[pa5tabear]

Doesn't the industrial/building automation industry already have solid solutions for your fridge example?

Many buildings already have sensors wired in to PLCs and it's easy to network with the PLC to record and display the signals (for which there are many existing "dashboards" - HMI packages of varying cost and ability).

I don't think it would matter much who owns or maintains the server if you're using a PLC to aggregate your signals onto the network. Many companies are paranoid and would want an in-house server. But it wouldn't be much different to use a cloud based instance.

It's true that existing automation hardware and software are obscenely expensive compared to consumer tech, to the point where renting/subscription might make sense for certain use cases. The systems sufficiently complicated, though, that independent professionals usually manage the setup and maintenance.

[joezydeco]

That's kind of the dirty little secret here, right? This technology has been around forever, it only became attractive and fashionable lately because the smartphone revolution has dropped the price of radio hardware to the point where it can be dropped into everything/anything.

So now we face the challenge of groups that want Stuttgart-Siemens-PLC functionality for Shenzen-ESP-IoT pricing. Oh yeah, and let's skip all that service contract nonsense. I mean why am I paying $20/month in service for a chip that costs $1.50?

[marcosdumay]

Well and in due time, we'll get all that, and standardized interfaces too.

But we'll still lack useful applications for it at home.