Why do companies, and often BIG companies, make seemingly useless products just because they can? Recently, Lenovo released a transparent laptop with a transparent screen. While transparent screens are popular in science fiction, where main characters use sophisticated equipment to drag objects around, I\u2019ve never seen the practical point of having one. Unless you need to draw an object on the screen that is in front of you (in which case, a photo would suffice), this \u201cfeature\u201d seems to exist solely because it\u2019s possible. Yes, some users might find it \u201csexy\u201d and use their transparent laptop to show off, but its practical value is questionable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another example is the Dyson V15 vacuum cleaner, which comes with a display showing graphs and statistics about the sizes of dust particles it catches. Personally, I would prefer if Dyson invested their development budget in something more useful. However, no doubt, some customers might find this feature interesting \u201cjust because\u201d it\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who doesn\u2019t remember the famous OLED Touch Bar on Apple laptops a few years back? I have such a computer, but I did not buy it for the Touch Bar, which, in my opinion, is more of an annoyance compared to real physical keyboard buttons. Apple eventually changed their mind about this feature as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes, tech-dominated product companies seem to disregard the important \u201cwhy\u201d when developing features that support a value proposition purely because they can, without real use cases behind them. So, why do they do it? Is it because they don\u2019t know what they are doing, or their product managers are useless? In my opinion, actually, \u201cno.\u201d It can make sense to launch purely tech-driven features to demonstrate new technology, even if the use cases are weak or non-existent. This can be seen as part of a larger \u201cProduct Discovery\u201d process. Even if there is no immediate use case for the current feature or product, feedback and ideas from the market can provide valuable insights for next-generation products that use the same technology in a clever fashion that supports strong use cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consider examples like the hated “Clippy” in Microsoft Word, which was a predecessor to well-functioning AI-driven contextual guidance. Similarly, the Segway\u2019s self-balancing technology paved the way for more practical and widely adopted electric scooters and hoverboards, now popular for short-distance urban commuting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, \u201cyes,\u201d it sometimes makes sense to launch almost useless features that are purely technology-driven because \u201cplaying\u201d is often a fundamental action that potentially leads to disruptive product breakthroughs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Why do companies, and often BIG companies, make seemingly useless products just because they can? Recently, Lenovo released a transparent laptop with a transparent screen. While transparent screens are popular in science fiction, where main characters use sophisticated equipment to drag objects around, I\u2019ve never seen the practical point of having one. Unless you need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":17,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/productbooster.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/productbooster.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/productbooster.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productbooster.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productbooster.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/productbooster.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"https:\/\/productbooster.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productbooster.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/productbooster.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productbooster.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productbooster.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}