History as a guide to IoT growth trajectory

Internet of Things (IoT) has generated a ton of excitement and furious activity. However, I sense some discomfort and even dread in the IoT ecosystem about the future – typical when a field is not growing at a hockey-stick pace . . . "History may not repeat itself but it rhymes", Mark Twain may have said. What history does IoT rhyme with? I have often used this diagram to crisply define IoT.