In a recent article on HBR, Mark Bonchek and Sangeet Paul Choudary wrote an article on “The Age of Social Products”. They hypothesize that the most successful products of the future will not only be connected but social. With hardware getting cheaper and information increasingly being stored in the cloud, with only sensors, a simple processor, and a wireless connection, you can have the makings of an intelligent and connected product. Some examples of this include the Koubachi Plant Senosr that emails you when your plant needs watering, or Jawbone UP that tracks your movements throughout the day and messages you when it’s noticed you’ve been sitting for too long. What Bonchek and Choudary suggest is that the future of the internet is not only when these devices communicate with you, but when the products speak to each other. An example of this is the NikeFuelband.

The Nike Fuelband is a step ahead of the Jawbone UP because of the social network aspect to the app. You can wear the Nike Fueldband and it follows your movements throughout the day. You can be part of a team and together with your Nike Fuelbands you can work towards a group goal. As a wearables market seems primed to explode, companies and brands are being challenged to include social features from the get go, not as an after thought. This is because the real competitive advantage of these products will come from the network effects, not just the product features.

Food for thought: How could your industry benefit from a product with network effects?