FYI, while this official Home Assistant SkyConnect USB Stick will probably be an excellent option for early adopters that just want to buy a few of the upcoming devices using the new upcoming Matter (Project CHIP) standard over the Thread protocol as well as those casual users (non-power users) that are sure that they will never connect loads of Zigbee devices (100+) to this single radio adapter, potential buyers should still probably be made aware in advance before buying that this official Home Assistant SkyConnect USB Stick on paper in a multi-protocol setup configured to concurrently use both Zigbee and Thread protocols over the same radio with a large Zigbee network (100+ devices) as well as several Thread/Matter devices will probably not get as good as performance as simply using a dedicated Zigbee USB adapter with a large Zigbee network and then just using this official Home Assistant SkyConnect USB Stick as a dedicated adapter for Thread/Matter only.
That is, when using multiple wireless protocols at the same time on a single radio chip as a multi-protocol adapter this risk becoming a “Jack of all trades, master of none” product, as on paper today, no existing single multiprotocol radio SoC using Matter/CHIP over Thread in combination with Zigbee at the same time should be able to perform as optimal as simply using separate dedicated radio adapters for each wireless protocol. This is totally understandable considering that it will need to handle the work of two radios, even with the protocol stack being off-loaded from the adapter’s MCU to the Host System CPU. The point remains that by using dedicated coordinator/controller radio adapters for each protocol today you are more likely to get the best performance for each protocol if that is what you are looking for. (This fact may of course change in the future over time with newer radio technologies + improved radio time management frameworks and protocol stacks from radio chip manufacturers).
Thus if you plan on potentially using it with a lot of Zigbee devices (like 100+ Zigbee devices) then I would recommend not waiting and instead just buying a separate dedicated Zigbee USB adapter today, then I still recommend you buy this official Home Assistant SkyConnect USB Stick when it becomes available but just use it as a dedicated adapter for only Thread/Matter, or alternatively wait and buy two of these official Home Assistant SkyConnect USB Sticks and use them separately as two dedicated single-protocol radio adapters for the different wireless protocols. As with existing Zigbee USB adapters being good as they already are no need to wait for an all-in-one multiprotocol combination adapter if you plan on building a large Zigbee network when a multiprotocol is likely to not perform as well, (again, on paper at least).
Anyway, suggest users who think they might connect 100+ Zigbee devices someday should consider just buying a separate dedicated Zigbee adapter now to use only for Zigbee devices. Most such dedicated Zigbee adapters should not become e-waste because it will probably be possible to migrate your Zigbee network to a new Zigbee adapter and then most modern dedicated Zigbee adapters can usually be flashed with alternative Zigbee Router firmware and repurposed as a Zigbee Router device (Zigbee network mesh signal repeater). Regardless, you will normally want many good always-on Zigbee Router devices in your Zigbee network mesh to achieve the best possible stable Zigbee environment.
Refrence agners and grobasoz comments → https://github.com/grobasoz/zigbee-firmware/issues/27
grobasoz comment: “Now to the big issue I have with Multiprotocol - and my personal opinion only. A “normal” Zigbee Coordinator on a “significant” network (ie 100+ devices) actually spends quite a bit of radio time managing the network, let alone handling the device messaging.”
agners reply: “Agreed, I think the multiprotocol solution might not be for large networks. A person with that many devices, likely will have multiple coordinator/border router capable 802.15.4 radios in the house already 
It is mainly a good solution for new users: People don’t have to choose between Thread and Zigbee at the start, they can mix and match. For power users Thread and Zigbee networks on separate channels definitely make sense (along with dedicated radios). That said, I like the concept of having a rather dumb radio and most of the protocol on the host. So it still might make sense to have the (Multi-)PAN firmware running along with zigbeed on the host. We’ll see how well that works in practice.”
PS: Personally I will buy at least two of these official Home Assistant SkyConnect USB Sticks myself and only use one protocol per adapter just to sponsor the Home Assistant founders and Nabu Casa.
