I thought about my previous message right after I send it. I flet bad and didn’t want or mean to sound discouraging in my questions. Glad you have answers and appear to have thought about your potential niche and marketing response.
Even if there are other options consumers have, it rarely is black and white on predicting from focus groups or anticipated responses what the market will choose. I have been conducting focus groups/marketing studies for over 20 years and I am very good at predicting the major appeal of the majority of product proposals I have been involved with. I also always see some consumers choosing a poorer quality/more costly option regardless of the “consumer reports” or the preditions of the marketing group. Don’t sell yourself short coming from an I.D. background (instead of from Sales or Marketing). I have found that the worst predictors of how an innovative product will do; will come from the majority of Sales and Marketing departments.
Your degree in I.D. doesn’t limit how capable you are of predicting the best route for your business, or how succesful you can be on your own. I taught one Industrial Designer back when I was teaching at Purdue that literally could not construct a simple sheet metal box, while another created their own business making over $250K their first year after graduating (Designing innovative titanium bicycle parts). If you have the desire and belief in yourself, regardless of what the world says you “should” or “shouldn’t” know, you can learn and accomplish all of your goals.
Keep a positive outlook and don’t get discouraged when you come up against dificult times.