The Case for Selling Products that Adapt

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The iPhone is no question one of the most interesting and successful products to be launched in the past two decades. In one sense, it's amazing how it grows with you: regular operating system updates, an app store that lets you install new content and tools, accessories like air tags or airpods you can add to it. At the same time, a lot of us find we want to buy new ones every few years, to get the latest camera technology or longer battery life or some other new feature. Apple is walking a very fine line between what product marketers

called planned obsolescence, forcing us to continually buy better versions of what we already have, and adaptability, ensuring that we can improve and extend the use of our purchases. Our guest today says that the latter category of products is what will drive consumer spending and loyalty as well as corporate value going forward. He's here to explain why and offer insights on how organizations can make the shift. Vijay Kovindarajan is a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and the coauthor of the HP our article design products that won't become obsolete.

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