Idea generation #29: Free consumer electronics

A thought provoking article on using consumer electronics as marketing tools:

you can outsource everything about hardware. You can make sexy consumer electronics. And you can do it very, very cheaply.

The fact that hardware can now be a sales tool implies that it has a very, very low price of entry. Low enough that banks could design their own consumer electronics to support the customer experience, if they wanted. You can imagine the situation: you choose your bank because its gadgets are the most desirable.

With prices of electronic components getting cheaper all the time, I am sure there will be unexpected uses. As Kevin Kelly said, free fosters greater innovation as the cost of experimenting drops tremendously. If consumer electronics become cheap enough, what other uses can we expect, beyond the marketing tool mentioned?

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