“The internet of things is one of those vacuous labels beloved by the tech industry when it senses that a big new market is taking shape,” Richard Waters reports for The Financial Times. “Like those other current favourites, Big Data and the Cloud, it promises everything and nothing – a tantalising formlessness that hints at infinite possibility, even if it is hard to say exactly who will make money out of it or when.”
“Who better to stamp form on to this void than Apple?” Waters reports. “The company that turned other long-running tech dreams into reality – digital music, smartphones and tablet computing – is about to address itself to the constellations of smart gadgets that could one day mediate the physical world.”
“As the FT reported earlier this week, this will take shape at its annual developer conference on Monday, with ways for owners of its mobile devices to control a range of ‘intelligent’ home gadgets such as thermostats or locks. Apple will also act as the shop front for makers of the proliferating universe of ‘things,'” Water reports. “At the height of its ascendancy under Steve Jobs, the tech world looked to Apple to define nascent markets like these. With his masterful manipulation of expectation and desire, Mr Jobs was unrivalled in his ability to persuade an audience that what he was revealing was a glimpse of the future. Come Monday, it will be up to his heirs to show that they can turn the humdrum objects of ordinary life of tech into something equally dazzling.”
Read more in the full article here.
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