Is 2017 the Beginning of the End of IoT Investment?

From what little I know, I don't see investors drying up, and people are very willing to invest in businesses. If anything, I think they see that there is the opportunity for additional revenue sources in future with a combined hardware and software solution (since typically most IoT offerings have an element of hardware but also software), for incremental revenue as new features are enabled for customers, which makes IoT-ized solutions even more attractive for investors. 

From what I can tell, the sources of investment have not changed much yet, but I think businesses are taking an extreme amount of care now regarding how and where they incorporate, taking into account not just sources of investment but where their customers will be and where they will get their staff.

I think that we are currently in a period of great change.  People in general do not like change.  So, they will complain and the media will play up the "loss of low tech jobs".  However, I think companies will do what is in their (and their investors) best interest and reduce costs in whatever way possible.  Undoubtedly, there will be some people who won't adapt to these changes for whatever reason.  But I think in the long run, most will adapt and be better off for it. 

The internet of information had a 25 year run and it isn't over yet. The internet of things is a very long way from saturation. The internet of people hasn't even begun yet. The question is not "is there any growth left?" it is more like "what is the exponent of the exponential growth?" or is it simply a lack of developers and capital that is holding the pace back?

err... could you perhaps clarify which question you want answered in the vote... ?

Title asks the question "Is 2017 the Beginning of the End of IoT Investment?"

Body asks the question "Are these populist concerns just a passing fad or will they truly slow down the implementation of new technological investment and innovations?"

which appear to be reversed.

I think one of the problem areas is that 'IoT' means different things to different people. Perhaps keep in mind that the term has been with us since the mid 1980's, when it was perhaps more about networked machines for status monitoring/maintenance/stock control and less of AI and robot domination which has perhaps been making the headlines more recently.

I went to see a presentation by James Whittaker a couple of years ago on the Internet of Everything/Things which I found quite interesting view of it.

He's done several similar presentations which have been recorded:

https://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Gerver/Techdays-2015-Keynote-James-Whittaker-The-Internet-of-Everthing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci4kbCmEmOI

I think that on the surface industry leaders will be concerned with how they are viewed by the public all the while looking for new ways to increase their profits.

Its always been my thought that robots and smart technology should be used to replace many mundane manual tasks, rather than making the people who did those jobs redundant they could be trained in new skills towards a more rewarding career role.

A very good example is the self service checkouts that have appeared in supermarkets, there are far less human workers manning checkouts and many people believe that they replaced human workers in a negative way. The truth being that those supermarkets who adopted these systems generally started popping up with in store bakeries, fishmongers, cheese counters, butchers, hot food deli's etc... sure these things existed before to some extent but since the self service checkouts, these additional facilities have grown, and have more trained and skilled staff working in a much more rewarding job role within them.

As long as the large industries continue to invest in their human workers, the business can grow offering better services, more diversity and better customer service, why shouldn't we leave the mundane manual tasks to robots?

Of course there are going to be people who point blank refuse to retrain choosing to complain about losing their jobs to machines instead of see the benefits they can gain personally from it.