Monday, January 16, 2012

Entering the New Age of Gadgets

Although, as this report indicates -- the baby scale, in particular -- some companies feel the saturation point has not been reached.
 

Chris O'Brien: Our gadget lust has reached a crossroads. (San Jose Mercury News, 1/15/2012)

Excerpt:   Lost amid the endless parade of new devices at the Consumer Electronics Show is the much larger story of how the industry is undergoing one of its most radical shifts in decades. 

Gadget-hungry consumers seem to have finally reached the saturation point. After exploding for three decades, the average number of devices owned by U.S. households has hit a plateau and is expected to decline in the coming years. 

Never fear, Silicon Valley. This does not signal the end of the digital revolution, but a new phase. 

In this new era, companies can no longer count on consumers continuing to add to their stockpile of gadgets. Instead, new devices, to succeed, will need to be able to perform the functions of several older ones, while working seamlessly with all the other devices in the household.

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