Lots of equipment in a typical home could benefit from decent Internet connectivity.

A furnace and A/C system that could report when the gas burner doesn't light as quickly or conistently as it used to (but the problem would otherwise be hidden behind an automatic retry and restart design until complete failure occurs) or the A/C cooling output is less effective than expected. Equipment that can request the owner call for service before failure or even directly request the service itself.

Equipment that can provide useful and usable ongoing and historical operational data. Equipment that can report and monitor trends and forecast wear, consumption or sub-optimal usage.

Equipment that can be told (via the Internet) when the power rates are lower (or higher) and factor that into its operation. Or be told about outside weather (current or forecasted) and adjust intelligently. Less local sensors and more efficient operation.

An outdoor ice/snow melting system that knows when the snow storm would actually arrive and preheat. Or automatic sunshades and climate control that know when it is cloudy without using local senors.

Equipment that can report operational statistics or other data back to the manufacturer or service organization.

Cars that can report each night their fuel consumption numbers and potential service items. Refrigerator that orders its own replacement water filter and it arrives the same day the 'replace filter' message appears on the front panel.

Devices with no front panel at all that you can easily configure and control from your smartphone or a web page. And provide data about how and how well the device is working.

Commercial equipment of many forms, from vending machines to security devices to specialized and vertical market equipment. Toner for the photocopier arrives just as it is needed.

Smart remote cloud services that add layers of management and integration to make swarms of enabled devices (of many different types) act and react in smart ways.

And many more...

Potential seems tremendous. Excellent!