I wanted to interject about how “ecosystem” is a word only used for locked-in stuff like Apple and Google, but y’know what?
THIS is a proper ecosystem. It is actually organic, made of independent moving parts, unlike the clockwork made by big tech, internal to each and to a large extent indivisible.
Back then, not everyone had a washing machine, a frige, a stove, etc. The untapped market was those without those appliances. The focus was on reducing price while keepijg quality. Later, when most people had a fridge and the sales went down, the execs got the idea to add a shiny new shelf, a built-in freezer, a window, an ice machine, etc. Then they thought up of stuff like energy efficiency, durability, etc for marketing and planned obsolesence for maintaining their bottom line.
Nowadays, I wouldn’t be surprised that more money is spent on researching novel ways of planned obsolesence (while avoiding laws against that in places where it exists), than just using “tried and true” methods would.