Samsung and Sony are getting excited over the networked home.

It's going to be another false dawn. (The picture is from Wake Forest's Babcock School of Business. (Go Deacs.))

Both Far Eastern companies are looking at wired technologies, and expect systems to add $2,000 to $10,000 to a new home's sales price.

That trick has never worked.

The networked home will look more like my own 83 year-old structure. It will be networked without wires. It will be networked at my pace, through individual applications of my choice.

The networked home will be based on demand-pull, not on vendor-push.

Rather than worry about enabling technologies, vendors should be concentrating on finding applications that pay for themselves.

• Save me heating-and-cooling costs, and I can afford an Always-On thermostat.
  
• Save me on water, and I can afford an Always-On garden.
  
• Save me on food costs, and I will buy an Always-On refrigerator.
  
• Save my life once, and I'll buy the whole system.
  

It's past time.