This is something that really bothers me about the current market in North America (not sure if this applies to the rest of the world but I assume it does), there is no such thing as a basic well made product anymore. You either get cheap crap designed to be disposable, or you pay a whole bunch for a "smart" product that is really the same crap as the cheap thing in a nicer housing, but now you have software that works worse than a physical interface and will become a brick in a year when the company stops supporting it. To get anything worth purchasing you pretty much have to find a craftsman for your object, or find a fully private company that doesn't desire to maximize their profit.
The particularly infuriating part about it is that I work in product design, and it isn't something we can fix. If I were to start my own product company, it would absolutely be something with a significant "smart" component to it. Not only is it what the customer seems to want, but you need it to prevent someone else from copying your IP and undercutting you.
The particularly infuriating part about it is that I work in product design, and it isn't something we can fix. If I were to start my own product company, it would absolutely be something with a significant "smart" component to it. Not only is it what the customer seems to want, but you need it to prevent someone else from copying your IP and undercutting you.