[paletoy]

> But from a consumer's perspective, it seems like a solution in search of problem

I think the company to look at is Philips. They really understand how to create appealing connected things. For example this article[1] that talks about their controllable color lights, cooking assistant and coffee maker, all controlled through an app to great benefit.

And once something is connected, bluetooth becomes a limitation - say you want to choose coffee type at the living room with your guests ? or you want to watch the cooking assistant while being at the kids room ? Considering that the cost of full connection should be similar to bluetooth in the best case scenario , why settle ?

[1]http://gigaom.com/2014/04/04/lights-cookers-and-coffee-a-dee...

[MrQuincle]

What's the problem with Bluetooth here?

No mesh networking? That has been in the pipeline for quite some time now, and will hit the market big time:

http://www.csr.com/news/pr/2014/csr-mesh

Disclaimer: I've been part of a Dutch consortium with companies that developed their own mesh standards and did not understand that you need to "board the smartphone train". This is why I'm skeptical w.r.t. anything that does not just interface with smartphone technology.