"Aesthetics is the killer app."

Chrysler ME 412 Concept (left) and Pentax Optio 450 (right)

Author of The Substance of Style Virginia Postrel is definitely onto something:

Desire is the true source of economic value.

Competition has pushed quality so high and prices so low that few manufacturers can survive on performance and price alone. To produce value, they must give customers something to please their sensory side. Aesthetics is the killer app.

. . . We must abandon our prejudices regarding the sources of economic value. The production of wealth comes not simply from labor or raw materials or even intellectual brilliance. It comes from new ways to give people what they want. By matching creativity and desire, the economy will renew itself.