The theme from this year’s meeting of global thought-leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, “resilient dynamism,” encompasses imperatives for ensuring growth in an era of accelerating change: Recognition that a new status quo is emerging, and leaders must realize that today’s challenges such as adversity, complexity and disruption are here to stay.

Innovative ways need to be explored to restore economic dynamism and maintain an edge in the face of competition. Growth strategies must reinforce societal resilience, for example, through the smart, sustainable management of resources.

Here are eight technology trends that represent a disruptive and transformational future.

1. Networks and Sensors.

A new central nervous system linking the “internet of things” — wireless devices embedded in objects that gather huge amounts of data with new technologies that store and interpret it all. When linked with computational systems and predictive analytics, this emerging ecosystem has the potential to disrupt every aspect of our lives, ranging from targeted social media advertising and new services, entertainment recommendations to personal interactions with a healthcare professional and a slew of other interactive transactions.

2. Robotics.

Robots are moving beyond heavy-duty industrial environments. Robots like Baxter (See Nov.Dec. 2012 C4 Trends) have the potential to revitalize light industry with its flexibility for short-run manufacturing or assembly. They offer new economic opportunities for grwoth. They’ve moved from the realm of science fiction to an array of form factors implemented by the military, medical and service communities. Robots even act as companions to house-bound people. Obvious in demonstrations at CES’ Eureka Park, we’re just at the beginning of robotics in our daily lives.

3. Artificial Intelligence (AI).

For years, we’ve been hearing about this technology but now it’s here. AI is creating a new generation of personal digital assistants that are so smart they can tell people where they need to go next without being prompted.

4. Digital Manufacturing.

Changes are coming to the supply chain. A company like Lego, for example, might shift its focus from toy making to selling blueprints for toys. Imagine a world with 3D printers that could enable consumers to produce their parts at home.

5. Health and mHealth.

Biometrics, personalized medicine and a shift toward the integration of IT into healthcare is allowing small mobile devices to enable more accessible healthcare and a new focus on patient centered care. With the growing consumerization of health IT, the role of healthcare providers and health insurers is entering a new phase.

6. Energy Efficiency.

Energy sustainability and maintaining balance in local energy grids is a challenge across regions and countries.

At CES, three examples of eco-friendly trends stood out:

• Battery life is improving.
• Tech companies are producing more energy-efficient products.
• eMobility — electric vehicle charging and monitoring — is a rapidly emerging smart technology. Companies are providing sustainable eMobility solutions for vehicle owners and fleets on a national and even global basis.

7. The Mobile Wallet.

Someday, carrying around dollars will become obsolete. The way we conduct transactions is changing, and new business models are emerging around ecosystems like NFC, the cloud, QR codes and direct operator billing. Companies are looking at programs to dramatically increase revenue and improve customer retention.

8. Privacy and Managing Trust.

In the era of Facebook and Twitter — where sharing has disrupted how we communicate — are we in danger of losing this precious freedom? While technology is the catalyst for privacy invasion — how may technology be harnessed along with massive changes in the regulatory framework to provide better safety and security solutions?

The pace of technological innovation will ensure massive social changes. The future contains challenges that are very different from those humanity has faced before. However, where realism and the willingness to experiment intersect, is the space for dreamers and entrepreneurs willing to take risks.

The key picks for 2013 are investment in innovation and the new role of mobile devices.

Investment in Innovation

As the market environment becomes increasingly competitive, the need to innovate is the lifeblood for change and prosperity.

The good news is that despite a global recession and challenging economic times, worldwide R&D spending increased 9.6 percent in 2011, to $603 billion, according to Booz and Co.’s Global Innovation 1000. Coming on the heels of last year’s rise in spending, this is a hopeful sign that the nation is emerging from the latest financial crisis with a stronger commitment to innovation investment than after the dot-com meltdown in 2000. In the first three years following that collapse, spending increased at an annual rate of 3.5 percent, compared with 9.5 percent between 2009 and 2011, according to the study.

Computing and CE companies continued their reign as the top R&D spenders, accounting for 28 percent of spending worldwide ($167.2 billion). Two other leading sectors were healthcare and automotive.

As we move into 2013, these investments suggest new reasons for optimism, particularly when looking at trends related to consumer habits like BYOD (bring your own device) and the burgeoning consumerization of healthcare.

Mobility is Central

Mobility is transforming the way consumers work, organize their lives and spend leisure time. Smartphones, tablets and laptops are essential lifelines at home, work and while traveling and these devices will become even more central to our lives. Here are two examples that are catching our imagination:

Connected Living

Smartphones and tablets are becoming the command centers, and they are getting ‘smarter.’ They have powerful processors and can access a wealth of information, whether from the cloud or in our pockets, as they continuously collect and process the information that is important to us.

Mobile devices are on a growth trajectory and will control TVs, appliances, thermostats and security systems, and will even warm up your car.

Health and Wellness

Innovations in mobile technologies are now converging with healthcare to produce mHealth solutions. Silos between the health/research community and the technology universe are being swept away, evident in December at the mHealth Summit. A new generation of apps, sensors, security, data capture and analytics are opening up oportunities for access to healthcare.

This starts to hit home as the U.S. healthcare system shifts from being physician-centric to patient/consumer-centric — and at a time when a record number of boomers are aging at home. With changes in the healthcare laws, consumers will be empowered to play a bigger role in their own care, including chronic disease management. Currently, there is a shift from treatment to prevention.

Mobile technology apps will enable providers to prevent or minimize problems before they happen. And in the event of an episode, patient access and coordination among providers will be easier and more efficient. Mobile technology will increasingly enable more care to be delivered outside the physician’s office.

The bottom line is that the next generation of consumer technology products will advance health and wellness to enable better care at a lower cost. Welcome to the New Year!

Contact Susan at susan-at-c4trends.com

It seems as if a theme that we’ve been observing this year is that people want their food to be special, but with minimal fuss.  Everyone seems to be rushed and particularly overwhelmed this time of year.

63 percent of consumers are reporting that they enjoy hosting parties, according to an NPD report on holiday entertaining.

Time saving and easy-to-use appliances are essential for a busy kitchen or cook. Pressure cookers and steamers are among the most popular items.  With minimal effort they enable quicker preparation perfect vegetables, meats, fish & much more.  Similarly, blenders are multi-function these days and can be used in food preparation as well as to make those festive holiday drinks – plus they come now in a wide array of colors to match the décor of your kitchen!

Along these lines, we’ll be testing out the AquaChef Smart Cooker (pictured left), which uses the sous vide cooking method for ‘foolproof’ cooking of foods to the perfect internal temperature. Stay tuned!

To bring the spirit of the season into your home, NPD also points to products such as colorful dining linens, cutlery (such as carving/chef knives), eco-friendly cutting boards, and winter and holiday themed dinnerware patterns.

“As consumers are preparing their homes to entertain this holiday season, products that furnish seasonal touches,” are expected to be welcomed additions and gifts, according to Debra Mednick, executive director of The NPD Group’s home business.

Reinventing Manufacturing

While I generally look at products as a manifestation of trends, there is one that stands out given its potential to reinvent the manufacturing sector in the U.S. Over the past several years, we have heard the lament about the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs. However, manufacturing has not plummeted like many would like us to believe. Rather, the U.S. has held onto higher-value manufacturing while companies have been chasing mass production across Asia — moving from Japan to Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Thailand and elsewhere.

According to a 2012 Boston Consulting Group survey, 45 percent of U.S.-based CEOs interviewed said they were seriously considering pulling their manufacturing facilities out of China. Has manufacturing in China become too expensive for American companies? If so, what is the alternative?

Enter Baxter from Rethink Robotics. I first saw this robot at the MIT EmTech conference. Baxter is a capable, two-armed industrial robot that comes ready to work on the factory floor in less than one hour. Priced at $22,000, Baxter is designed to be affordable for mid-size and small manufacturers that previously could not afford robots. Imagine being able to bid on new jobs because you could be more responsive for short runs, could innovate close to where a product is manufactured and could have better protection of your intellectual property.

“We believe that if we could cross that chasm with the manufacturing environment specifically in mind, we could offer new hope to the millions of American manufacturers who are looking for innovative ways to compete in our global economy,” says Rodney Brooks, head of Rethink Robotics. Brooks is also a robotics professor at MIT and one of three co-founders of iRobot.

Unlike traditional robots, Baxter is a self-contained system that doesn’t require integration, sophisticated software programming or additional capital investments. Baxter is designed to perform simple tasks and work safely side-by-side with people and not in a cage. Unlike traditional robots, no expertise is required since training Baxter is similar to how one would teach a person. Typical factory workers can interact with the robot directly — training it to do a task in less than 30 minutes. Baxter understands and adapts to the task at hand.

Rethink’s new line of Baxter robots has the potential to redefine how small, mid-size and large domestic manufacturers can use automation to compete with manufacturers in low-cost regions of the world. Baxter breaks down the cost and safety barriers that have limited automation in American manufacturing. Potentially, these robots, which just became available in October, could help to create new jobs and business opportunities to revitalize U.S. manufacturing.

Consumerization of Health Care

Health care in the U.S. is also undergoing revolutionary change. Big ideas along with technology are at the core of solving the challenge of stratospheric health care costs. We are moving from a physician-centric model to a patient-centric model and technology has the ability to empower consumers like never before.

Mobile technologies are providing greater consumer access, producing better health outcomes and improving institutional workflow efficiencies while lowering the cost of health care. Related technologies such as M2M (machine to machine), NFC (near field communications) and sensors, along with greater consumer engagement and motivators through gamification, social networking, incentives and coaching, are coming together to form a new platform for health care.

The baby boomer landslide is upon us, and boomers expect to live more vibrantly and independently than their parents. “They have faith in technology,” notes Dr. Joseph Coughlin, director of MIT’s AgeLab. Moving forward, it’s going to take “big” ideas to overcome the challenges that the U.S. and countries across the world will be facing. Stay tuned for more developments in 2013.

We are pleased to announce that Susan Schreiner was selected as a judge for the 2013 CES Innovations Awards.

The Innovation Awards, unveiled yearly at the International CES, showcases the best new technologies and products the consumer electronics industry has to offer.

Susan Schreiner was selected based on her experience, tremendous level of business achievement and deep understanding of trends in the CE industry.

For a complete list of judges, click here.

The market for big data technology is expected to grow at a 40 percent annual rate, from $3.2 billion in 2010, to $16.9 billion in 2015, according to IDC. Gartner projects that the worldwide information volume is growing at a minimum rate of 59 percent annually.

Gone are the days when the local retailer on Main Street knew you and your family. Now it’s about the Internet capturing your preferences and sales data. Consumers, knowingly or not, have exposed a great deal of information about themselves in user profiles or in response to marketing tactics. Past purchases, along with Twitter, Facebook and other social networks are generating a huge volume of information that is a potential goldmine for businesses, including location, gender and even sentiment, by sorting through billions of social interactions.

Welcome to the new age of “personalization” based on data strategies. New systems, services and tools are being developed to deal with the complex and massive information overload related to data capture, storage, search, sharing, analysis and visualization. HP, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and a slew of smaller companies are offering new capabilities. They range from big systems that can handle large volumes of data distributed across multiple commodity servers, collaborative analytics software that analyzes data to uncover patterns or analyzes information using ad-hoc queries, as well as business intelligence analytics and advanced monitoring capabilities.

Retail, Marketing and Advertising

Big Data enables retailers to develop the most comprehensive consumer profile possible. However, competing in business will take more than being good at collecting and processing big data. What will the retailer or ad agency do with it? Big data enables crunching the numbers in real-time and turning it into actionable items regardless of data volume. Retailers will have access to amazing, timely insights to monitor their customers, identify new market opportunities and capitalize on new areas of innovation by using intelligent data.

Retailers can use big data to analyze customer needs and to plan their inventory and marketing strategies. They can reach customers effectively, build loyalty and cross-sell, up-sell and maintain existing customers by using advanced IT systems that include marketing applications and behavioral analyses, while also tracking social interactions to make customized product recommendations.

In a customer-centric model, retailers can predict their customers’ price sensitivity and develop promotions accordingly. They can identify where customers are in the “lifecycle” of their relationship with the store to create retention strategies and incentives for customers who are active on social networks. They can generate recommendations and inform their customers via personalized e-mails, newsletters or SMS messages. Big data also can provide retailers with new connecting touch points to enhance their interactions with their customers to lead to increased profitability in a competitive environment.

Transforming Healthcare

Another untapped area is healthcare. Imagine the data that will be generated from body sensors, implanted devices, wearable user interfaces and 24/7 remote monitoring. How will this data be integrated into the healthcare system?

In addition, the baby boomers have redefined every life stage they have passed through. We are already seeing the emergence of the concept of “aging in place.” Boomers want to live independently. They are working at staying healthy and active as the healthcare systems begins to shift from being physician-centric to patient-centric. It’s now about preventative care and wellness.

The dynamics of this new data ecosystem is enormous for developing innovative decision-making. Frameworks will need to be created that support trust, safety, security, privacy and transparency as well as control equitable value distribution throughout the personal data ecosystem on a global scale. The industry needs to ensure that big data doesn’t intrude and make you feel that “big brother” is watching.

Big data is a catalyst for innovative disruption as a cascade of information becomes available. We’re at the beginning of this transition from the “feudal age,” to big data causing major disruptions in how we work, spend leisure time and take care of ourselves.

The notion of connecting the physical world to the Internet via wireless communication is a captivating idea. The promise of a world of connected devices in which machines of all types can autonomously communicate with each other opens up new possibilities.

From connected cars to wireless pill bottles, the world is going to change forever. Connected devices can monitor vital signs and automatically notify doctors of any unusual health changes. Connecting a smart electricity meter can enable people to control their energy use and help energy companies increase business efficiencies and lower costs. Logistics firms such as UPS use M2M in their vehicle fleets for route optimization and safety, and to provide tracking information for customers.

Connectivity

Just as the mobile internet has challenged firms to rethink their businesses, the merger of the virtual and the physical world through M2M communication will have a similar impact. The build-out of the next stage of wireless infrastructure is underway with mobile network operators using M2M solutions in their battle against commoditization and the need to find new business models, customer offerings and revenue streams. They are looking to cash-in on connecting homes, cars, heart sensors and a host of other devices to their networks.

The number of cellular M2M connections will triple over the next five years, reaching more than 200 million in 2014, according to ABI Research. Qualcomm’s Atheros division recently released a low-powered 802.11n radio chip designed for embedded M2M wireless communications that can network a wide array of battery-operated sensors, CE devices, smart appliances, meters and medical monitoring gear. Applications include smart energy, the ‘intelligent home,’ security and surveillance, building automation and remote health monitoring.

Markets

Consumers will soon interact with hundreds, if not thousands, of M2M devices. Consider the numerous networked devices already part of daily life, such as GPS, security cameras, traffic sensors, payment systems, healthcare devices and ticketing systems.

We also are on the cusp of a revolution in healthcare driven by M2M. Connected medical environments will improve patient care through instant communication, remote monitoring and disease management. M2M sensors and embedded communications are central to greater efficiencies and lowering costs related to healthcare, particularly chronic care.

The VitalityGlowCaps, a connected pill-box, is an example of a successful M2M application. It tracks patients’ usage and calls them if they forget a pall, orders refills and updates their doctors. This business model benefits all parties: patients adhere to better prescriptions, pharmaceutical firms sell more products and doctors achieve better health outcomes.

There will be an increased blurring between CE devices and health products with the popularity of smartphones, tablets, pendants, watches and downloadable apps. Many of these apps will have peripherals to enable ‘feedback’ loops for health monitoring not only by consumers but also by data centers staffed by health professionals.

While physical space is still very important – the new rules of engagement for retailers revolve around implementing a multi-channel strategy and making the online experience as dynamic and personal as possible. Retailers are tapping into social media to grow their reach, and using measurement and analytics to inform their businesses. During the 2011 holiday season some of the largest retailers – Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Walmart – found ways to increase the number of consumers who clicked from social media sites to their retail sites, according to social marketing vendor Buddy Media and Web measurement firm comScore.

In part, this growth was fueled by holiday promotions on social media targeted to fans – and had a viral impact reaching friends of fans, which multiplied the number of impressions. Target had the highest lift in a comparison of the weeks ending Oct. 19 and Nov. 30 – the number of its posts that were shared increased 3.5 times during the corresponding week the month earlier. Walmart was close behind at 3.4 times, Best Buy had a lift of 2.7 times and Amazon posed a jump of 2.2 times. This sharing behavior is increasingly valuable. For instance, using an average cost per thousand impressions, or CPM, of $3.55, Walmart earned $417,000 worth of impressions.

Social Work

The mega retailer’s innovative new research lab called @WalMartLabs ties together social and mobile channels with in-store shopping. During the holiday season it launched Shopycat, a Facebook app that with permission provides gift suggestions based on your friends’ profiles. Another in-store app is in development to encourage customers to use their mobile phones to interact with other shoppers to receive information about products, opinions and deals. The Shopycat app builds on what Walmart execs call ‘social genome’ technology, that it acquired when it bought Kosmix, a Silicon Valley company that specializes in social data mining for targeted marketing. Walmart also acquired OneRiot, a Boulder, Colo., firm that has developed social commerce technology. The slogan of @WalMartLabs sums up this new direction, ‘Social+Mobile+Retail.’

American Express also aggressively engages in social media programs with Facebook and foursquare and has turned Twitter #hashtags into national merchant offers. When card members tweet using special hashtags, savings are loaded to their synched cards with no coupons needed. When card members use their synched card for purchases, the savings are delivered via a statement credit. Participating merchants include Best Buy and Zappos. American Express also provides detailed reporting to merchants about the spending behavior of their customers.

Amex is also helping small businesses succeed with its program called “Social Media Show + Tell.” Through a series of videos hosted on its LinkedIn Business Knowledge Share group, experts explain how their social media tools can empower business owners.

Changing Dynamic

According to Accenture, 73 percent of mobile-powered shoppers prefer peering into their phones for assistance over talking to a retail clerk. Mobile apps such as Red Laser, Edocrab, Scope, ShopSavvy and Scandit are changing the customer/retailer relationship as consumers compare prices from multiple sources, while still in the store. According to market research firm ClickIQ, 29 percent of consumers who use a smartphone to research a product while in a store end up purchasing the item online, often from Amazon.com.

Retailers are starting to fight back. Best Buy, for instance, has added QR codes to store items for customers looking for more product information. Once they engage with the QR codes, it keeps them in the Best Buy system to provide more information.

App developers such as foursquare, Klout, Shazam, Shopkick, SCVNGR and Zynga are now partners for interactive campaigns as technology changes how and where consumers purchase products. Retailers are exploring how social networking partnerships can help increase brand interactions like micro-sites that engage shopper feedback and personalized promotions to draw shoppers back into stores to build brand-loyalty.

Retailers are striking a balance between reaching customers on their terms, engagement through social media, and multi-channel marketing strategies.

Eureka Park at the 2012 International CES

Eureka Park was a new concept for CES this year designed to give cutting-edge, early stage companies and entrepreneurs exposure to potential investors and B2B industry partners, including those interested in joint ventures or licensing deals.  There was plenty of innovation as well as a strong entrepreneurial spirit in Eureka Park which mushroomed to about 100 companies and was sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Startup America Partnership, CNET, and UK Trade and Investment.

Innovative Solutions

Many of the exhibitors have NSF grants like KWJ Engineering, which is developing solutions for gas detection by integrating sensors into smartphones, medical devices and other safety and military applications.

“Eureka Park was good for us, and the biggest tradeshow we’ve done,” according to Edward Stetter, vice president and CFO. We’ve made some really good contacts at major companies who are looking to add capabilities into their wireless platforms.”

Modular Robotics, a spin-off from Carnegie Mellon showcased Cubelets — the equivalent of a robotic Legos construction kit for kids. Sold as a six-block starter kit, the Cubelets are pre-programmed 1.5-inch blocks, each able to move, sense nearby objects and display light. The way they are stacked determines what the final robot will do. Snapping a battery block on top of a motion-sensing roller block, for instance, will create a robot that automatically moves when the lights go on/off. “It’s about changing the way children learn and see the world,” says Eric Lundby, a software developer.

Another company, Emota.net of Mountain View, Calif., an NSF grantee, showcased gesture controls embedded in a stuffed penguin to demonstrate how social networking technology can become more emotionally engaging. The ambient technology allows everyday objects to be used as a communications tool. For instance, it can help to keep isolated seniors active or grand kids connected with their grandparents using simple interfaces including the TV. “Our product has broad emotional appeal to anyone, and Eureka Park has been fantastic,” according to Paul To, CEO and founder. “As a startup, we made connections with prospective investors and potential corporate partners who can help us go to market,” he says.

Uncle Oswals Is My Hero is a two-man design team giving new life to discarded telephone handsets by transforming them into an ingeniously simple, external speaker system for iPods and MP3 players. Kim Justin and Lee Jinsop, the two founders, say they hope to license their design, and had conversations with other audio vendors. “The number of people that we’ve met at Eureka Park and elsewhere at CES has been fabulous. It’s great for us because that means when the product finally comes out in commercial quantities, we know it will be popular,” says Justin.

PerSuede Audio’s Rebel Tower all-in-one iPhone/iPod speaker is a stylish, fashion-forward speaker covered in synthetic cowhide in various patterns including zebra. Brad Pfeiffer, co-founder says, “The speakers smooth out the high-frequencies for a subdued sound sans tinny high notes.”

These speakers, launched at CES, were under development for four-years, and this ‘single-point’ audio system comes with some impressive specs. Inside the triangular-shaped tower cabinet design is a compact, ultra-high performance 2.1 speaker system including AstoundSound DSP technology, and a 120 Watt Class-D Amplifer. The engineering team was headed by an alum design engineer and musician who previously worked at Samsung and Sony.

Startup, Scrible of Redwood City, Calif., showcased a program to turn a browser into an editor that can digitally annotate, save, organize and share information from the Web as well as a version for the iPad.

Health and Power Innovations

Eureka Park companies working in the health and medical arena included Energetic Health and Research Center; HMicro; Marista Wellness Network; Med-ken; Rehabtek; and SpringActive with its robotic prosthesis. For example, Innovega repurposed traditional contact lenses, creating iOptik, special lenses that integrate personal media, social networking and mobile computing into our everyday reality ala Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film Minority Report.

Putting motion sensing technology to work in the health sector, the Institute for Disabilities and Research Training Inc. showed the AcceleGlove, equipped with accelerometers to track hand movements. Also a slew of companies are working on power management, charging and more efficient battery solutions, such as Anthem Grand, Current Werks, MiserWare, nVolution, Perpetua Power Source and QM Power.

As a heavy coffee drinker who loves a great cup of coffee, that’s interesting. But is it true? Apparently yes.

Looking first at the National Coffee Association, “Water Temperature During Brewing: Your brewer should maintain a water temperature between 195 – 205 degrees Fahrenheit for optimal extraction. Colder water will result in flat, under-extracted coffee while water that is too hot will also cause a loss of quality in the taste of the coffee.”

Fine, but is water temperature a problem with most coffee makers? According to CooksIllustrated.com, apparently yes: “We made…coffee, this time measuring the water temperature throughout the brew cycle. And here we made a key discovery: Most of these machines were too cool, spending most of the brewing cycle struggling to bring the water into the right temperature range. Many didn’t reach the correct temperature until the last minute or two of brewing — and then kept climbing, scorching the grounds as the last few cups dripped into the carafe.”

So in principle, Cloer’s temperature stabilization technology could indeed be important.  Since the proof is in the tasting, we conducted the following taste test:  We made two identical batches of black coffee using the Cloer as well as our old office machine (a well-known premium brand, albeit one that needs descaling).  The coffee we used was a freshly opened bag of Starbucks® French Roast whole bean coffee, which probably should be pushing the envelope on bitterness – hence, a good test.  We then went heavy on the amount of coffee versus water (we like strong coffee; 10 coffee measures for 7.5 cups of liquid (1.33:1); this compares to Starbucks’ 1:1 ratio), pushing the test even further.

As a heavy coffee drinker who loves a great cup of coffee, that’s interesting. But is it true? Apparently yes.

The answer was startling.  Using the exact same amount of coffee, the Cloer was too strong, even for us.  The obvious reason, as we thought about it, was that with the Cloer getting more flavor extraction from the same amount of coffee that we had been using, we needed less coffee to get to the same strength level.

So the solution was to adjust the Cloer closer to the normal 1:1 standard.  The result:  both cups of coffee were now equally strong.  But the Cloer was able to provide something we hadn’t experienced with home brew machines – strong coffee with more flavor but without bitterness.  It’s a noticeably better cup of coffee.  Plus we save 25% on the amount of coffee beans needed.

So net-net we’re sold on the Cloer as delivering on its promises.  Yes, you can buy a much cheaper drip machine for $20-40, or premium brand-name machines for $50-100, versus $150 list/$130 street price for the Cloer.  But for one of life’s simple pleasures – a really good cup of coffee in the morning – the few cents a day difference is a no-brainer.  And when you factor in a 25% savings in coffee beans (for us, that comes to around $140 annually), the Cloer actually ends up saving you money!