This morning, Nat Torkington wrote in his daily 4 Short Links on O’Reilly:

The biggest problem seems to me that we’re talking about “sticking sensors on milk cartons” rather than solving an actual problem someone has. (“There are no sensors on my milk cartons” is not an oft-heard lament)

The link in question led to Greengoose – a new IoT StartUp, which just announced it is taking pre-orders for their wireless sensor kit.

The question of utility of IoT-Applications is a valid one. After all, this is a market with only a few successful consumer products yet which indeed offer utility, or to put it with Nat’s words: solve an actual problem. May it be weight tracking or step counting.

However, there’s the quote of Adrian McEwen, from his presentation at the #IoTLondon Meet Up in December:

Less Optimising for Efficiency – More Optimising for Delight

This is a valid point as well. As well the point of doing something fun, learning the lessons that come with doing something in volume and then attacking the “real problems” how Adrian so nicely put it on Twitter.

What is it then, that bugs me about Greengoose, or it’s even lamer counterpart, the Rymble (which insanely enough did win the Postscapes 2011 IoT award Consumer Product and thusly beat the Nest, a product that both solves a real problem and delights)?

It’s the uninventiveness, the lack of imagination that goes into these products. Greengoose. Let’s do accelerometer and slap on a bit of gamification.

It’s the internet fridge meeting Farmville.

Yes, there’s lesson to be learned from volume. But maybe these products should be the stars of IoT as much as Zynga should be the star of social media.