Per yesterday’s visual, I believe consumers perceive electronics in three different categories:

Commodities: Most products, at least three out of four devices, fall here. Unfortunately, most technology on the consumer market is perceived as similar to the competition. So, this category includes most HDTVs, most cameras, most wireless phones, etc. These are not bad devices, but they’re not special either. Manufacturers can certainly generate good sales and profits with these devices. Just look at Samsung, or Panasonic, or, lately, Sony. Most of their products fall here.

Commodities on the mainstream market are competitive, and because they are not perceived as being special, they really only have one factor on which to compete: price. That’s it. If these devices are priced equal to or higher than the competition, they will likely not sell particularly well.

The other two categories of product perception are:

Special: These products have broken away from the pack. They are distinct. People know their names and what makes them better than the rest. Think Nintendo Wii. Motorola Droid. Google. The Flip Camcorder.

These products compete based on their brand and their unique, separating features.

Singular: These days, products in this category are made by only Apple. The iPhone is perceived as a singular consumer device. So is the iPod. These products have evangelists. They are breakthrough devices with passionate, intensely loyal fans.

More details on these categories tomorrow.