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Comment by AnIdiotOnTheNet | Hacker News Reader

> What they want, first and foremost, is to not be a generic hardware manufacturer.

Every once in a while I day dream about starting a company[0] called something like "Generic Products" where all we do is make the most basic bog-standard things with no extra garbage or marketing bullshit, striving to have as few different models as possible. Amazon basics and https://xkcd.com/993/ are similar ideas.

[0] Never let me start a company, I am not suited for this job.

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You are eyeing at Muji, or dare I say IKEA. In the software world, to me Apple was that, until they gave up to become the 21st century Sony.

I've like Muji but find the pricing to be inconsistent. Some items pretty reasonably priced whereas some seemed pretty expensive for no reason.

I sometimes wonder if there is n’t import taxation involved in the disparities.

In Japan it’s mostly cheapish all over board, except for wood furniture which scrape the luxury range sometimes.

We can do a joint venture with my occasional day-dream company, which would sell appliances designed for longevity - e.g. an electric kettle or hairdryer designed to last you a 100 years. Featuring generic packaging[0], lifetime warranty, and extreme repairability - with CAD and circuit diagrams in the box, and spare parts available for as long as they can be manufactured. If any substantial change happens over the years (e.g. we change AC frequencies or switch from AC to DC mains), the company would also sell conversion kits.

[0] - Seriously, xkcd/993 is what I dream the shopping experience to look like.

If we are ever able to significantly increase human lifespans and/or birth rates decline, I wouldn't be surprised to see a business model similar to this eventually outcompete all others.

Even with the brief few decades of existence we might get (if we're lucky) now, the planned obsolescence and bullshit, mind-cluttering marketing gets really old for most of us well before we're halfway through it.

I share this dream. I also dream of manufacturing a single model of automobile that lives forever and never changes.

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