At the turn of the millennium, Ideo advised BusinessWeek on its special issue, Project 2010. Ideo's team thought about how products and services would evolve to serve consumers over the ensuing decade.

Kelley says the team saw some hardware disappearing after the current era of pocket-size devices. In the team's view, the hardware should become increasingly woven into clothing or worn as a fashion accessory.

However, as Kelley hastens to point out, in the evolution of products, sea changes are rare. Instead, there's evolution.

"We know that the customer does not want to let go of the old experience completely," he points out, using champagne corks as an example. "You're at a New Year's party, you actually kind of like it. It's part of the fun. Could we fix it and make it more functional? Absolutely," he says. But that doesn't mean people will give up their corks.