A while ago (think generation), some oil company got a bright idea. They thought, why don't we equip all our customers' oil tanks with phones, so that when the tank runs low, the tank will call to be filled? Great idea! It ran well for a while, then the oil company ran out of business.
Twenty years pass.
Some lady randomly starts getting these prank callers. Every hour, on the hour, her phone rings, hisses at her, then hangs up. It happens for weeks. She's frantic. Finally, they trace the calls to a nice suburban home whose owners completely deny everything. Then, they find that the old oil tank in their basement, which had been empty for years, had gotten a glitch in the system and was calling the old oil company, asking to be refilled.
Now substitute comething modern for phone number, and some other appliance for oil tank.
Pro: I can tell my bread machine, coffee maker, and stove to prepare me breakfast in the morning, and I can have them ask my alarm clock what time I'm supposed to wake up.
Con: Before bed I still have to put the ingredients in the appliances. I have to remember to set my alarm. I have to turn the "delicious breakfast" option on. While I'm sleeping, my children, or my housemates, or my cats, or (maybe) the hacker next door reset everything so I'm late and have to make my own coffee in the morning. Let that happen twice and suddenly it's more trouble than it's worth.
Remember the big breadmaker craze a few years ago? Everybody got breadmakers and made fresh bread pop out in the morning, or as you go thome from work. Now everybody has a breadmaker they never use. The same thing will happen with networked appliances. No one will need the networked-ness: eventually, people will just disconnect it to save on bills.
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Twenty years pass.
Some lady randomly starts getting these prank callers. Every hour, on the hour, her phone rings, hisses at her, then hangs up. It happens for weeks. She's frantic. Finally, they trace the calls to a nice suburban home whose owners completely deny everything. Then, they find that the old oil tank in their basement, which had been empty for years, had gotten a glitch in the system and was calling the old oil company, asking to be refilled.
Now substitute comething modern for phone number, and some other appliance for oil tank.
Con: Before bed I still have to put the ingredients in the appliances. I have to remember to set my alarm. I have to turn the "delicious breakfast" option on. While I'm sleeping, my children, or my housemates, or my cats, or (maybe) the hacker next door reset everything so I'm late and have to make my own coffee in the morning. Let that happen twice and suddenly it's more trouble than it's worth.
Remember the big breadmaker craze a few years ago? Everybody got breadmakers and made fresh bread pop out in the morning, or as you go thome from work. Now everybody has a breadmaker they never use. The same thing will happen with networked appliances. No one will need the networked-ness: eventually, people will just disconnect it to save on bills.