Commoditize

You're in a rush to get downtown. You hurry out the door and jump on the subway. You open your phone, and you reach into your pocket. But your headphones...are not there. You've left them at home. The horror...the horror...

Rather than sit in the office and listen to your co-workers babble on about the latest Netflix series, you stop off at Walgreens to get a new pair of headphones. They're all the same to you. Cheap, plastic earbuds. There are ten different brands, and they're all under $10 per pair.

There was a time 30 years ago when Sony dominated the headphone space. But, in recent decades, headphones have become commoditized...which means that brands have become indistinguishable from one another (unless you’re that guy with the $300 Beats headphones; in that case, Beats has features and qualities that warrant a premium price).

Commoditization is a positive thing for consumers, as it signals a decline in price and typically reliable quality in goods. Consumer goods is an industry where commoditization is common. Companies aim to add new features to consumer products to avoid having customers think that all products are "the same." This is one common reason Apple and Samsung add new features to virtually every iteration of the devices they sell.