The rise of blue-glowing electronics may have been made possible by the invention of blue LEDs, but the signifigance of blue goes back to audiophiles in the 60s:
Blue got another image boost in the 1960s, when McIntosh Labs, a top-of-the-line stereo components maker in Binghamton, N.Y., hired University of Michigan researchers to find out what color of light is most visible to middle-age males, the company's core demographic. Blue, they said, and McIntosh began putting blue-tinted faceplates on its pricey units.
Eventually blue's associations with quality filtered down from obsessed audiophiles to ordinary electronics buyers. "Consumers associate blue light with high-end gear," confirms Ray Weikel, the Logitech director of product marketing responsible for putting blue lights in the company's computer speakers. "Our engineers lusted after blue LEDs for a long time," he says.
(Thanks, Jens!)
