Things I want my fridge to be able to do, close itself if I leave it open.

Door hinges like that exist, yet where are fridges with that?

why do I want a tablet on my fridge? who does it need WiFi? why do I want ads in my kitchen?

My oven/stove has Wi-Fi. I don’t understand why.

We have a washing machine connected to our wifi. And as a person with ADHD it is a godsend. I get a notification that the washing programe is finished and I have this reminder on mt phone. Now I understand I cpuld make a note myself, but that's on par with taking the laundry out for me. As I am not neurotypical these small things help tremendously.

Bottom line, out fridge is as dumb as it can get as there is no good reason to not be.

It's been a while since I worked on the US appliance market, but there are no smaller companies in the appliance space outside of some high European brands at the top end of the market.

I am not that well versed on the manufacturing side of the things, but I believe it is impossible for a smaller player to compete in the mass market due to extremely low margins (under ~5%), particularly in the "basic appliance" segment and the fact that manufacturing is extremely sensitive to scale (your per unit manufacturing cost will likely be significantly higher than Samsung, LG, Hair, Electrolux etc.).

Essentially, a smaller company will always have SKUs that will be more expensive than the comparable SKU from a major company while also being "offbrand" and having weaker distribution and ecosystem networks.

We have that here in sweden at least, and unsurprisingly it seems to sell quite well. And of course since it's so hilariously cheap for them to produce it's not like they have to sell many to make profit.

Frankly a lot of the time they somehow manage to keep the quality high enough that with the price they're sold for it kinda feels too good, like i think these things might well last the rest of my life, why are they selling things i won't have to buy again??

But how are you going to be able to play the latest Skyrim: Toaster Edition?

I saved $200 on my smoker because a new model came out that had WiFi and they wanted to get rid of the old ones.

My toaster is also independent of WiFi. It connects to AI using telepathy.

Always had been

this is why you by cheapo (but still not obviously dogshit quality) stuff from a big box store or whatever the fuck it's called in english. Stuff like Biltema here in sweden.

Adding online connectivity and whatnot would make it too expensive, and since keeping things simple also keeps cost down these things end up being quite possible to take apart and repair.

What about if the fridge platform supports Ublock Origin?