The Internet of Things is one of those predictions that is always pending: this coming year will surely be the Year of the Internet of Things.

It will happen some time (although it’s neck and neck which will happen more slowly: the Internet of Things and the related advent of IPv6).  But the emerging flood of devices will need better interfaces than they have today.

I have a few “Internet of Things” things in my life: a home automation controller, my home router, our networked printer, our home NAS, our TiVos, Most of these devices have a Port 80 browser interface, and they are almost all… terrible.

Slow to load, buggy, clunky, non-responsive (you click on a button and it doesn’t give you feedback that it got clicked).  Ugly.  Prone to crash or seize.

Reasons are straightforward: these are proprietary browsers, written in haste (by third parties, I should imagine), with no competitive pressure to improve or revise.  They are evidence that competition is basically a force for good.

Is there a standard or standards to be set here to make the market larger, to make it worth somebody’s while to do the “non-computer edge device” browser once and for all, and right?

Let me know your thoughts.