[liability]

I don't think these devices save time at all. In the time it takes me to navigate the through the touch-screen UIs of these fancy toys I can microwave a cup of instant coffee and start drinking it before the fancy machine starts brewing anything. The results are indistinguishable.

[markrages]

You can't distinguish between freshly-brewed coffee and microwaved instant coffee?

[klyrs]

I can. I love all sorts of preparations, and really enjoy the broad range of flavor profiles out there. I only drink instant coffee when I'm staying at somebody's house. I don't insult their hospitality and drink it.

For many people, the cost (both labor and monetary) of "good" coffee doesn't come with a corresponding increase in their enjoyment. You won't change their mind.

[liability]

Nope. Nor can I tell the difference in a blind taste test between white and red wine. Probably most wine snobs can't either, and probably most coffee snobs couldn't really tell the difference in a blind test.

[BelleOfTheBall]

IoT terrifies me and I'd never buy one of these internet-connected gizmos but let me play devil's advocate: you could be coming home from work and, as you know you're about 6 or 7 minutes away, you instruct the machine to make a cup of coffee so that it has time to cool, and maybe you also turn the AC on, etc. It's the exact fantasy being sold to people who buy them and it does, in a way, save time.

Although, personally, I'd question anyone buying these, much less taking out their phone while they're driving to tell a "smart" coffee maker to brew a cup.

[DonaldFisk]

In the UK we make instant coffee by putting water in an electric kettle, letting it boil, putting the instant coffee in a mug, adding the boiled water, optionally adding milk and sugar. (For ground coffee, we use a cafetiere.) But I've read that Americans don't have kettles.

[hpkuarg]

Americans do have kettles, they just suck at 110V.