"PC and CE markets alike wrestle with their heritage when designing new products," said Bruce Kasrel, senior analyst at Forrester. "Both camps often spend millions of dollars on concepts like Internet appliances that exploit the technology but miss the mark among their core consumers, whose behaviors and needs are sidelined in pursuit of the next digital breakthrough."

The findings in its report, ‘The Secret to Device Success’ are based on 25 interviews with executives from leading CE and PC firms. Forrester found that many companies spend considerable time and investment dollars developing devices that will never generate mass- market appeal because they simply did not meet the needs of the consumer.

According to Kasrel, device markets have to adopt a new paradigm: "If a behavior is common and bothersome, and a new product improves it at reasonable cost and little hassle, success is far more likely." For example, cell phones have mass appeal because they allow people to easily make calls on the go. Conversely, eBooks are pricier than the simple paperback, which is still the time-honored choice of portable reading material.

In its report, the research firm outlines its C5 method: five key criteria used to evaluate new-device categories. Behaviors that are common and cumbersome to do stand the greatest chance of success in a new-device solution that must be cost effective, connected to other devices and content-ready.

After evaluating products in four categories, PDAs, MP3 players, digital cameras, and digital-media terminals, Forrester found that mature products like PDAs scored higher than new categories like MP3s and digital-media stations because the mature devices consistently provided a superior user experience.