Q. Won't brands and brand recognition be non-existent in the future when we reach the point in which most products have become standardized and all function the same, resulting in purchases based on price and not on the emotional ties of brand loyalty or brand differentiation?

I don’t think that, that will ever come about.  You are equating brand to a product. A brand is much more than that.  It is about how the product is packaged, how it is brought to you, how it is sold to you, how it is supported after sales, how the company relates to you as its customer, and so on.  Those other elements will never be the same across brands because those elements are part of the culture of a particular brand owning firm.

Thus, for instance, the way Apple Inc. announces its products, the show they put, the secrecy around the release, the inevitable “leaks”, the way the Apple Store is designed, the way the store staff are selected, trained, and compensated, the way Apple provides service following sales, all of these elements will be different from that of say competitors like Samsung or HTC or Sony.  So, product differentiation can and will fade, but not brand differentiation.

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