It already is having an impact. A recent report from Gartner says there will be 4.9bn connected things in 2015, rising to 25bn by 2020. What are these things, though?

“Let us not focus on fridges,” says Will Franks, who sold Ubiquisys to Cisco for ?204m in 2013. Franks, who has just helped set up the Wireless IoT Forum, lists a number of consumer touch points. “Keeping track of possessions where insurance companies could reduce premiums,” he says. “Home control devices, maintenance checks for cars and white goods, healthcare and so on.”

He doesn?t mention robots or Facebook. Robots will be connected too in a smart home of the future, at least according to the GSMA. And Facebook? According to The Register, it?s planning to launch software development kits (SDKs) for IoT apps and devices. Heating control through systems such as Nest and Hive are just the start, it seems.   _{Your Comment}