[sanotehu]

I completely agree with this sentiment. Unfortunately there's no motivating factor for the companies that produce these things to continually update products that are "in the wild".

I recently bought a Volkswagen 2013 model and have been playing around with its bluetooth. Unfortunately the good stuff is only available in this years models - which is a hardware upgrade as well as a software upgrade. (Think Android Auto, automatic mirroring of the smartphone onto the car console, etc)

The only situations in which the Internet of Things will work is where it is acceptable to replace the Things on the same cycle as we replace phones - every year or every other year. For the vast majority of appliances, this is not the case.