After reading an article about the pointless “gadgets” being showcased at this year’s (2016) Consumer Electronics Show (CES), I began wondering why?
Certainly, businesses are not so naive to believe that these super expensive, elite products will be widely adopted and consumed by the masses. It is unlikely that they would have made it as far as they have in business if such were their models. But one company shows us what that success model looks like.
Tesla introduced the pure electric sports car. Obviously made and designed for the very wealthy, or very foolish, side of the market. But what happened? At first it was a status symbol, “Oooh, you have a Tesla?! You’re so cool!” As the prestige built, more people began to want and save and plan to own their very own. Those that could afford it began to see the advantages. And Tesla stayed in business. So much so, that a few models later they are now able to begin looking at the wider consumer market and release a model that is more within their price ranges. Not only that, but they are able to expand their products outside of the automobile industry and into more practical home “appliances.”
Be you a fan of Tesla or not, the pattern is clear.
- Release your product for the wealthy or financially savvy.
- Let hype and prestige build
- Release better and bolder products
- Establish a steady flow of income from your elite product lines
- Scale your products down for the more financially challenged while still providing value
Well, that’s all fine and good, but what does it have to do with the “useless” gadgets? The fridges that keep your food cold as they should, but also text you when you’re low on milk? The washer/dryer set that you can start loads from an app on your phone? Well, to understand that, there is one more puzzle piece to cover...computational power.
A moment for Moore’s law. If you’re not familiar, its basic premise is that computers will double in speed while the circuitry halves in size. In other words, every year the computers on market will be twice as good as the previous year’s model. In the beginning of personal computers (PCs) this was a major setback. If you didn’t replace your computer or at least some of its components, then after a year, your model is so slow that it can’t keep up with all the new and useful software coming out. So, no thank you. I’ll keep my few grand for some “better” purchase rather than waste it on some “fancy gadget” that will be obsolete in a year.
After some time, the software began to fall behind the capabilities of a PC. It took longer to produce that awesome “program,” (not app, those didn’t exist yet) than it did to release a newer, more powerful computer. What this means for consumers is simply, “Hey, I can afford, morally, to buy this machine and just hold on to it for a long time. You know, get my money’s worth.” And viola! PCs start popping up in every home. They are no longer some big business machine, or wealthy CEO’s personal toy. No, the PC is now for the “common” folk.
One more step. So, now that every home has a big ol’ machine dutifully humming away 1s and 0s, business begin to realize they can use this to their advantage. Out comes the pushes of what those machines are capable of. They all race to push their great ideas. Most of them are gimmicky and silly.
A program that sends a message to other people? That’s stupid, I can just call them, or send a fax. I don’t need to write some document on my computer when it’s just as easy to do one of those other things.
Hello email!
What’s the purpose of this “internet” thing? I can simply use my trusty encyclopedia and dictionary to get all the same answers. What a waste of money, seeing as how I have to pay just to search for something!
Hello World Wide Web!
You see where I’m going here? I have to assume that if you don’t, you might not know what an encyclopedia was...just imagine Wikipedia in book format, like, hundreds of thousands of books. But there were only a dozen or so. Growth.
This cycle has repeated over and over. I’ve seen it so many times even in my short life, that I am amazed at all the “complaints” over useless tech. Don’t you know that you’re sounding like those “old farts” when you were a kid? I saw it with movies and music. Watched as caller id turned into pagers, turned into cell phones, turned into smart phones.
The only REAL problem with learning about emerging tech is you pay too much attention now. As a kid, “cool” was the stuff your friends’ parents bought. You’d run straight home and demand that your parents get this amazing new thing. But by time it got to your home, someone had already been making the first models nearly a decade before. And 10 years ago, those who were watching, were saying, “How stupid! Why would I need that?!”
So, the humbling lesson for you here is this…
You simply do not have the vision to see the point of emerging tech. Wait ten years, then come see us and we’ll be happy to sell you one.*
*I am not a business owner, and I am not selling anything...yet
