The post this quote is from is primarily about the Internet of Things (IoT) and the new buzzwords “Smart Cities”. The post brings people back from the hype to address the reality of getting stakeholders to agree on initiatives and the necessary steps to make them happen.

The post notes we have gone down this path of hyping the latest technology (many times!) only to collapse later.

“Soon, they claimed, we will be able to walk around a shopping mall and receive personalized messages from retailers to entice into their stores, fundamentally changing the retail industry and customer experience. Sound familiar? No, this is not a quote from a recent article on the Internet of Things (IoT). The year was 2001 ­ and the technology was the soon to be launched 3G mobile networks.

Fast forward 14 years and the same use case is being shamelessly touted, but this time with IoT replacing 3G as the enabler. This is why we should be afraid. Our industry has a track record of overhyping technology as we saw during the dotcom boom and the initial launch of 3G and 4G networks.”

Source: The BUZZ around IoT is taking off in Asia Pacific – this is why we should be scared! | Charles Reed Anderson | LinkedIn

Are we overhyping #IoT?

My view is yes, but also no: IoT will have large impacts but we are making a mistake in trying to predict what those impacts will be.

Promoters are indeed overhyping specific IoT benefits that will likely flop. Hey, that’s the high tech industry!

Yet low cost sensors, microcontrollers and communications networks that are widely deployed to address problems and deliver new kinds of services will deliver genuine benefits – somewhere!

Our mistake is pretending we can predict precisely how this will play out in the future.

Thus the answer to the question – are we overhyping IoT? Absolutely Yes, but the answer is also No!

Coldstreams