USB Lifestyle technology
Vertu showed that it was perfectly possible to sell ordinary Nokia technology for a premium price. Just make the phone out of platinum and add a concierge service. We see more examples of technology wrapped into a more human product. A good exemple would be USB-sticks. Widely available, low prices. However, if you pimp the case of the stick a little, you can easily triple the price. One of the first examples was the wooden USB stick of OOOMS. 
This spring, Philips announced a cooperation with Swarovski, adding crystals to plain products. Including a heart-shaped USB necklace. Finally, (I suppose) women can wear all their digital documents with them in a fashionable blingbling style. Two designers from Amsterdam and Berlin recently launched a USB-stick with a porcelain case. A LEDlight softly glows through the china if the stick is in use, perfectly for people in search of a more classy product. As compensation to the men, there's the Ironkey. In a steel case, this USB stick features a special chip set that will self-destruct after you have entered the wrong password for ten times. Originally developed for the army, that's clear. 
These examples show that the real money can be made by combining technology with niche thinking: it is not what the product can do, but how the possibilities fit with the needs and believes of a specific target group.
Certain groups will take the DIY approach: the making of the product is more important than the product itself. In the case of USB-sticks, who hasn't transformed his USB-stick into a LEGO brick?
EXTRA FIELD-5:USB, lifestyle, innovatie, Philips, Nokia, design
