"As technology gets more complex and consumers need more help with devices, there'll be more and more demand for repair services," Mr. Wolf added.
However, this move toward greater energy efficiency is more complex than consumers might realize because all fluorescent bulbs -- both the 4-foot office style bulbs as well as the new spiral-shaped bulbs for household use -- contain mercury, a known neurotoxin.
The reality is that simplicity is highly appealing in a world that is getting more and more complex -- where consumers have too many choices, where technology is constantly evolving, and where the political and economic environment is unpredictable.
EDrive, a firm based in Monrovia, California, is about to launch just such an upgrade package for Prius owners, at a cost of around $12,000.Closer to home, the ever more complex innards of consumer-electronics devices mean they are also ripe for modification by hackers.
"As companies create more complex products to simplify consumers' regimens, they end up with a plethora of problems," said Dr. Joel Schlessinger, a dermatologist in Omaha, and the president and founder of LovelySkin.com, a beauty site specializing in products mostly available in a dermatologist or a cosmetic surgeon's office.
The supplier will aim to develop ever more complex narratives for the consumer to sign up to.
One attendee welcomed this vision but commented that the reality is one of "supplier lock-down" to a complex IT infrastructure, which frequently requires the use of more complex software than a consumer might use.
The twist here is that business apps tend to be far more complex than the average consumer app in terms of functionality and data, and so what tray.io is essentially created is a very user-friendly way of visualising actions for people to set up scripts, using drag-and-drop icons.
"There is plenty of evidence, including from the financial crisis, of financial products being made more complex than was necessary and consumers being charged a premium for buying them.
"Having more functionality makes it a more complex proposition to convey to consumers".
