Tech Talk: Testing the Latest Consumer Innovations

Thomas Edison pushed himself and his team to think bigger and accomplish more with a simple phrase: “There’s a way to do it better. Find it.” Edison’s advice was clearly an inspiration, as he went on to obtain more than 1,000 U.S. patents, and remains an inspiration for today’s entrepreneurs looking to innovate through technology.

Tech innovation makes headlines and fortunes, and there’s a huge public interest in what’s coming next – nearly 200,000 attendees gather each year at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to see the latest groundbreaking technology.

But just as not every Edison patent was as world-changing as the lightbulb, not every new tech idea takes off. How can brands determine which ideas are worth developing and which should remain as sketches in designers’ journals? One solution that can predict how the public will feel about new technology products is concept testing. The public can’t invent the next big thing in tech, but they can let you know if they’re ready for it.

Test Your Idea to Gauge Profit Potential

In tech, the lines between prototype, hype, and working product are blurred. Every April Fool’s Day, some brands blur them even further, showcasing wild ideas you’re not meant to take seriously. But that doesn’t mean they’re bad ideas. At System1, we set out to see how some of these imaginary concepts stack up against recent real product launches and announcements. Our Test Your Idea platform provides predictive insights on concepts like product prototypes, product names, logos and more.

The platform assigns a 1-5 Star rating to each concept based on three key metrics. The higher the Star rating, the more profit potential the idea has.

• Predicted Acceptance – This is the percentage of people who back the idea to succeed in the market (by buying shares in it in an imaginary trading scenario).
• Speed of Trading – This measures how easy an idea is to process and is determined based on the time it takes a person to note whether they’d buy or sell shares in the idea.    
• Emotional Pull – System1’s FaceTrace® details the emotions that people feel regarding each concept.  

Read on to learn about the five technology concepts we tested and how their metrics varied.

The results crossed the full range of Star Ratings and consumer response. With the Galaxy Note taking foldable screens mainstream, ASUS’ foldable laptop scored 5-Stars with high levels of happiness, surprise and predicted acceptance. The two smart products also did well, but joke or no joke the Metaverse gaming suit did not impress respondents.

Bringing up the rear, though, was the Dyson Zone headphones with their built-in air filter. James Dyson has created some iconic products but his name wasn’t enough to make respondents look past the unwieldy design and unwanted mouthpiece. With new tech, testing is as much about discovering when people are ready for a new product as whether they are – for now, the Zone is too far ahead of what the market wants.

Is your brand looking to determine whether an idea will be profitable in the market? Sign up to be the first to know when the fully automated version of our Test Your Idea platform is available.  

Check out the results of our testing in the alcohol and snacks categories.