Politicians and celebrities aren't the only ones serving as punch lines on The Tonight Show these days. "I got the video iPod," comedian Dana Carvey quipped during a recent appearance. "The new one doesn't come out till after lunch."
Yes, we gadget buyers have become the butt of the joke. Over the past five years, the golden age of gizmos has dazzled us with a flurry of shiny objects. Now we're inundated with a tidal wave of disposable products with not-so-disposable prices. We're awash in devices that look and perform alike, are on the verge of obsolescence the moment they're released, and are padded with features unfit for public consumption.
Manufacturers will likely snicker at these complaints. After all, they're coming off of another banner year in sales. But they shouldn't take our frustrations lightly - gadget fatigue will set in, and it will affect their bottom lines. Already some industry analysts are warning that 2006 may see the gadget bubble burst, with sales finally starting to wane.
The high tech gear industry could do a lot to fend off the coming backlash. I've come up with a simple three-point plan.
1. Stop drowning us in sameness. Search for "5-megapixel camera" at Amazon.com and you'll be confronted with more than 100 choices. Most are differentiated only by memory formats and mild fluctuations in price. Canon alone released six point-and-shoots from its popular PowerShot Digital Elph series in 2005 - and that's just one of the company's three pocket-size digicam lines. Flooding the shelves with almost identical products just makes us feel overéwhelmed. Innovate or get off the pot.
2. Stop making us feel buyer's remorse. Last year, Apple introduced the video iPod, which replaced the 30-Gbyte photo iPod, not to be confused with the regular 40-Gbyte iPod or its 60-Gbyte sister, both fourth-generation players. Did you get all that? Don't forget the nano, the mini, the shuffle, and the limited-edition U2 iPod, which stayed on the company's roster for 12 months (a century in the land of Jobs). Apple has been spitting out so many versions of its ubiquitous music player that it initiated a recycling program last summer to deal with the huge turnover.Sure, new products keep the market fresh, but it's infuriating to discover the $300 gadget you just bought is no longer being manufactured. At the very least, companies should offer software updates (yes, you can even charge us for them!) so a player that comes with features like a color screen, large capacity, photo handling, and a speedy processor can be configured for video playback.
3. Stop releasing features that aren't ready for prime time. At least one industry analyst says cell phone makers found that customers will pay a 10 to 25 percent premium for new features. Built-in cameras top the list. Turns out users want decent built-in cameras. For two years, mobile manufacturers have tried to pass off cheap lenses and imaging chips as bonuses. What we got was poor image quality, bad interfaces, and tedious proécedures for getting photos off the phone. "Caméera phones were rushed to market without much understanding of what the techénology was, how it was going to be used," explains Strategy Analytics' Eddie Tapiero. Has the industry learned its lesson? Music phones with limited storage, short battery life, and disappointing sales prove it has not.
The gadget industry is at a crossroads. It can either continue to turn out products that barely one-up the competition or start to make products that are of real-value to conésumers. While technological innovation helps move more units, only true advances that enhance performance will satisfy-buyers. Consumer electronics-manufacéturers should focus R&D on delivering what users want: an elegant interface, durability, added utility, and style. We're sold on the big picture: We've all made the leap to a-digital lifestyle. Now treat us like grown-ups. We demand smart digital tools, not expensive disposable toys.
Contributing editor Sonia Zjawinski (sonia@otodisc.com) wrote about digital graffiti in issue 13.12.
credit: Craig Maxwell
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