The Intel Corp.-backed Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC) is expanding its presence in the smart home with the acquisition of a fellow standards association called the UPnP Forum, which was founded in 1999 to maintain the Universal Plug and Play family of peer-to-peer connectivity protocols. The merger represents the opening shot in the inevitable round of consolidation that is set to hit the overcrowded world of network standards bodies.

By the time that Intel its partners debuted the first release of their universal communications protocol for connected devices earlier year, about half a dozen competing groups had been established with the same mission. The most prominent of the bunch is the AllJoyn Alliance, which was not coincidentally started by Qualcomm Inc., one of the the chip maker’s biggest rivals. Each hopes to secure its own slice of the over 50 billion end-points that are expected to come online by the end of the decade, but it’s likely only one will be able to come out on top once the competition reaches its final stages.

While the market is large enough to accommodate multiple standards in theory, the practical considerations involved in enabling pervasive interoperability could give the first consortium to get its adoption snowball rolling an almost unbeatable advantage. If and when substantial gap is opened, manufacturers will naturally start gravitating toward the protocol that allows their devices to work with the broadest range of third party hardware, adding more momentum and mass to the equation until the alternatives are left in the dust.

Aggravating the situation is the fact that many of those manufacturers are startups that won’t be interested in stretching their already tight budgets to support multiple different protocols when they can settle for just one.  But the shift will only pass the point of no return once their larger peers, particularly those involved in standard development, start following suit and refocus their engineering efforts accordingly. That’s why bringing the UPnP Forum and its more than 1,000 corporate backers into the fold is so significant for the Open Interconnect Consortium, which will offer membership to every company on the list save those like Intel who are already involved.

The alliance is also planning to establish a new work group that will continue the development of Universal Plug and Play technology and sell legacy certifications to UPnP Forum participants who choose not to join the bandwagon. The changes will kick into effect after the transaction closes sometime later this year.

Image via jeferrb