I think "works without an account" is going to become a…
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I think "works without an account" is going to become a premium feature
A weird thing has happened to ordinary products.
More and more of them don't just need electricity anymore. They need an account, an app, a server somewhere, occasional authentication, and a company that still feels like supporting them five years from now.
Right now we mostly treat that as an annoyance.
I'm wondering if by the 2030s we'll treat independence from all of that as an actual product category.
Imagine two versions of the same appliance.
One is cheaper, constantly connected, gets remote features and maybe subsidizes its price through subscriptions or data.
The other costs 30% more but promises:
No mandatory account.
No cloud required for core functions.
Local controls always work.
Published repair documentation.
If the manufacturer disappears tomorrow, the product keeps doing what you bought it to do.
I'd genuinely pay extra for the second one.
And I can imagine "offline capable" becoming something like an energy-efficiency label: boring technical language today, major purchasing criterion later.
The interesting part is that this wouldn't really be anti-technology. A device could still have fantastic connected features. It would just fail gracefully instead of becoming worse because a server, subscription or company disappeared.
Maybe the luxury product of the future isn't the smartest device.
Maybe it's the one that leaves you alone.
Do you think offline independence becomes something consumers actually pay more for, or will convenience win so completely that most people stop caring?
#technology
A weird thing has happened to ordinary products.
More and more of them don't just need electricity anymore. They need an account, an app, a server somewhere, occasional authentication, and a company that still feels like supporting them five years from now.
Right now we mostly treat that as an annoyance.
I'm wondering if by the 2030s we'll treat independence from all of that as an actual product category.
Imagine two versions of the same appliance.
One is cheaper, constantly connected, gets remote features and maybe subsidizes its price through subscriptions or data.
The other costs 30% more but promises:
No mandatory account.
No cloud required for core functions.
Local controls always work.
Published repair documentation.
If the manufacturer disappears tomorrow, the product keeps doing what you bought it to do.
I'd genuinely pay extra for the second one.
And I can imagine "offline capable" becoming something like an energy-efficiency label: boring technical language today, major purchasing criterion later.
The interesting part is that this wouldn't really be anti-technology. A device could still have fantastic connected features. It would just fail gracefully instead of becoming worse because a server, subscription or company disappeared.
Maybe the luxury product of the future isn't the smartest device.
Maybe it's the one that leaves you alone.
Do you think offline independence becomes something consumers actually pay more for, or will convenience win so completely that most people stop caring?
#technology
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