Again.)

Is there any movement or discussion about consolidating these things into a single device? There's not all that much separating them. Zigbee, bluewave, wifi, proprietary, etc. etc. could all be stuck on a single board with lots of storage/memory and a cpu capable of duplicating anything. And a few zany antennas. And a chassis in the shape of Robby the Robot.

I know vendors want their additional revenue stream through forced purchases, but this can't keep going forever. Mom and Dad home owner simply can't deal with a half dozen different devices, configuration tools, and compatibility conflicts.

Or do I simply wait yet another decade and hope for some VHS Betamax war to decide a victor, then re-buy all my home devices? Again?

submitted by /u/SpinCharm
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