In IoT standards battle, there is no neutral zone for this CTO

Brockmann is working to persuade other major vendors at CES to join the AllSeen effort, which he believes has the most momentum behind it.

The AllSeen Alliance has more than 100 members, including LG Electronics and Panasonic, as well as Microsoft's plan to include support for this open source project in Windows 10.

Streaming music services are also using the protocols, known as AllJoyn. This allows, for instance, Spotify, LG TVs and Panasonic speakers to all work together. Notifications of songs playing, for example, can be shown on an LG TV as the music is streamed over the Panasonic speakers. These companies have AllJoyn-supported products at CES. Other major consumer electronics companies that are members of AllSeen include Sony and Sharp.

This isn't the only open source IoT effort with a presence in Las Vegas. The Open Interconnect Consortium, launched in June, and backed by Intel and Samsung, has a competing IoT application protocol. It will officially announce its open source project, IoTivity, next week. Apple also has an upcoming IoT platform called HomeKit.

IoT capability has tremendous importance to Electrolux, Brockmann said. Take ovens, for instance. The appliance maker will be putting cameras inside ovens so a cook can check on how the roast chicken is progressing. In a true IoT world, the image of a browning roast ought to be viewable on any device, including TVs. But it won't happen if electronics vendors don't agree on protocols.