Proposal
Hardware as (free) service
The impact of free, web and social on electronics manufacturers
The mobile phone, inkjet printers, gaming consoles and iPod (of course) are examples in which the price of the device are (fuzzily) linked with the services/supplies that accompany them. In this talk I will be giving some general examples from my background as a product designer and share my experience as an independent product/interaction designer working with Philips and WACOM on how they see their products as services and are looking at software, the web and "interoperability" as a way to create added value services to their oftentime rigid hardware products.
Having worked in both the world of physical product design and in the world of software, it is interesting to see the interest that manufacturers of physical products would love to create an ongoing relationship with their customers, whereas the developers of software would love to have a physical object to give the user access to their app.
There are some wonderful examples of input devices convoluted with buttons for so-called easy access, drivers with horrible ui paradigms. But on the other hand there are some nice examples emerging, where the developer of hardware sees itself as a platform for developers. I will use the example of projects done with Philips Remote controls and Wacom's pen tablets to discuss the role of free services and hardware as access points from the perspective of consumer electronics/computer peripherals manufacturers.
