In my mind (has a hobbyist EE geek) I see the value that some of the things can provide. But just like you implied, the value is in spot use cases. 'Smart' TVs

In my mind (has a hobbyist EE geek) I see the value that some of the things can provide. But just like you implied, the value is in spot use cases. 'Smart' TVs and fridges are a great example- sure the crap you bundled in to my TV MIGHT work okay now, but what about in a year when the APIs they use change? How are the updates provided? There is real value in the home automation side, but then there are the security concerns. Perfect examples are the HVAC and monitoring. When we're away it's nice to shut down the heat and AC but if it's January and we're coming back from the holidays that house needs to warm up before we get home. It's also nice to get an alert and video when motion is detected in the house while you're away- you can call the cops and respond with evidence immediately, or even possibly prevent your house from burning down. So yeah, there's a lot of value in conserving energy and protecting (or at least actively) monitoring the safety of your household. My Amazon Echo gets used at least 50 times a day. Timers for timeouts for the kiddos, alarms for when it's time to go to bed, the weather report as I'm making my coffee, adding things to my shopping list. It genuinely makes life just a little bit easier. That's just from a consumer prospective- if your company ran multiple properties or warehouses, shipped freight, etc. there are so many other fantastic possibilities as well. I don't need a fridge connected to my google calendar, I don't need a TV connected to my Dropbox to show family pictures as a screensaver. I don't need a freaking Barbie doll that is recording every conversation my children send around it. These are generally bad ideas and poor implementations, and people are starting to see it. We're in the hype cycle of IoT- we'll get to the valley of disillusionment after enough of the crappy devices piss people off, then we'll get a stable stream of meaningful product. IoT in principle isn't going away, there is actual value in some of these things. We just need the cream to rise to the top.