Agreed. Not so much copy & repeat, as that the minimum form factor has been arrived at.
A thermostat for example, of all the development that you might put into improving the function/design of the climate control and monitoring experience, the ABS box is the last thing that needs yet another designy variation. Touch screen UI, vertical or horizontal screen configuration is the ideal for expensive solutions, the form factor for the other two prices levels is established. Naturally any controls company is going to build their own box, but if Siemens for example, developed a ubiquitous touchscreen control box with a common interface, and made it available to all, the field might just go dead.
Having reflected on this for a while now, totally disagree. Flat screen TV’s have all arrived at the ideal, flat, thin as possible black bezel. Done. We don’t gather around the glowing box in the living room any longer, we look at the wall when we need to.
Smartphones, thin flat slab, big screen, no extra curves. Phones are becoming less physical, not more, minimal. In the extreme, Vertu’s and Goldvish’s add nothing but conspicuousness, even for a million dollar budget. The only common trend in consumer use of these devices is to cover them up with cases that obscure completely, or protect the design.
MP4/PMP players square slabs centered around a touchscreen. Converged, done.
Driving and promoting consumerism in digital cameras is a good example, the lens/body model is genius at continuous consumption, must be tied to the same area of the brain as a slot machine. The silver slab of a 2008 digital camera has transitioned back to black SLR, and now into hybrids. This seems a unique and historic model.
Naturally this is bad for consumerism and generating the need to buy something new, but there are plenty of other products that will keep us all busy.