How will we be manufacturing and consuming electronic products in 2025?
Three Royal College of Art graduates believe we won’t be going to high street or out of town stores to purchase our manufactured consumer electronics. Instead we will purchase and modify through the O.System:
“Using printable electronics and rapid manufacturing processes a more local consumer electronics industry is born. In this system, people select their electronic products online. They can then visit their local O.Store to talk to the technician about the purchase and add personal touches. O.Products can constantly evolve through update cards in the post, while old electronic cards are sent back for re-manufacture. O.update is about understanding our needs and living in a transparent system where they are uniquely tailored to individual people.”
We increasingly need to take a sustainable approach to how we manufacture, use and update consumer electronics. This is not just about the brands we purchase but how we update and modify them to meet our changing needs and as the products degrades over time.
Peter Krige, Hannes Harms and Alex du Preez have an interesting vision. It is a vision that resonates with an emerging trend for people to modify and hack their homes and wider environment.