The Internet of Things is 2017 the year?

The internet of things has been promised for a few years now, the pitch? Imagine a house where all your devices talk to each other keeping track of the little things, like the amount of milk in your fridge and orders more when you're running low, or cranking up the heating as your phone tells your internet connected heating system that you are on your on your way home after a long day of work, leaving you with more time to do what you want to do. Sounds wonderful; doesn't it?

On paper yes, in practice not so much, plenty of companies have been churning out smart devices for a while now but every manufacturer has gone in their own direction, creating unique apps to control only their devices so you end up spending more time managing all your devices than the time it takes to pick up a fresh pint of milk.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, products like Amazon's Echo look to unify the marketplace by giving you a central hub where you can control all your smart devices. Now while at the moment it may be awkward to impossible to get your smart heating system to talk to your amazon Echo. The more devices like the Echo there are on the marketplace, the more manufacturers will make sure their devices work with these hubs for fear of being left behind by their competition.

With the likes of Amazon, apple and google now wading into the internet of things, all companies well versed in unifying experiences the more the internet of things is going to become a functional reality.