Having spent my entire career in the high tech field, I don't read that much into all this. Companies like Intel/AMD (or Altera/Xilinx which I was part of in the past), were suing each other in one room and working together in the other. The reality is also most patents from all these companies are junk patents. They're not novel ideas that juniors at the university don't regularly come up with during an exam. IOW, who hasn't thought of a wireless speaker you can control through your phone? No wonder google is suing back.
I'm a fan of the multi room concept and I use chromecast (have some of the older dongles). At times it's nice to have the same music playing throughout my house and in sync. Something I never was able to obtain with BT.
My gripe, and the same gripe I have with the whole audio/HT/etc ecosystem is the lack of anything working together. You would think by now there would be an industry standard, like JTAG, that allows the average user to easily integrate systems. The reality is my friends come over and like my HT setup but ALWAYS say how complex it is. And, I have a decent programmable remote control that you only need to learn a couple unique macro buttons. (Surprised that these are legal and the OEMs haven't sued!)
To that end, it frustrates me that I can't go buy any wireless speaker system and have them work together with complete functionality.
OTOH, it has been shown that exclusivity sells. People love that some function on their i brand phone only works with other i branded phones. Just like they love downloading a fast food chains app to have access to the secret menu that you can only order through the app. IMO, this seems to be the way the younger generations think.
What do you mean that the speakers don't had standards? Of course they do! Sonos has one, as well as DTS, Denon, Apple, Google, etc. There are TONS of standards....
In all seriousness though we're of the same mind. Nothing wrong with supporting your own standard if nothing else exists that's as good (Sonos early on). What's wrong is when EVERYONE decides to create their own. I'm not sure that they go into it thinking others will adopt the standard (some have), but it sure doesn't seem like there is any cooperation from any company that makes wireless speakers.
I'm not sure why so many aspects of consumer electronics aren't standardized. Phones are getting better, but Apple still has to be special with their connector. Well, that's changing too.
HDMI is a standard, but companies don't have to meet the standard to be compliant, which makes having standards a waste of time.
Could you imagine wiring a facility with CAT6 and then find out it only supports MOST of the CAT6 standard features?
Wireless speakers should have a similar standard that Z-wave and Zigbee have. Certified devices work with any certified hub. Simple. Tons of brands work with either standard.
None of this will happen, bit I can dream.
