Ben Bajarin caught my attention this morning with this quick post over at Techpinions.com examining the future of the internet of things. Within three years people in the tech industry won’t be using that term, Bajarin predicts, because “everything at (CES) will already be participating in the internet of everything.” In fact, Bajarin continues, we’ll expect every gadget presented at CES to be connected to the web or another smart device, and any product that isn’t connected will be deemed a hopeless failure.

I generally agree with Bajarin here, and I think that it applies to the term “mobile” as well. I’ve been covering this space for more than a decade now, and my umbrella of coverage has expanded from just feature phones and smartphones to laptops, tablets, wearable devices, autos, and even things like lawn sprinklers. It won’t be all that long before we assume that just about everything that would benefit from being connected is connected. I think that will take a little longer than Bajarin predicts, but it will make terms like “the internet of things” and even “mobile” obsolete.