| You're underestimating the amount of consumers who value the "Wi-Fi enabled" feature sticker plastered on the box and marketing spec sheet of a product on display at Walmart. Manufacturers go with whatever marketing tells them will sell and what consumers are buying. Personal anecdote time: I was part of a team developing a HW product a few years back and one day our boss comes in fumigating: Boss: "RGB! Management wants us to put damn RGB LEDs in our up-coming products." Us: "But why, what for? Do they know it has zero usage in our products?" Boss: "Doesn't matter to them. Sales guys said our competitors have RGB now and customers will not buy our products anymore since they see that the competition has one extra feature we don't have, so we gotta put that RGB in ASAP somehow." Us: "Ok, and what shall our firmware do with the new RGB LEDs?" Boss: "Don't know <shrugs>. Marketing is still trying to figure that one out, so we'll code the firmware before the product launch." I rest my case. This whole consumer industry is absolutely mental. And so, today everything needs to be internet connected, because it's another feature on a spec sheet that marketing/sales demands. |