I choked back a laugh of disbelief when a presenter said what a popular item it was, and how many they had sold. No wonder, I thought to myself... the blasted thing is never off the telly! If it's not QVC advertising it, they are demo-ing it. If they are not flogging it, it's in adverts on umpteen other channels... and if not that, then it's on the Gadget show or similar and in various magazines.
QVC have a slight advantage in selling this pricey delicacy, with the 4 easy pays (it seems to have been on them for months now, and it probably wouldn't shift at all without them). Really, how many people could fork over £300 for a hairdryer? It is overpriced, and I suspect it is destined to go the way of the Dyson counterotator washing machine which couldn't make money. It's not how innovative the technology is that really counts in either case, ultimately. Is the end result clearly superior to anything you could achieve with a conventional hairdryer (or washing machine)? If not, you are doomed to be a five-minute wonder. And it's frequently not enough to have a superior product... remember betamax losing out to the technically inferior VHS? Industry is littered with other examples where a cheaper-to-produce and therefore more profitable, product wins out against something more innovative. Paying 10 times as much for a hairdryer won't give you 10 times better hair styles / 10 times longer-lasting etc.