Need to Know
25 : 05 : 23

US – Sony has raised its accessibility game with the Access Controller, a highly customisable controller designed to enhance the gaming experience for players with disabilities.

The Play Station 5 Access Controller is nothing like a conventional gaming remote control – it comes in a kit that is entirely customisable to meet unique user requirements or preferences. To come up with the optimal configuration options, Sony called on accessibility experts and organisations such as AbleGamers, SpecialEffect and Stack Up. The result is a controller addressing common challenges for many players with limited motor control.

‘We want to empower players to create their own configurations,’ explains So Morimoto, a designer at Sony Interactive Entertainment. ‘I am excited that the design will be completed through collaboration with players rather than presenting them with a single form factor.’ The remote control will look different for a player who struggles to hold a controller for long periods than for someone unable to accurately press small buttons.

Sony’s initiative follows a trend we identified as Divergent Design, with new brands making their offer more inclusive and accessible to all.

Denmark — Danish design brand D Line is offering a new refurbishment service for its architectural hardware and sanitary ware, extending the lifespan of its products to a minimum of 100 years.

D Line products already come with a 20-year guarantee, but the brand’s new Re-handle service will enable 250 of its items to be refurbished up to four times. Customers can send their original products to the brand’s factory where the refurbishment process takes eight weeks. D Line recommends to its customers to Re-handle their products every 20th year.

The refurbished products are returned with a comprehensive breakdown of their carbon footprint – highlighting their eco-friendliness compared to new manufactured items.

In our recent report on repairable tech, we observed a significant shift in consumer values. For environmental and financial reasons, people seek new ways to fix their goods rather than replace them. They also increasingly see repairability as integral to good design.

Global – Research from Morgan Stanley shows that sales of smartwatches, including Apple’s top-selling version, have plateaued and no longer pose a significant threat to the high-end ranges of the Swiss watch industry.

Smartwatches are still selling in greater volumes than the Swiss watch market by a large margin – Apple sells more during one quarter than the Swiss industry does in a year – but the volumes are beginning to fall for the first time since the launch of the Apple Watch. Smartwatch unit sales were down 17% year on year in the fourth quarter of 2022, and Apple units fell by 16%.

The Swiss watch industry enjoyed its best year in 2022 by value, driven by a resurgence in demand for timeless pieces, especially in the US, with exports growing by 11.8%. In Next-generation Watch Market, we previously looked at how the luxury watch sector is transforming to woo a new generation of digital native young collectors who might have a smartwatch but still crave the gravitas of a high-end watchmaking.