Richard Brown, IBM's executive architect discussed bitcoin in an excellent interview with Finextra, it's available at the following links (Finextra's servers are slow at present):
In it he talks about the 'Internet of Things' using bitcoin to make purchases on your behalf. So your fridge could perhaps not only detect that you were running out of milk but order you some more with some bitcoins too (Richard uses the example of your fridge and washing machine contending over who buys power .
Richard ran out of time on the interview but in the BitcoinTalk forum he explained that he wanted to talk more about programmable money. He also elaborates on his statements about the lack of anonymity in bitcoin - that he is talking about the current situation not the future and that following the chain of transactions might be used more to support a case against someone rather than prove the link. He concedes though that mixing services might provide a solution to this.