WTGR

What are the driving forces causing companies to seek new and weird ways to change the product so they can keep selling more?

1. The intensity of competition - the Competitive Environment,  - in a globalized community of businesses all interlinked, it becomes easier and easier to copy other people's products, especially consumer electronics
- so once you have launched a new product - there is a very short time before someone else will make a knock-off copy, or even make a slight improvement to capture your customers

2. The continued advances in technology, the Technological Environment. Technology makes it easier and easier to copy other products. Also, advanced in technology make it more possible to have to features to add on to a product that is several months old

3. The Economic Environment - the need for companies to make more money selling a product (maybe because the cycle was too short) - 

4. The Social / Cultural Environment - after the product has been used by the early adopters, it might the possible that other customer groups have slightly different uses, and this can be accomodated if the product packaging or features are altered slightly to make it more appealing to other demographics.

WTGR

Almost everyone knows that Ketchup used to come in small glass bottles.

Several years ago they started to package it in plastic bottles.

A couple of years ago they began making plastic bottles with wide tops to store it upside down so impatient users don't have to bang the bottom, they can just squeeze directly.  Sounds simple enough, and a good example of how companies look at making packaging easier to further satisfy fussy customers.

The ad to the left demonstrates a clear example of product modification by showing how the cell phone screen has been modified to show the screen horizontally.

The cute ad demonstrates why this makes sense because many other things in everyday life are horizontally oriented, not vertically.

Sometimes very small differences in the physical features of a product can give it a small advantage over a competitor when the technological environment is advancing at a fast pace.

Samsung Galaxy S6 was introduced in the competitive space of Apple's launch of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus

"Where the S6 has straight sides, the S6 Edge tapers on its right and left sides, where the curved portion of the screens arc to meet the back. Though it feels slimmer, the Edge is a hair thicker in its fattest part, but also a tad lighter. ..The Edge also has a slightly higher capacity battery, presumably to work with night mode on the Edge display"

some info from http://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-galaxy-s6-edge/