Gadget Overload: Innovation too Fast for Consumers?

What’s the Latest Development?

An international study found about half of consumers feel high-tech manufacturers bring new products to market faster than they need them. This sense may be because the pace of innovation is too fast for consumers or that it’s too slow. The latter refers to companies pushing out new offerings that are me-too products or with a just a few new features or tweaks.

What’s the Big Idea?

Marketing schedules, not product innovation, are driving the corporate train, some consumers feel. Meanwhile, their top safety concerns are emissions and wireless radio waves. Many are uneasy living in a thickening cloud of radio waves from cellphone towers, Wi-Fi hot spots and the gadgets they communicate with. And where a product’s parts are from matters more to them than where it was assembled.