If tech firms have their way, everything you use daily, from your toothbrush to your car, will one day be connected to the internet.
At this year's International CES - the consumer tech industry's annual Las Vegas confab - you can't go more than a few steps without hearing someone talking about a way to connect something new to the internet. But as companies rush to create apps and embed chips in everything from your blankets to your shoes, it's unclear whether consumers are as hot on the "smart everything" trend. After all, people probably don't need an alert on their phone to tell them when their toast is ready - the bread popping out is a pretty good clue.
It's one thing to have a smart appliance that saves you time or money, which is the main selling point for successful devices such as the Nest thermostat. A critical and consumer darling, analysts have estimated the Nest sells about 100,000 units per month. But other smart products have not been so quick to catch on.
Companies are tight-lipped about sales figures for smart appliances, but even Whirlpool has admitted that its smart washing machine is "a little bit of a hammer looking for a nail right now." Experts project that the market for smart appliances overall will only reach $US5 billion in sales by 2015; by contrast, Whirlpool alone took in around $19 billion in sales for its appliance businesses last year.