[…] Popular consumer products, he understood, tend to evolve through three phases. They start out as luxury goods, expensive to produce and pitched to a small, elite market. Then, as maturing technologies and economies of scale drive down manufacturing costs, they become mass-market commodities.

Finally, once they’re established as affordable necessities, consumers start looking beyond the price tag for distinctive designs and features. Form begins to trump function.

Quelle: Dell: Beware the Beige-Box Blahs