[wallflower]

What about a consumer good that can be reused daily and helps make your day to day experience better?

In regards to the one day hot tub experience, I think people can logically amortize the cost of the iPad/iPhone over the months and years that they'll use it. And, I believe if a device brings a little bit of boredom breaking into your daily routine, why deprive yourself (you're not hurting others with your purchase decision)?

[steveitis]

Sometimes physical goods ARE experiential as well, for instance a nice steak, or purchasing the hot tub outright.

The difference pointed out by the study is that the memory of the steak is likely to make you happier in the long run than owning the hot tub even though the steak is long gone and the hot tub is still there. After all, the hot tub will eventually become a chore (repairs, cleaning, upgrades, etc...) but the memory of that steak never really dies if it was extraordinary. It's counterintuitive, but it makes sense to me.

This study is why I've started trying to focus on experiences, rather than things, when buying gifts. So far it's worked out rather well for me.