Internet of things needs a point. It's more about features for features sakes than anything else. Sure, a manufacture can add wifi for ~1$, but then what.
Analytics, surveillance and lock-in. Require the user to apply for an online account and charge them a monthly fee to do something online that used to be free, monitor their usage and make it difficult for them to use another brand's products without significant friction.
AV, lights, thermostat, blinds, sure. But, that's 30 year old home automation stuff not 'the Internet of things'.
But I think the real killer app will help correlate consumer behavior, advertising and the supply chain. You could have a refrigerator that keeps track of everything you buy and where you bought it. Scaled up to tens of thousand or millions of consumers, you might have very useful data for stores to use to predict what to stock and how much, and how to target advertisements. I'm reminded of the story of Wal-Mart predicting one of their customer's pregnancies based on their purchasing habits, and sent coupons for related products.
I also think integration with social media is going to be a huge part of the IoT taking off but I'm not entirely sure how, yet, other than vague ideas about appliances having their own AI driven social media accounts and posting to your feed. That could both be useful, and an incredibly sinister way of getting consumers to empathize emotionally with a brand, even if only subconsciously.
Based on the contents of your fridge, and the contents of your potential guest's fridge, I can not open that door.
#firstdatefails
http://www.cmodigitalforum.com/2016/03/22/internet-of-things...
The linked article concludes:
Consumers may find it totally cool to design images for toast using a smartphone.
So the next killer app is you can design images on toast. Words fail me. Will people be uploading images of Jesus?
I assume the screen saver on the toaster will be flying toasters.
The best IoT item I've purchased so far is a sprinkler controller. It does a good job of keeping the grass green, but not too green.
You know all that stuff you bought and just use? That's all subscriptions now. So, enjoy your toast subscription! Just don't try bagels. That's a premium add on for an extra $2 a month.
Oh.. You meant for consumers. Yeah, I got nothing.
Put in a bowl of Easy Mac and press the Easy Mac button in the microwave app, microwave perfectly cooks the brand name meal. This is possible because Kraft would have their test kitchens using the same app and microwave.
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This is just like Roomba all over again. Sure, they made a vacuum robot, and stopped there. Where's the Roomba lawnmower, man? Where's the Roomba clothes-picker to put laundry on the floor into a basket? Where's the Roomba trash can that takes itself out? Does nobody dream?
Honestly, this would be a great use for QR codes, but there is probably a patent out there.
You can only cook supported food, though; your food vendor needs to belong to the same consortium as your oven vendor.
You could use wifi and a cell phone to take a picture of the package, but that's more effort than entering a time.
Why ? the $1 bullshit app industry, for example, is thriving.
Wi-Fi video doorbells are pretty great (or at least have the potential to be great). The Nest thermostat is good. Security cameras are obviously better if you can access them remotely.
I have WiFi scales that are awesome (I've wanted some for yeeears but they've only just become affordable).
I wish I had connected blinds and curtains, and smart lights would be good if integrated with the wall switches (damn renting).
- It can autoupdate. Awesome. In reality, update will have a bug (how do they achieve that with something so simple?) and you house will freeze. This happenned to a bunch of Nest users. - Some dude from Elbonia will break into your Nest and shut off your heating and your house will freeze.
Good sides? Would love to hear them.
We also use the Nest Android app to change the temperature while already tucked in to bed for the night without having to get up, or to turn off the A/C if we've left home and forgot to, in order to save money.
Nest's connected features get used multiple times a day every single day in my house. It's virtually never adjusted by hand.
Why not just program night/morning/work hours/evening temperatures and let the thermostat change to the right one. Nothing to do, nothing to think about.
I can't tell if I am about to accuse you of failure of vision, but if I end up doing so, it isn't intended in an mean-spirited way.
I'm an engineer. I build things. If somebody needs a motor or a control system or a marijuana distiller or a laser printer postscript engine kanji-to-scanalizer, that's what I get hired to do.
Recently, I was hired by a residential-to-light-commercial construction engineering company. They get plots and plats and architectural designs and collect their own soil samples and have to generate slabs and framing plans. Pretty mundane, but a lot of their process is done by hand, and they wanted to automate it.
During the process, it becomes apparent that a big component is soil - on the foundation. 30 year insurance plans on how much the foundation gets distorted by ... well, in some areas, ... rainfall.
It turned out (this is a few years ago now, so now we have data) that moister causes expansion and contraction. That causes the foundation to flex and fail. It also turns out that, one can measure the flexing with sensors, report back to the data-munging mother ship, and tell the sprinker system to water more or water less and ... save foundation cracks.
Now, yes, I know that this is nothing more than adding WiFi for ~1$, as you say. But it's a pretty big business value that works all up and down the value chain for how 30 year costs and risks and layoffs get allocated for entire subdivisions. I guess I'm not disagreeing with you - I guess I'm saying that, I agree, but, that's still a lot of value.