Here’s why Apple put a Thread radio in the iPhone 15 Pro / Yes, Thread has some cool smart home uses, but the wireless protocol could also replace Bluetooth in other parts of Apple’s ecosystem
Thread is a Smart Home protocol. It's like Zigbee and Z-Wave but different. Hopefully it's actually going to become the real winner in the smart home world along with Matter.
Pretty much everything produced by Eve (besides their cameras) and Nanoleaf is connected via Thread. They were once only available for the Apple ecosystem but since the Matter standards were released they have been venturing out.
Thread is relatively new but it’s use in new devices will only grow. Thread and Zigbee use the same wireless protocol (IEEE 802.15.4) but differs from Zigbee products for it doesn’t require individual homehubs for each separate company. Thread products also benefit from power consumption that is similar to that of Bluetooth but has a range on par with Wi-Fi. Thread device also act as gateways or a tunnels for passing along commands to other Thread devices on the Thread network so where each additional Wi-Fi based device further burdens the network each additional Thread device only strengthens it.
Needless to say I’m a fan of Thread.
If you want to support a lot of devices in a dense apartment building with wifi you pretty much want everybody to have MU-MIMO capable access points and IoT gear. Otherwise you're hogging spectrum.
(It's not like other protocols aren't also affected, but at least they don't compete with people's internet traffic)