Koto’s Tom Hostler on why tech brands have stopped feeling distinctive

Consumer electronics is one of the few sectors where the future still arrives in physical form, but for Tom Hostler, Chief Digital Officer at Koto, that hasn’t stopped the category from feeling oddly uniform. Phones, laptops, smart speakers and wearables have been optimised to a point where industrial design, software patterns and marketing language increasingly converge – and the result, he argues, is a sea of technically capable products that struggle to feel distinct. Hostler joined Koto in 2024, bringing two decades of digital thinking to a studio renowned for its branding work. From Koto’s London office, he makes the case for why brand, interface and behaviour now have to be designed as one system, why ecosystems need to mean something beyond seamlessness and why the next generation of tech brands will be defined by behaviour as much as form. TBI: Hey Tom, great to chat with you again. How are you doing? TH: I’m very well, thanks! It's great to be back here again.