Anyone who's updated their mobile phone in the past year -- and in markets like Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, that's just about everybody -- knows that consumers don't buy electronics for function alone.
There's price, of course, then the shape and colour to consider, the size and weight, how it looks on your desk, around your neck or in your living room, how it feels in your hand, whether it matches whatever else you have, the list goes on. Consumer electronics are more plentiful and more attainable than they've ever been before, which means gadget-hungry shoppers are spoilt for choice.
There's price, of course, then the shape and colour to consider, the size and weight, how it looks on your desk, around your neck or in your living room, how it feels in your hand, whether it matches whatever else you have, the list goes on. Consumer electronics are more plentiful and more attainable than they've ever been before, which means gadget-hungry shoppers are spoilt for choice.
The challenge for manufacturers, therefore, is to distinguish their brands from the others, and make them desirable not just because they're bigger, smaller, faster or stronger than the competition, but also because they're well designed. And for good design, consumers will pay good money. Just ask Bang & Olufsen (B&O), the audio and video system producer, which says it has "created a legacy in its trademark sleek and truly beautiful products". B&O products are undoubtedly high quality, and have high price tags relative to other audio-visual equipment, but the design is such that this is what has made B&O's name, above all else.
"For quality of sound and wattage, I'm sure there are others doing superior things, but they have always been pleasing to the eye and made a fashion statement as a device," says Peter Wilken, a partner at The Brand Company.
The ultimate design-based electronics manufacturer is probably Apple, which for years has delivered ground-breaking products with innovative, user-friendly styling that sets them well apart from their counterparts. The unique, modern design says 'Apple', while the logical applications, shape and pace of product innovations are re-writing market standards. The huge success of the iPod, and its continuing evolution, is the perfect example of design brilliance coupled with market savvy.
"Good design in electronics products is all about innovation," says Ray Ally, design director with Landor Associates Branding Consultants and Designers. "It is not about superficial styling but concerned with finding solutions regarding production, usability or aesthetics of a product. Good product design improves our lives, but great product design changes the way we live."
Many of Sony's iconic brands -- the Walkman, the Handycam, the PlayStation, to name just a few -- also offer this killer combination of form and function. Ally believes outstanding design goes beyond the product that's in the box. It's also about the packaging, the manner in which it is sold at retail, and the way it is advertised and marketed. Design, he says, is the "total brand experience" of a product. "The best-designed products not only innovate but go beyond the physical and practical to create an emotional brand experience with consumers."
Dyson vacuum cleaners, for instance, always had innovative design and function, but were in production for a decade before they really became successful.
Nokia, meanwhile, has for years been the leading name in mobile phones, for combining easy-to-use, state-of-the-art functions with simple, elegant design. This year's 8800 model, launched in April, is a perfect example of why this is so. Nokia's promotional material describes the 8800 as being "designed for the senses", with its stainless steel gliding cover, sound design by an award-winning composer, suede carry pouch -- and, of course, a long list of technical features that add to its 'must-have' desirability. Nokia, B&O, Apple and Philips aside, it's the Asian electronics manufacturers -- especially those based in Japan and Korea, where consumers have a voracious appetite for the 'next big thing' -- which are setting the pace worldwide for great design in consumer electronics. "I'd say that with the exception of Apple, without doubt, Asia leads the way in terms of innovation," notes Ally.
There's Toshiba, with its 'Image is everything' tagline and innovative home theatre systems, and Canon, which has enjoyed huge success with its compact but powerful Ixus digital camera range, launched in 2000.
Then there's Samsung, which launched the world's first Bluetooth voice-recognition mobile phone in June, which supports five languages and comes with video wallpaper and an anti-bacterial coating. Newer players such as Oregon Scientific -- now a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed electronics manufacturers IDT International -- has collaborated with renowned international designer Philippe Starck on a collection of clocks and weather monitors.
In the region's most advanced and affluent markets, design is clearly a key driver of purchase decisions. Not everyone is willing to pay for first-class design, however, and there are significant numbers of these consumers in Asia -- more, in fact, than in any other part of the world.
Outside the first-tier cities in China, for instance, design is hardly a consideration. Neither, in fact, are up-to-the-minute technological features. True, there is tremendous demand for consumer electronics of all kinds, but what these consumers want is not necessarily cutting-edge.
The same technological paradox applies to markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam, and parts of India. "(In China) there's a huge emerging middle class population that wants to buy mobile phones, fridges, many for the first time," Ally says. "The technology matters less to them; it's more about just having one. It's having the status of saying 'we've got a DVD-player, a fridge, or whatever'. It's a bit like when colour TV was first introduced -- it didn't really matter what it did, it was just a status symbol to have a colour TV."
Even for those who want and can afford good styling, there is a limit to what they will pay for, and great design knows when to stop. Design simply for design's sake can put people off, and design that looks great but lacks functionality -- think of all those remote controls that no one really knows how to use -- is also destined for obscurity in the long-term.
Not everyone has the same taste in design, of course, as the polarised views on BlackBerry handhelds prove. Its fans are huge fans -- to them, it gives them great functions they can't get with any other tool, and a style they love. Its detractors, meanwhile, dislike its fussiness and finicky handling.
Therefore what's a 'must-have' right now is not necessarily destined to be a design icon. Hong Kongers may hang their Bluetooth devices around their necks this year, but look again next year, and it's likely to be a very different story.
While a product fad translates to a spike in sales, it's not necessarily the best result for the producer's bottom line in the longer term. Consumers in Asia, and globally, are becoming increasingly fickle in their tastes, and the true test of brand shelf-life depends on a hard-to-define mix of core factors.
"Fashion, by definition, is short-lived," says Wilken, pointing to design triumphs in other categories that have never gone out of fashion -- brands like the Wurlitzer jukebox, the Rolex Oyster, and the E-type Jaguar. "What you're looking for is design that's functional and design that's enduring. Great design is timeless."