Staples' "Easy Button" – a gizmo announcing "That was easy" whenever it is pressed – has become an iconic part of American office life since its launch more than a decade ago.
And by giving this low-tech novelty item a digitally-powered makeover, Staples is now moving beyond helping business owners and employees express satisfaction (or channel frustration) even as it promotes a brand tagline used from 2003 to 2014.
The next-generation "Easy Button" – created in partnership with IBM's Watson cognitive-computing platform – is linked to the web in a similar fashion to Amazon Echoand Google...