The best digital tools are those with obvious advantages
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010By: Allen Adamson
The special effects are dazzling and the audience overwhelmed with sight, sound, and sensation. No, it’s not the award-winning film, “Avatar” I’m referring to, but the latest and greatest devices and apps presented at the recent Consumer Electronics Show. While many of these whiz-bag digital wonders are truly wonderfully welcome additions to our connected lives, many represent the glints in the eyes of the innovators who, yet again, managed to overestimate their necessity or utility to the general public. In my recent article in Forbes Online I write about why the most successful of the newest crop of digital consumer goods will be those developed to give people what they really want and need, not just what’s crazy cool. Like in any brand category, many of the products and services that become leaders in this category will be those whose creators saw obvious ways to make life in the digital lane better and more convenient – products that make the competition exclaim, “Gee, why didn’t I think of that. It’ so obvious.”
Image courtesy @gabyu via Flickr