If you believe the hype, “The Internet of Things (IoT)” or “home automation” is the next Magical Mystery Tour that we all can’t wait to board.
For simplicity’s sake, IoT refers to any gadget that can be connected to the Internet or to each other: a refrigerator with a tablet built into its door, a combo lighting/heating/security panel, etc. This might include web-connected driverless cars, planes talking to each other while talking to ground control and weather stations. Analysts at the Raymond James firm say that by 2020, there could be up to 50 billion devices “[that] will disrupt [our] consumer and industrial products …”
IoT marketeers were out in force at the recent 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. All manner of IoT concepts were on display: security systems, health monitoring and more. Here’s an example. At a product demo, Microsoft showed how Cortana, its digital assistant, (similar to the iPhone’s Siri), might connect with Samsung’s family of refrigerators, washing machines and TV sets. Would you want Cortana telling you when a laundry load was ready? Maybe that excites you. Not me. Not yet, anyhow. And that is the dilemma of selling IoT to the public. Does the public want all their home tech gadgetry working together? I love consumer tech, but I’m not worked up about water heaters, washers, furnaces and lightbulbs sharing information to allegedly make my life better. I’m no Luddite, but this one to me is like 3D TV: so far, it’s tech for tech’s sake, not a game-changer.
Let’s say, however, this does work for you. If so, then you may be looking at a “Game of Thrones”-like tech face-off: various consortiums battling to establish their hardware and software fortress as the Next Insanely Great Thing. Take Nest, the well-regarded self-learning programmable WiFi-connected thermostat/heating control system. Now owned by Google, Nest devices work with gear from Whirlpool, Mercedes-Benz, Skybell and other companies. That’s the good news. But what if you want technology from Schlage or Honeywell for your IoT network? Sorry, Charlie, that won’t wash. They’re built to work with Apple’s HomeKit operating system.
Add to that mix other consortiums fighting for market share including but not limited to others led by Qualcomm, Intel and their partners. It’s another tech brouhaha on the horizon that consumers don’t need.
Many of us are barely through the trauma of figuring out how Bluetooth works. I wish these tech people figured out a common tech standard to make it easier for consumers to play in this new mud puddle instead of spawning a years-long tech war like the Betamax vs. VHS or Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD. Sorry, I gotta go. I need to ask my washing machine what’s on HBO tonight.
Skip Ferderber is a technology writer and editor. A former Los Angeles Times staff writer, he has written locally for Alaska Airlines Magazine, GeekWire.com, Seattle Business Journal, Puget Sound Business Journal and Crosscut.com. Contact him at sferderber@gmail.com.
(A more in-depth complex picture of the Internet of Things turmoil can be found here:
www.techradar.com/us/news/world-of-tech/which-is-the-best-internet-of-things-platform—1302416
