[normloman]

Remember in the 90s when everyone said virtual reality and smart TVs were the next wave of high tech? And how all the big companies started putting money into R&D for said technologies? Remember how it never materialized? (Well, it's being realized now, 2 decades late.)

The "internet of things" is the same shit. Something people like to mention at TED conferences. But do we want it? Is the market ready for it? No one's asking that. If you ask me, we're not ready. At the moment, the tech is too expensive and too useless. A few things will win out with affluent customers (thermostats, audio systems). But putting chips in everything we own is a far off dream.

[lucozade]

Funny how these things are. My reading of the last 20 years is the exact opposite.

We've gone from talking about how devices will change how we live and work to having devices that are changing how we live and work. Ok they weren't VR or TVs, they were sensor heavy mobile devices. But still.

And they're not completely pointless. They may not have solved world peace but they've changed comms in quite positive ways; I have to travel for work and video chat to my family is a wonderful thing.

Also, over the last year or so, I've seen a noticeable increase in people taking an interest with their health due to Fitbits and the like. Having that feedback loop, although a small thing, can make quite a difference.

I can see this sort of thing having logical extensions into the home because we now carry sophisticated control systems with us. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if we don't start getting QR codes on menus/food packs with nutrient content, for example.

Don't get me wrong, I fully appreciate that what I'm talking about here are all first world solutions to first world problems. But the idea of connected stuff affecting ones life isn't in the future.

[normloman]

Yeah but in order to reach that conclusion you have to abstract too much. We can all agree that devices are and will change how we live. But now we're not talking about VR, Smart TVs, or the Internet of Things anymore. Because the truth is, we never know what form the next wave of technology will take. And that's why I'd rather experiment than prophesize.

[JoeAltmaier]

It only requires a bootstrapping application. Enough chips get made for that niche, the chips get cheaper. That opens up other applications. And so on. It's a 'natural process' of economics, with a time-constant related to marketing and chip manufacturing cycles. Used to be 20 years, but its getting shorter all the time.

[normloman]

I agree that the chips could be cheaper with the right killer app. It's a matter of time. Tech "thought leaders" think that time is now. I think it's still a few years off.

But what solves the issue of being useless? And what is that price-lowering killer app gonna be if IOT means shoving a wifi adapter in your blender?

[JoeAltmaier]

No need to be very useful at all. Just convenient. We got remote controls for our media devices, to save us getting off our butts. Now its a way of life - channel surfing.

[normloman]

Yeah but that convenience is very useful. I think we're just talking past eachother. Remotes make watching tv way easier. The question is whether some of these internet enabled devices make things easier or not.

[JoeAltmaier]

Yup. And we won't know until someone shows us how much we were missing by not having them.

An internet-connected coffee pot or dishwasher is hard to appreciate now. But what if they alerted and called a service guy if they failed? That would be handy. We'd come to hate the non-connected device that didn't appear on our 'household service dashboard' app. It'd be like having a Victrola in the house.