A few years ago, it looked like the kitchen refrigerator was taking the first big steps into a 'Jetsons'-like future in which domestic devices would run our homes, buy our groceries and cook our food. But it seemed the public wasn’t ready to embrace-- or afford-- such ultra-sophisticated kitchen technologies.

One of the first appliances to promise a more convenient kitchen experience was LG Electronic’s “Internet Refrigerator,” that would notify its owner via text message or e-mail when a product (like milk or eggs) was about to expire. It launched in 2003 and was promptly discontinued by 2004.

“A couple of years back they were available, but the demand just fell off. They were at a higher price point, and when they came out they were really evolutionary, but they didn’t pick up the audience,” said Eileen Earley, spokesperson for LG Electronics. “It wasn’t what they were looking for at the time, and so we didn’t get the response.”

For some people, the concept of a super intelligent appliance may be cooler when seen on TV than actually in their kitchen, Earley said. With LG’s Internet Refrigerator, owners had to manually log the dates of purchase and expiration of all their foods, adding time and effort, which may have lessened the convenience of a notification for expired food.

But a refrigerator that is aware of its contents may feel like an invasion of privacy to some people and most people like to “trust” their appliances, according to Karen Donoghue, vice president of Product for Frame Media. An appliance must have the confidence of its users before it can be successful, she said.

“If my fridge can read the milk and send me a text to let me know it’s bad, then maybe it’s going to call my doctor and report that the gallon of Haagen Daaz I had in there last night is now eaten. Who’s to say what it might do? Is the element of trust there?” said Donoghue.

“There is so much time pressure in development cycles that testing usability often gets pushed too late in the development cycle to make big changes,” Donoghue said. “When products are rushed, you lose the balance between what’s good for the user and what’s good in terms of the business.”

Most people describe their refrigerators as “chaotic,” according to LG’s Earley who said people want to “simplify” not “complicate” their kitchen. It’s true that the “bare necessities” are what’s in style, according to Kimberly Sweet, editor in chief of Kitchens.com, an online publication focusing on kitchen design and remodeling.

Sweet said another of LG’s designs, the TV Refrigerator, a refrigerator with a television imbedded into the door, which is now only available in Europe, is almost “too much.”

“High-tech refrigerators are neat to look at, but they are expensive, and at $3,000 plus, I think people would rather just use their iPod or watch a TV they can see from their kitchen,” Sweet said. 

In the future, smart appliance designers should consider the average age of the user Sweet said, because most 20 year olds who would be impressed by a television refrigerator can’t afford it.  

Another refrigerator that didn’t quite make it in the U.S. market was the Samsung “PopCon,” short for “Popular Convergence.” This refrigerator rolled out in 2006 and included a television and food expiration date notification. Today it's only available in Canada. 

“‘Smart’ this' and ‘smart that' are going to be beyond the reach of most,” said Gerald Celente, a trend forecaster and founder of The Trends Research Institute. “The current economic situation is making people look at things differently. For many many years, people are going to focus on cost and performance from [appliances] and they aren’t going to buy things they don’t need.”

Celente likened refrigerators to automobiles and said that these days, people are less likely to “trade in” for a better model.  “Unless [a retailer] can show someone that buying a new fridge is going to save them a lot of money, they are going to keep the old one until it dies.”

But the long term future of smart appliances is bright, according to Dr. Henry Lieberman, a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab who said companies will continue to develop and revise appliance models until every home has something “smart.”

“Not any of [these appliances] have actually failed. Companies just don’t have much patience to work everything out,” said Lieberman. “History and technology are full of cases where companies put things out but it doesn’t reach acclaim right away and they give up on it. Sometimes it takes several tries to get it right.”