On one side are the computer-chip giant Intel and Korean electronic goliath Samsung. On the other are another Korean electrics champion, LG, and chipmaker Qualcomm. On the sideline is Apple and a host of others. Each camp wants to impose a standard for the networked home that will make life easier by letting all the gadgets - from the refrigerator to the washing machine to the heating system - in a home communicate with one another and anticipate a person's needs in every way.
Depending on the weather, air-conditioning or home-heating systems would spring to life once one's car announces the expected time of arrival. If a smoke detector senses something, the household lights would blink red.
The trick? Coming up with a system that not only works, but will also be accepted by the world's leading appliance makers.
Google has been working on its Android@Home initiative for three years.
It would integrate the smartphone's operating system into a home, though there's been no progress to date. The newest strategy seems to be to build upon the 3.2-billion-dollar purchase of Nest, which specializes in digital thermostats and smoke detectors.
Google is not the only one in the game. There's a host of smartphone apps that allow people to regulate temperatures or open their garage doors. But, for now, few household gadgets are connected to the web, much less with one another.
The problem for manufacturers right now is that they don't know which of the competing standards will prevail, so they're forced to make their products compatible with every possible system, says Peter Kellendonk, who is working with the EEBus initiative to come up with one single standard.
"As a manufacturer, I need investment security," he said. "That's what will bring a market breakthrough."
A platform that works for multiple systems will have the most market potential, he says.
"A hundred mid-sized companies with individual devices will create a much more interesting ecosystem than one big manufacturer with 100 devices."
But manufacturers also need to make sure that their devices don't become wholly dependent upon the software of other makers.
"One standard will come to dominate the market," says industry expert Ralf-Dieter Wagner of consulting firm Accenture. The focus will be on the way things work together, not individual functions.
"The technology that brings customers the most advantages with its service will win." Along the way, manufacturers will figure out what makes most sense. "A refrigerator doesn't have to communicate with the coffee machine."
Thus, companies like Samsung and LG, which make everything from mobile phones to TVs to refrigerators to vacuum cleaners and washing machines, might not have an advantage, say the experts.
While they might be able to come up with one single solution, "it remains questionable whether customers will want to have all their devices from one manufacturer."
The key will be whether makers find a way to earn money from their gadgets and the service. That's going to mean a focus on an extensive range and access. Whatever happens, it's a make or break time, says Wagner. "This is when the market will be made."
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