Michael Eisner, the former CEO of Disney, once made the case for interesting design by saying, “You have to build it anyway. Why not make it beautiful?” Something similar could be said about consumer devices, since they are being built, why not just make them connected? Of course that all sounds good, but building connected products is not always an either/or proposition. When the opportunity is right, however, there is no doubt that connectivity opens new channels and markets for existing product manufacturers. Connectivity sets the expectation that products actually improve after initial purchase. This product improvement-in-place feature is enabled […]