I don't expect there will ever be such protocol though, there is too much competition already and everyone wants to be the "platform", because no-one actually h

I don't expect there will ever be such protocol though, there is too much competition already and everyone wants to be the "platform", because no-one actually has any idea of what gadgets would be useful. Even if we just look at the low level, there already is a war between grid powered vs battery powered, which then influences the war between BTLE, WIFI and ZigBee. There are inherently very different architectures, I don't see a change for convergence. But then probably when everything has been already done Apple will invent THE Apple Home which will be (as always) the first of it's kind :)