I hear market speak
I'm not against what MS is doing with Azure [maybe they should stick with that] but yeah, the analytics side of things DOES seem 'creepy' to me... particularly with the slurping that we already know about.
That being said, IoT and cloudiness may have its use, but it seems more practical to keep IoT things on the private LAN and _not_ go into "the cloud". If your phone application needs to know what temperature your oven or refrigerator (or living room) is at, a 'peer to peer' method is PROBABLY a better solution. OK it would need a 'cloudy tracker' but NOT a 'cloudy service'.
Cloud IS overrated for MOST things that I've seen. It has its uses. It is NOT "the ultimate solution".
And, is all of their market hype part of a PLAN to monetize more of us 'end-users' ?