Surface Texture – Issue 31
Google Pixel 4a | GoPro Lifestyle Gear | Solgaard HomeBase
In this week’s issue, a look at the color trends forced by tightened supply chains and shortages, product diversification away from tech, and a new frontier in furniture design.
The products of Surface Texture, Issue 31:
Google teases the Pixel 5 and releases their budget phone, the Pixel 4a
GoPro launches a “lifestyle gear” line of assorted backpacks and water bottles
A very successful Kickstarter campaign re-imagining wireless charging
Google Pixel 4a | Pixel 4a Cases | Pixel 5 Teaser
Perhaps the product announcement with the most fanfare of the past week, Google announced their new competitor to the heating-up budget phone market, the Pixel 4a. The announcement was not-so-coincidentally made a few days prior to the Samsung UNPACKED keynote, likely to get ahead of Samsung’s anticipated Galaxy phone releases. We don’t like getting into the specs, so here are the shots that matter.
The Pixel 4a comes in one color, “Just Black,” echoing the Fordian character of the Model T — humble, simple, affordable. The overall form-factor is similar to the Pixel 4, but with a more consistent and even treatment of the bezel by allowing the front-facing camera to pop through a laser-cut hole in the display.
Offering one product CMF is a way of dealing with uncertainty, and these are extremely uncertain times! Trade war/economic implications of the US presidential election, pandemic-induced manufacturing shortages, and swings in consumer taste all encourage simplifying the product line. Manufacturing the Pixel 4a in one color helps minimize potential negative futures: black plastic is easily sourced and repeatable across manufacturers. We’re seeing this across a lot of products with increased demand coupled with low supply (e.g. Concept2 is only manufacturing black versions of their exercise equipment). Google is taking a platform approach and offloading consumer taste to a cheaper component by offering a range of Pixel 4a cases with much more exotic color schemes. Worth noting the price of a baseline Pixel 4a and a case is about the same price as a (case-less) baseline iPhone SE.
Google also teased the release of the Pixel 5 slated for later this Fall. The flagship phone appears to have a light speckle and matte finish; perhaps, a glass-filled plastic. It will be interesting to see if the line between “budget” and “flagship” is further blurred, where the core aesthetic differentiation is solid-black vs speckle-black, or shiny vs matte (akin to the glossy iPhone 11 back and matte iPhone 11 Pro back).
GoPro Lifestyle Gear
GoPro announced a new foray into the lifestyle/apparel market with the launch of nine new products this week. The release includes Patagonia-inspired waterproof backpacks, double-walled water bottles, and foam camera cases. Most notably, the backpacks integrate GoPro-specific camera mounts.
The future of GoPro is not so certain, and its a good idea to be branching out into new markets that help support their camera business. Its not so crazy to think that GoPro could become an apparel brand some day — you’re seeing this with Peloton apparel, a tech-first company maximizing the return on their brand and cult following. The opposite is happening with Lululemon — an apparel company getting into tech to stay competitive with the likes of Peloton.
If GoPro is kind of like Peloton in the example above, but without a cult following, who is the Lululemon? Yeti. A company like Yeti is a pretty big threat to GoPro with a much larger and loyal customer base (people who like drinking cold stuff). The best GoPro camera costs as much as a medium-sized Yeti cooler — who has better margins? There’s some future where a Yeti action-cam is recording that amazing, behind-the-back, double-overtime-winning beer pong shot, then automatically sending it to TikTok — GoPro should think about that future. If this new lifestyle gear is a reaction to thinking about that future, it’s hard to see what lifestyle they’re envisioning. I’m sure there will be customers, but will there be evangelists?
Solgaard HomeBase
I don’t like linking to the modern-day equivalent to Skymall, but this is worth sharing due to its rapid funding, weird bundling, and first-mover (?) in the wireless-charging furniture space. Released on Kickstarter this week, the Solgaard HomeBase is an “ecosystem” of products centered around a small shelf containing a wireless-charger. Outside of the HomeBase (the shelf), is a speaker and powerbank both capable of recharging on the HomeBase, as well as a solar panel? It’s a strange cornucopia of products, but the real star is the HomeBase — a simple shelf that can charge your phone. Here are some images from the Kickstarter page:
While the HomeBase and associated products aren’t anything to be especially impressed with, the concept of a dedicated charging space with cleanly managed or hidden cables is compelling. There’s a big opportunity to integrate this type of functionality into furniture pieces, especially as more and more people are paying attention to their personal, physical spaces and homes. Maybe this concept is the next “standing desk” of home/office furniture, or integrated into the bottom of a drawer to minimize the presence of technology in our bedrooms.
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