Frankly adding ethernet support to HDMI seems like the answer to a question no one was asking.
I don't know...
HDMI is touted as a one cable solution. Yet, almost all the new TVs, with more and more coming to market, have Ethernet capabilities built into the display. This is actually something that I've mentioned in years past, but the concept of everything being separate is silly.
Why not a TV which can connect to a receiver with a single cable (HDMI 1.4) and the receiver to the Internet and your home network and from that single cable connection you get access to your home library of music, photos, and videos along with online content such as Netflix, Hulu, Pandora and others?
The limit for the network connectivity will be up to display manufacturers, but the consumer is no longer required to run a network cable right next to their HDMI cable to get that functionality, and manufacturers could drop the Ethernet port from their display if they wanted to. (not likely)
The audio return channel actually interests me more as it potentially eliminates the need for HDMI cabling to be home run for local sources. That is, if you put your A/V receiver in a closet in another room with your set top box, you may still want your Blu-ray player, or PS3 sitting in the room with you. So, you connect that source locally to your TV then the audio is fed into the TV, and back down to your A/V receiver for best possible audio.
Potentially people could get far cheaper receivers and let their TVs do all the connectivity and A/V receivers would turn into audio only receivers, dumping a TON of extra work which receivers have had to do for years. It will definitely be interesting to see how things progress over the next ten years.