by Angela Guess
Paul Sawers recently wrote in VentureBeat, “The year 2016 could go down in history as the year the Internet of Things (IoT) really came to fruition. Yesterday, San Francisco-based June announced a fresh $22.5 million funding round, taking its total money raised to the $30 million mark to help bring its smart oven to market. The June oven isn’t like any ordinary oven — this one sports a camera inside that uses deep learning techniques to figure out what you’re preparing, then sets the appropriate temperature to ensure your meal is adequately cooked… Elsewhere in the Internet of rings, I mean “things,” smart doorbell startup Ring raised a $61.2 million round last week, taking its total funding since 2011 to around the $100 million mark… Meanwhile, a new smart bed manufacturer called Balluga turned to Kickstarter this week to raise at least $50,000, and a mere two days into the campaign it looks well on track to meet its goal.”
Sawers continues, “Ubiquitous computing and the Internet of Things is hardly a new concept, of course — we’ve seen Wi-Fi-enabled fridges before, Ring’s video doorbells have been out for a number of years already, and Google paid north of $3 billion for Nest in 2014 for a reason. But things seem different this year — the IoT onslaught is gaining momentum, venture capitalists are betting big, and the way things are going this time next year your new sofa will come branded ‘INTEL INSIDE.’ But is this a good thing?”
He goes on, “This all reminds me of last year’s trend — smartwatches. Timepieces that do more than tell you the time were the hottest thing of 2015; every company and their grandma jumped on the bandwagon and launched one. But oftentimes, it felt like companies were trying to will them into the mainstream with features that people simply would never want — Instagram was one of the first apps on Apple Watch, while Microsoft also rolled out a new feature that would let you view photos on your Android Wear device. Except nobody wants to view photos on their wrists. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Fast forward to 2016, and we seem to be seeing the same thing.”
Photo credit: June