Wearables are getting serious with more than 100 million projected to hit the market this year. A new forecast projects that 110,000 million wearable Internet-connected devices will ship worldwide this year, an increase of 38% from a year ago. And by 2020, the number of wearables expected to hit the market is 237 million.

It looks like retailers around the world will be stepping up their investment in The Internet of Things over the next few years. The deployment of sensing technology, like beacons, those small radio-transmitting devices we've been writing about here since they were introduced, is on a big rise, according to a new study looking at the coming money being spent around retail.

The attributes of connectivity may be the new twist to draw consumers. With The Internet of Things, more activities can originate from more devices. For example, in addition to making a purchase via PC or smartphone, consumers increasingly are able to buy things from many devices.

Banking is warming to wearables, but they may not be warming fast enough. Over the next five years, wearables are expected to be integrated into channel strategy, with the digital-only channel seen as viable over bank branches, based on a new study. Almost three quarters (73%) of banking executives expect to integrate wearables into their channel strategy within five years and six out of 10 believe a digital-only channel model is viable, according to the study.

Established companies are waking to the import of The Internet of Things and starting to extend their businesses to leverage it for new ways to reach consumers. At OMMA SXSW over the weekend, Coca-Cola's Derek Myers, group director of strategy and commercialization, described to attendees how the company's vending machines capture more than 100 data points a second.

The Internet of Things will bring behavioral changes in many areas, including the role of drivers in cars. But the idea of driverless cars seems to be up against some serious consumer feelings that may keep them out of buying into the idea, at least for now. If the volume and intensity of comments to a new study of driverless cars I wrote about here earlier this week (Driverless cars: Majority Don't Believe They Will Ever Own One; 60% Of Millennials) is any indication, there is some serious sentiment about the issue.

The airlines are getting aboard The Internet of Things train. More than a third of airlines worldwide already have committed funding to implement IoT projects, according to a new study. And over the next three years, more than half of all airlines expect to have IoT initiatives up and running, according to The Future Is Connected study by SITA, the airline industry organization.

There's a significant gap between smart home devices and consumers who might use those gadgets. And expense is part of the smart home equation. Most of those who have smart home devices saved money by setting up the devices themselves and the main stumbling block for those who don't want a smart home is price, according to a new study.

Self-driving cars are coming but most people don't want one. In addition, most people expect cars in the future to be easily hacked. In this context, the good news is that the average car on the road today is more than 11 years old, meaning that most cars are unconnected from the Internet. However, the rate of connectivity is increasing substantially every year. For example, in 2011 there were only two vehicle models with Internet access as standard. This year, it will be 133 models, with another 69 in which Net access can be added as an option.

Beacon business is getting bigger. When beacons first started out a while back, the focus was on a company that had beacon capabilities marketing to a business, such as a retailer, so that the beacon buyer could better target their customers based on more precise location. Back in 2013, Boston-based Swirl sponsored some research that showed that women shoppers love it when reminded of in-store sales by a sales associate and that a majority (58%) would be 'thrilled' to receive personalized offers on their phone.