Seems google’s new wifi router supports zigbee/thread. It will be interesting to see if it evolves into a home automation hub.
It has a dual core 1.3ghz cpu with 1MB RAM, and 4GB storage, built by TP-Link.
It also supports Weave the ‘other’ protocol to unify everything. So yes I think this will play a part, and quite possibly will be the device that is the gateway to pull everything together.
Knowing Google the ‘controller’ will be in the cloud.
For more info on Weave see their Project Brillo (bringing a cut down Android stack on all of your IoT devices ) https://developers.google.com/brillo/?hl=en