alt Hacker NewsImo, at this point nobody should be designing any wireless protocol that doesn't support full IP networking.
Sure, your Bluetooth headphones only 1:1 connect to your phone... But if they could connect directly to your WiFi router they could keep playing music when your phone goes out of range... Or you could connect them to two phones... Or you could connect them to your TV to get sound from that...
Basically, IP networking still allows direct connections, but also allows far more possibilities.
Same with wireless USB - a wireless USB printer can only print from one host - but a wireless IP printer can be on the network for all to use.
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The main reason why I love Zigbee is that it doesn't support full IP networking. It's about broadcasting standard messages to all the devices, like a message queue, and that's fantastic for the use case.
No firewalls to worry about, no external access, nothing, just all my devices automatically communicating with all other devices.
I don't want to have to expose any of my devices to the entire internet just to use them. Sure one can firewall and block things manually, but I would prefer things were secure by default.
You're not going to get low power consumption with IP. That's a problem for small battery powered devices.
I personally don't think this comment would be so outrageously wrong. I for one thought about making a Wi-Fi headphone for couple times.
Please do not give me more devices that need to connect to my WiFi for basic functionality. These devices add congestion, attack surface, and give manufacturers access to way more information than I am comfortable with. I already have to fight my washing machine, stove, refrigerator, etc. on this.