The marketing guys are the ones who get paid to figure out what the market wants. They provide inputs. Requirements are sometimes developed from those inputs. Managers decide what to do with the input from marketing, and they generally decide which desirable features will be included in the next-generation-device. They then hand the job off to engineers who analyze those requirements and translate them into a specification for something that can be manufactured.

I don't involve myself in the market research and I don't make business decisions. My job as an engineer is to provide specifications and options to management. If management decides it's ready for production, they hand it off to the production guys if they feel it meets their targets. If not, well, there's to be more market research, or another pass at the engineering. Generally they make the choice before it goes to engineering and subsequently to production.

I haven't addressed your examples because, IMHO, they're not relevant to my position. You're suggesting engineers sit around with marketeers and try to figure out what the next "kewl" piece of junk on the market will be. An engineer wouldn't do that.

RE