[stevesi]

Your water heater is a legacy device because it is horribly inefficient and lacks any connection to how you actually use water (when you need it, how much, etc.) It just constantly consumes energy keeping massive amounts of water ready for you even if you are away for two weeks (as one example). Same with sprinklers that have no knowledge of soil water. Or an ice maker. Or... that's what makes them "legacy".

If you've followed CES over the years (maybe you have) then you know the incredible pains consumers have gone through with physical button remotes--trying to make IR work, trying to figure out what grids of tiny buttons do (with shift keys no less), trying to customize physical button remotes to control multiple devices and more.

If you've tried to put in a security camera or other monitor you might have noticed how unsightly the wires can be when you put them where you want to see. Or how impossible it is to put one at an outside door where there are no outlets. Of course having mains is compelling but this is another trend that we experience in mobile that turns out to be pretty convenient for many uses.

You might think an ethernet cable is one cable to rule them all, but the jack is very large and almost no homes have those jacks on more than one wall of any room (if that). And many systems (in particular lighting) were controlled using ethernet cable from each outlet. But those were all based on proprietary home runs and routed to the electrical panel not data location and so you ended up with a "one cable to rule them all" legacy wiring that was quite costly.

Just a few thoughts.