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At CES last week, I took to one of the many stages upstairs inside the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center for a panel dubbed "Argue The Future." Joining me for the discussion was our site's managing editor Nilay Patel, alongside representatives from HTC, Samsung Mobile, and Microsoft. The point of the conversation was to talk candidly and openly about where we were heading as an industry — and the responses were revealing.
Amongst other topics, I pressed the companies on whether or not technology manufacturers were simply producing too many gadgets, outpacing real consumer demand with iterative, insubstantial changes. "Are we creating demand where there isn't any?" I asked. Though reluctant, Samsung's Ryan Bidan agreed that the current rate of production "[Is] not optimal, but I think the reality is that this is the industry we're in at the moment." Bidan added, "There should be a drive towards optimization, the sheer SKU proliferation is a problem." HTC's Drew Bamford was more direct. "It's a goal for us," he said.
Those statements mirror what Motorola Mobility chief Sanjay Jha told us rather forcefully earlier in the week. The company has plans to trim its production of smartphones this year, spend marketing dollars more wisely, and slow the "incremental innovation" he currently sees in the market. And it's not just in the mobile space. PC-maker Acer plans to cut its production of laptops by two-thirds in 2012.
It's an attitude that seems to be gaining traction throughout the industry. Gizmodo writer Mat Honan bent his CES 2012 experience into something just shy of beat poetry, but there were simple truths in the twisting prose:
I try to remember all the products I've talked about that I won't even bother to cover—and that nobody's going to buy.
Nowhere is that deluge of products more visible — literally — than at CES. The millions of square feet on the LVCC's show floor are jam-packed with model after model of what could easily be the same product. HDTVs line booth after booth, sprout up towards the ceiling, and tumble over garish, elaborate displays. Smartphones and their accessories (mostly docks) dot outlines and make paths through massive Sony and Samsung micro-worlds, while the smudged glare of anonymous Android tablets greets you at every new spectacle. Nothing seems original.
For a journalist, it's daunting — for shoppers, it's starting to seem impossible.
Gartner technology analyst Michael Gartenberg agrees that the influx of products is creating a growing problem for consumers. "There are too many products coming to market too quickly," he says. "Consumers are starting to become overwhelmed by the rate and pace of releases making it hard for many products to differentiate themselves in a meaningful way," adding, "the net result is shorter life spans for many products."
Those shorter life spans are putting a pressure on consumers that has worked in the short term technology boom of the last few years, but seems to be faltering as the economy sputters, consumer awareness expands, and choices become overwhelming. According to market research firm NPD, television, laptop, and digital camera sales have all been flat or down year-over-year. The company's Executive Director and Principal Analyst in the Connected Intelligence division, Ross Rubin, had this to say: "The slowdown in major categories is due to increasing saturation and a shift to replacement cycles as these categories mature." Rubin adds that companies are attempting to regain some of that ground by adding connectivity and refining designs, but says that NPD is "seeing consumers shift their electronics spending to new, more versatile and more mobile products such as tablets and smartphones."
Even though smartphone sales have rocketed in 2011 (NPD notes a 41-percent gain in smartphone sales), it's telling that major manufacturers of handsets want to scale back their selection over the coming year. Consumer fatigue and market saturation is clearly a concern.
As Chris Ziegler noted in this editorial, these iterative updates don't seem to have a clear impact, and in fact can actually hurt consumers. As differentiation between like-minded products becomes smaller and smaller, and the market stratifies around specific platforms or standards (iOS and Android in the case of smartphones), buyers seem to be finding the myriad selection distracting or upsetting instead of exciting or enticing. Anyone who's been in a cellphone shop lately can probably tell you this.
With a reduction in product lines, consumers will need to think more wisely about where they spend their money — and what they get for it. The end result will likely be fewer products in the marketplace, but bigger technological leaps between launches. Apple releases a single iPhone and iPad per year, but the differences between models (in both software and hardware) tend to be significant. As Samsung's Ryan Bidan put it to us on stage at CES, "Things will level out. Elegance will replace brute force."
Comments
This has been a problem for years.
jdog25 - January 20, 2012
I agree. But you can’t really make the case for computers/laptops for this. There are so many different configurations of a computer (not including Mac) that how would PC manufacturers be able to just sell 3 models? I think this Report should be mainly focused toward smartphones and tablets, because that’s all people really care about today. Laptops are laptops and the majority just want to buy a MacBook, but the sheer volume of flavors of smartphones and tablets makes it so confusing for the average Joe, that all they want to do is go get an iPhone, an iPad and MacBook because they’re learning its much easier to be within one ecosystem than have it all spread out.
lividcreature - January 20, 2012
Couldn’t have said it better. If you feel that there are too many choices, stick with Apple.
HerbieDerb - January 20, 2012
Unsurprisingly, that is what many consumers do.
ImSpartacus - January 21, 2012
I do it even if I’m tempted by other gadgets. I step back every time it comes to updating software, syncing and get specific (and great) apps…
Maybe this will change ;-)
Distribulle - January 21, 2012
The path from radicalism to conservatism summed up with elegance.
eric14 - January 21, 2012
Even Apple has this problem, in my opinion.
Go buy an Apple laptop, especially at a retail store.
MacBook, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air? 11", 13", 15" or 17"? Solid state storage or hard disk? Intel integrated graphics or real graphics card?
Oops, sorry, you can’t get the 15" with an NVidia chip AND solid state storage unless you also opt for the RAM upgrade. Of course, you could with the prior generation hardware from four months ago, let me see if we’ve got one in back. Oh, we do, but you won’t be able to get hard drive size you want.
And so on.
It’s tremendously complex, and overcomplicated, for basic tech. Even from Apple.
Brian_M - January 22, 2012
Could you not install the RAM yourself? Although I’m nit picking and your argument is a very valid one at that; honestly I only brought it up for the RAM as that’s the only thing I’d never upgrade from Apple (or anything else I could upgrade on my own for that matter).
But you’re right; they seem to have the best ideas and implementation (which is what you want to do) but ultimately they’re a business and they like money; lots of money.
But hey, they’re a great brand and there aren’t really any viable alternatives to Windows other than that; of course the customer service and having dedicated stores also goes a long way in winning over a buyer.
Not to go off on a tangent, but if these other companies seriously started producing less quantity wise and more quality wise, I think everybody would be happy.
FlacVest - January 27, 2012
You’re mostly right, but look at Apple, they have 4 product families. 2 are aimed towards “pros” and 2 are aimed towards consumers. But that doesn’t mean there’s only 4 models. Each family has from 2 to 4 models. And each model can be configured to add an SSD, more RAM, better graphics or better processor.
I think this approach is simple, but easy to understand for the consumer while satisfying everyone (sure, Apple’s prices are a bit premium sometimes, but if applied to PC manufacturers, I’m sure everyone will still be able to find the right PC).
But right, now, companies other than Apple seem to release dozens of families of products until one gets more success so they can focus on it.
lap.felix - January 20, 2012
There’s a difference though. In the store, there are very few models. Customization is only if you order online. The other benefit is that if you are in a tight budget, it greatly limits your options so it just isn’t possible to spend $1000 on a 17" MacBook Pro. Perhaps that is limiting to the consumer, but reducing choice makes them really think whether dropping $2000+ is worth it for the 17" model.
dagamer34 - January 20, 2012
Exactly. The 15 inch is honestly what I would want with a 1gb graphics card and all the nice upgrades I’d add along with it.
However, it’s just way too expensive to justify me buying it when a baseline 13 Pro does everything but gaming (which is what I want to do). So yea, it sucks that they limit some of their lower end hardware to drive up incentive for the top tier, but it does make one work budgets to try and actually get that 2k computer, even when there are many other, more practical options out there (13 inch mbp and windows laptop/desktop for gaming).
FlacVest - January 27, 2012
Dell started doing a good Job with this about a year ago, having 3 consumer brands: Inspiron, XPS, and Alienware. This covered all market segments because each family have a variety of screen sizes and configurations. But now they are adding the “z” models and it is getting ridiculous
Ryan Strat - January 20, 2012
Sort of related: I can’t help but continue to be astonished at the continued disparity in industrial design between Apple and (most of) the rest of the CE industry. That Macbook Air still looks light-years ahead of that pack. It’s sad. Shape up, folks. It’s been years since you’ve seen where Apple is going. You’ll be eating the crumbs from Apple’s table if this keeps up. It’s starting to look like Japan vs America in the automotive world circa 1970-80. And I love Thinkpads. But they’re looking more and more like Thickpads. Nobody’s revolutionizing their own processes. They’re coasting, hoping when the economy picks up, they’re guaranteed to pick back up too, back to the good old days. But everyone knows it’s best to invest in a down market. Come on!
lennon2012 - January 20, 2012
The Apple designs look nice, but do they work well after you take them home (or to the office)?
In my experience, less so with each year. MacBook Airs are pretty, but mine died after less than 18 months of daily use. If it was a $499 Dell, okay, maybe that would be expected. But a $1,000 computer should last longer than 18 months.
Want to run a video game on a recent MacBook? Good luck. Apple has removed proper video chipsets and replaced them with netbook-class “integrated graphics.” So that beautifully styled MacBook you bought yourself for $1,400 won’t run recent games at anywhere near the speed of that “ugly Thinkpad” for half the price.
And so on.
The assertion that Apple’s designs are just “so far ahead of the pack that everyone else will lose out” is only true in terms of visualization and aesthetic. As my work-issued MacBook Pro crashed for the fifth time in a day on Friday, I gave up.
I asked for a replacement — one of those ugly blocky Thinkpads. Because I know it will be able to handle the workload I throw at it without choking due to the graphics card failing (on video editing) or the system bus flooding (on multimedia).
Lots of other people will have similar experiences, and it will impact brand adoption over time.
Brian_M - January 22, 2012
At work we have an entire studio running OS X on Apple made hardware, usually running Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Cinema 4D and the regular mail etc apps.
We have occasional startup issues if someone has ignored their system updates for a couple of months, but all in all I’ve had a much better experience using modern OS X than I had during the years I used XP, then Vista and Now Windows 7 and a very low hardware failure.
Less crashes (I’ve had my share, but not nearly as many as with windows), no worries about viruses, and healthy running hardware.
Really if you’re doing Multimedia or Video processing you should be using a Mac Pro desktop or a Macbook Pro with a dual graphics card.
WolfC4ke - January 22, 2012
Also I can’t account for your experience with Apple hardware, but we have a dreaded laptop we call ‘Grandma’ that is still knocking around (one of the original Titanium Powerbooks) and it still boots and runs OS X no prob.
WolfC4ke - January 22, 2012
Customization is for people who know what they want, explicitly.
The vast majority of consumers are bettered by having a few very high quality options and not the vastness there is today.
descendency - January 22, 2012
My parents recently looked into buying a new PC. I tried to help them but I couldn’t wade through the hundreds of models on HP, Dell, and Lenovo’s sites. It was far too time consuming and simply not worth the effort. Trying to look at a Best Buy store was no easier. Dozens upon dozens of models of all different prices that look basically the same (usually big and ugly) with no discernible difference.
They got an iPad 2 and love it. Though they did have to choose between black or white.
-LD - January 20, 2012
Gonna suck if they want to do actual work and not just browse the internet or play angry birds.
kweazy - January 20, 2012
You do realise that a lot of people do in fact just want to browse the Internet and play Angry Birds, right?
mikey_clarke - January 20, 2012
Most non-techies with a computing device that I know basically just want that: Browse the web, read emails, play some games, try a few apps.
revlayle - January 20, 2012
How do they browse the web without text reflow in the browser?
sonicmerlin - January 21, 2012
Does the ipad not reflow text?
greatestNothing - January 21, 2012
I don’t think they care… esp. with tablets where it isn’t really an issue.
revlayle - January 21, 2012
They double tap to zoom. Or use the Safari Reader mode. Or download an alternative browser from the AppStore.
abugida - January 21, 2012
No alternative browser has text reflow. You can increase font size, but that destroys formatting for a lot of sites.
sonicmerlin - January 24, 2012
It doesn’t, but it doesn’t need to when double tap to zoom fits the text content to the width of the screen, rather than just randomly zooming in ;)
jclardy - January 21, 2012
But even then text can easily be too small. It’s a 10" screen. I certainly don’t have 20/20 vision, and I absolutely hate squinting.
sonicmerlin - January 24, 2012
You are just trying to be a contrarian for contrarian’s sake.
The iPad browser is actually pretty good for casual browsing. Tap to zoom or pinch to zoom… And text renders smoothly and fast.
lancelott - January 30, 2012
I can’t speak for -LD’s parents, but mine are retired. ‘Actual work’ is the last thing they want to do.
Topher Allan - January 20, 2012
But how do they read text on such a small screen when the iPad doesn’t even have text reflow in its browser?
sonicmerlin - January 21, 2012
You haven’t used an iPad have you? Other than fully Flash sites (or Flash adverts), I’ve never had a problem with a website reading text – it always formats perfectly. When it comes to browsing the web, the iPad is the first thing we use rather than a computer. Not fanboyism, just what it is.
Dobba Jenkins - January 21, 2012
Man, you are totally in love with text reflow.
Waltah - January 21, 2012
what is text reflow?
thehatisonfire - January 21, 2012
What the hell are you talking about?
tallrob - January 22, 2012
You really, do not need text reflow. It screws up layout, and is totally not required on iPad. The iPad zooms to the width of the site, done. Whilst its certainly not iPhone levels of DPI it’s still better than most computer displays (iPad is 136 PPI, a 22" 1920×1080 LCD is 100 PPI) and plus when you double tap it zooms in to that area of the web page. A lot of the time, the writing is larger on iPad than on a PC (unless you go ugly large fonts or zoom the browser) and it is always sharper and clearer. My parents definitely prefer reading websites on iPad to a conventional computer.
darwiniandude - January 22, 2012
Last time I checked: http://www.apple.com/ipad/from-the-app-store/business.html
lividcreature - January 20, 2012
Newsflash. I’m a physician, and I use my iPad 2 to show patients relevant anatomical 3D models to give them insight to their disease. I order their meds electronically from this lightweight instant on device. I run medical presentations of Keynote for iOS via a VGA adapter to a procector. I store my medical journals linked via dropbox in the wonderful app Papers. I’m also a new home buyer and I keep all of my remodeling and design references on the iPad for easy access with contractors or in a store.
And I also play angry birds and browse the internet, so you got me there.
My hospital payed for my 64GB 3G iPad. Wake up and realize companies are buying these things for a reason.
SiMBa37 - January 20, 2012
Will you be my doctor?
cobyrne - January 20, 2012
If you need a Rheumatology evaluation, and live in the state of NJ, you are welcome to come for an appointment!
SiMBa37 - January 20, 2012
What a joke…cos he uses an iPad?
ROFL?
damien_666 - January 22, 2012
I’m a physician too and I think tablets are over hyped particularly in the medical field. They are the toys of the moment and my older partners are asking for one (Ipad" of course"- the name-brand) without knowing what they will do with one. The points you make are real but you can more easily do everything you mentioned with a laptop. Yes you can run a presentation on Ipad but can edit or write one from scratch much more easily on a full laptop. Most of the serious EHRs don’t run on tablets and probably you wouldn’t want protected patient info to be so portable or so easily stolen as on a tablet. I’m sure half my partners would lose their tablets in a month if they relied on it for patient care. yes , new tech is cool and maybe patients will be impressed but it’s not automatically useful. Plus tablets are less secure with patient data than any recent laptop. I will say one thing about tablet is great- instant on technology. The thin clients that run in my hospital or office take several minutes to load citrix and leave me waiting. I bring in my tablet to surf and check email in between patients.
eid - January 20, 2012
Apple provides for remote-wiping of the device. http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/integration/
And, I do write and edit presentations on these devices. I’ve written several on iPad, and a few on iPhone.
I’m not sure how you can claim that iPad is less secure with patient data than any recent laptop. This depends on how data is stored on the laptop (database, encryption, network accessible?) and how it is stored on the iPad (database, plain text files, encrypted, local storage, not shared file access in iTunes, etc.) – there are too many variables for this claim to be true.
Ten years ago, you could have said the same thing – you wouldn’t want protected patient info to be so portable or so easily stolen as on a laptop, what you’d really need is a desktop and mainframe!
I’m sure the “serious” EHRs and EMRs will catch up with the rest of the world eventually.
vmarks - January 22, 2012
Why would you download patient data to a tablet or laptop? You should run everything server-side and access via Citrix or a browser interface. All that technology exists and works well today for EHRs, PACS viewers, and advanced clinical tools. And none of it is stored client-side. It should never be stored client-side. If you are doing that, you are introducing risk where there should be none.
-LD - January 24, 2012
But… But… How do you do all of that without text reflow?*
OgilvyTheAstronomer - January 21, 2012 via mobile
Seriously. It’s all about text reflow.
tallrob - January 22, 2012
Then as someone who works in healthcare IT, I encourage you give Apple crap for not fully supporting enterprise environments. I do hope you’re not putting patient data on your Dropbox account, and I hope you work WITH your IT department and don’t find “creative solutions” to get around the policies we all have to abide by.
I love Docs who embrace newer tech, but in my experience they tend to abuse their authority with such devices.
jefmes - January 21, 2012
Exactly my thought, as you can see below.
It’s cool and all, that he finally found a serious use for his iPad, but storing patient data anywhere outside the hospitals network would probably be enough reason to get fired.
XorpiZ - January 21, 2012
He needs a WebDAV share setup on their internal network. Or SFTP or whatever. Good reader can access all of those, in addition to Dropbox and dozens of other protocols.
darwiniandude - January 22, 2012
Soooo.. you’re storing confidential journals at Dropbox?
Soooo.. you’re storing confidential journals at Dropbox?I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.
XorpiZ - January 21, 2012
It is.
descendency - January 22, 2012
What you really need is an EMR app that stores on the hospital’s network…
vmarks - January 22, 2012
My parents are retired, it does more than they will need. They already love it. They write emails, surf, watch videos and look at pics of the grandkid, FaceTime, read books. What more do they need to do? They don’t need a truck (PC).
-LD - January 20, 2012
Your right, nobody can do photo editing, reports, presentations, charts, graphs, record music, listen to music, watch movies, use navigation apps, streaming services, take courses, read magazines and books, on an iPad.
Just Angry Birds and Internet. And no-flash, who can live like that?
RightiousToast - January 20, 2012
Actually 90% of what you just said it can’t do, it can. It’s always obvious when you’re talking to someone who’s not owned an iPad.
therealcaveman - January 21, 2012
Clearly it’s not always obvious when you’re talking to someone being sarcastic :)
Frobitz - January 22, 2012
“That’s the joke.”
descendency - January 22, 2012
It is true for the moment that iPad can’t do everything a laptop or desktop can but that is changing all the time. Also, people do work on iPad every day.
slightlyprofessional - January 20, 2012
Protip: All tablets are worse than a desktop/laptop for the same price.
kweazy - January 20, 2012
Protip: tablets frequently provider better experiences in their narrow use cases than desktops/laptops, if the narrow use cases encompass all specific needs for the consumer then it can provide a much better value proposition.
JPenguinCA - January 20, 2012
Nope. Nope nope nope.
Tablets can provide a dumbed down, streamlined experience. A “real” computer is now a preference, not a need.
ALL_OS - January 20, 2012
Tablets are fine for some content consumption. Reading and watching.
They’re suboptimal for listening and downright atrocious for content creation.
Brian_M - January 22, 2012
There are environments where they become supremely more convenient.
However, I’d recommend a Thinkpad X2xxT tablet (convertible). While it might be 4 times the price (in a properly configured model), it will deliver well over 4 times the usefulness. Bigger screen. Better battery, etc.
Plus, it’s way more IT friendly.
if your business isn’t very stiffly regulated (ie not a doctor, lawyer, etc), then an iPad is a very nice option though.
descendency - January 22, 2012
Very little is actually done by people on computers. I mean really, I could basically do everything but Office and sync (and file management) on an iPad. I just prefer the desktop. I can’t do enough at once on a mobile oriented device.
ALL_OS - January 20, 2012
None of my job can be done on an iPad (save e-mails to managers).
(I’m a programmer)
descendency - January 22, 2012
They certainly thought about it before…
Same thing if you buy a netbook, you can’t really work on it. In some cases you’re not even allowed to change your wallpaper.
Distribulle - January 21, 2012
so they went to buy a laptop and instead they bought an ipad2 why on hell wouldnt you stop tjem?
binglut9 - January 20, 2012 via mobile
Maybe because it suits their needs?
slackguy - January 20, 2012
Because it did everything they wanted, was cheaper, smaller, lighter, easier, longer battery, had FaceTime (they never could get Skype to work well), and just worked. And they were sick and tired of Windows but didn’t want to jump into OS X. And the learning curve was less than when they went from XP to 7.
It does everything they need and want and more. This is the first and only computer purchase they were actually happy about.
-LD - January 20, 2012
“Sick and tired of Windows”
This sounds like Apple fanboy love.
descendency - January 22, 2012
My parents are Apple fanboys? The same parents who I said refused to learn OS X?
-LD - January 24, 2012
I love when an Apple-hater’s head explodes.
Lordstrom - January 20, 2012
Because that’s best.
jaggedspike - January 20, 2012
Maybe he likes them. Maybe he wanted them to have a device that suits their needs rather than the preferences of a bunch of nerds they have never met.
OgilvyTheAstronomer - January 21, 2012 via mobile
I helped my grandpa buy a new PC. It was pretty easy. I told him to get this http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-1TB-PT.SGM02.002/16608489 or the $400 Acer desktop at wal-mart
J3R3MY_H - January 20, 2012
I don’t think you understand what’s being debated here. Or are you advertising for Wal*Mart? I don’t understand why you’ve posted this.
MacEnvy - January 20, 2012
After the frustration sets in, he’ll get sick of it and say ‘You can have it! I’ll get an iPad.’
‘Thanks Grampa!’ knowing full well you didn’t have to put your hand in your pocket -well executed plan.
Player_16 - January 20, 2012 via mobile
This story would be great if it didn’t start with “my parents looked into buying a PC.” Of course PC-shopping can be a bit daunting if you don’t need a PC.
In a similar vein, I recently looked into buying a hamburger and bought a salad.
VergeOC - January 20, 2012
But the iPad browser doesn’t have text reflow. It makes browsing a pain.
sonicmerlin - January 21, 2012
This is the third or fourth time I’ve seen you say this. What are you talking about “text reflow”? I’ve been using my iPad for almost 2 years, and I’ve never had a problem viewing text on the device. In fact I am also a web developer and still have no idea what you are talking about when you way “text reflow”. Whatever point you are trying to make, you are not doing a very good job.
jayfehr - January 21, 2012
I replied similar above and have no idea what he’s on about (I’m assuming he, a girl wouldn’t act like this).
Dobba Jenkins - January 21, 2012
He’s talking about how when you open a web page and it’s text is formatted wider than your current screen size, the browser intelligently “reflows” the text to fit your screen, enabling you to read without the need to scroll over and over again. Been in Android since…1.6 or 2.0 not sure, I know my G1 did it.
greatestNothing - January 21, 2012
I prefer how, if I double-tap on a block of text, iOS intelligently zooms to fit it on screen, without breaking the layout.
OgilvyTheAstronomer - January 21, 2012 via mobile
You make idiots look smart. Just sayin’. Been browsing websites on my iPad 2 now for decades (give or take) and I’ll say this – I’ve all but stopped using my beefed up gaming rig with a 27’’ HD+ display to browse the web. It’s so much more enjoyable on my iPad.
therealcaveman - January 21, 2012
OH MY GOD TEXT REFLOW!
tallrob - January 22, 2012
That’s what she said.
descendency - January 22, 2012
revlayle - January 22, 2012
LOL…this is like turning gay to avoid marrying a woman and paying for the costs of a family!
You should know what you want upfront – then you’re more likely to make a good choice, iPad/Mac/PC/Tablet/whatever
damien_666 - January 22, 2012
Laptops have the exact same problem. A PC manufacturer can have different configurations under one SKU. They don’t need an individual SKU for each processor/memory/HDD/ whatever.
It seems more and more like the constant product launches keep other brands from maintaining a slow and normal pace of iteration. When Samsung launches a new GS, HTC and MOTO want to have product launches at the same time (and vice versa).
TheDewd - January 20, 2012
There are thousands of configurations for Macs too, its just that Apple segments its devices according to TARGET MARKETS, not tech specs, etc…
Go back a few years, Apple had three different laptops, the standard Macbook, the Macbook Pro, and the Macbook air. The first one is the budget/consumer laptop, the next one for professionals, and the third one was for rich businesspeople who wanted the lightest laptop on the market (business trips, etc.).
Remind me again who is ‘left out’ of this triad of customers?
Gaming on a laptop? First of all, the premise is idiotic, and gamers wouldn’t be Mac users anyway.
You want a white/black Macbook Pro? Get Colorware if you’re so picky about color.
90% of people will fit into that triad, and those are the people Apple cares about. Forget about Outliers. They have bizarre taste, and have gotten used to paying up (custom/mod) for very specific requirements.
21tiger - January 20, 2012
Gaming Laptops are far from ridiculous, my HP Elitebook is the most capable gaming machine I have, with an i7, NVIDIA Quadro 2000M and 16gbs RAM it’ll run everything I’ve thrown at it on Ultra oh and it also serves its purpose of running my CAD and related softwares for engineering work.
Sapereaude - January 21, 2012
Bully for you. If you are after a gaming laptop, you aren’t Apple’s customer, and they are fine with that.
OgilvyTheAstronomer - January 21, 2012 via mobile
If he’s after gaming AT ALL he’s not an Apple target customer. Talk about getting raped for high-end GPU’s & components. Build a computer if you want to game.
therealcaveman - January 21, 2012
I was responding to “Gaming on a laptop? First of all, the premise is idiotic…” by indicating that it is more than possible to have laptops powerful enough for gaming and that the portable form factor of a laptop is desirable for some in a machine for gaming, not the fact that Apple doesn’t make gaming laptops.
Sapereaude - January 21, 2012
Gaming on a laptop? First of all, the premise is idiotic
Why is it idiotic?
If I’m buying a general-purpose laptop to use for all my needs, it better support a reasonable level of gaming — especially at the prices Apple charges.
If my $1,000 ASUS ROG deck outperforms my $2,000 Apple “pro-level” MacBook, then ASUS has outdesigned Apple where it counts — in the use case.
Brian_M - January 22, 2012
There is a difference between model, configuration, display size, Apple’s line up has one 1 per category that come in different screen sized and these in turn come in multiple configurations. This means users get a sensible choice. And even then, Apple’s line-up doesn’t seem to have enough configurations, mostly because they are fixed. I think a reduced line-up with multiple configurations and sizes is a better model to apply to all types of consumer electronics.
Juanscv - January 21, 2012
It’s not that there’s too many choices, there’s too many BAD choices. How many times has a non-technical person gone to a electronic store and come out with a laptop with an atom processor.
DeeeNYC - January 20, 2012
Exactly, by having a more managable product line up with clearly different value propsitions. People can easily pick what they want, people know an ipad is not a full computer and can only do the basics and they know that if they pick a macbook it can do a look more bar the nonwindows os. Apple has made it very clear in consumers mind of what their product can and can not do.
tekapo - January 20, 2012 via mobile
Oh. them….lol
I used to work retail and it became increasingly more difficult to explain to a mother of three why she needed dual-core processors, 1080p, keypads, 5-in-1 readers, extra ports, dedicated/discreet graphics.
When I’d ask them why they came into the store, and what they’d like to do when they leave, 80% of people simply responded: “Um…FaceBook?” At that exact point, I’d have to be honest and tell them that they could pick out a PC blindfolded and accomplish their mission, and Atom it is.
Or Celeron, ick.
backporchprophet - January 20, 2012
iPhone 4S might be evidence that Apple is just as guilty as HTC in iterating slowly…
patfactorx - January 21, 2012
Consumers want choice but are more likely to make a purchase when there is less to choose from.
evilapa - January 21, 2012
The source didn’t make it. Here it is.
evilapa - January 21, 2012
Yes.
cdawg92 - January 20, 2012 via mobile
In one word…NO.
There needs to be more choice. But there is no money in offering choice. In the case of cells phones in america, the carriers make the choices for you and unless you want to spend over $500 for a smartphone you have to get whats in a limited selection. The carriers choose the winners and losers for the most part not the people.
Ceveret3 - January 20, 2012
Have you ever shopped on the Dell or HP websites (for example)? It’s no wonder non geeks can’t figure out which laptop they should be buying and ask us nerds. Lots of very similar models at similar prices and it’s often pretty hard to figure out what is even different between any given two. I think there is such a thing as too much choice for most consumers.
darkcrayon - January 20, 2012
Thats why most non nerds and people that would never read this site shop at Best Buy and wal-mart. And read tech reviews on site like yahoo and cnet. I think HP knows the most of it sells are in retail and the site is for the nerds. If your want a limited selection you go to the store. If you want options to go online. this is not the case in Cell Phone tho.
Ceveret3 - January 20, 2012
Sure, so Apple’s online store gets no business other than from geeks then?
PopcornPenguin - January 20, 2012
Objection: Relevance
backporchprophet - January 20, 2012
To be honest, ;Z I never order directly from Hp, Samsung etc…never even went to their sites.
Parry - January 21, 2012
If you’re looking for a deal, don’t bother. If you’re super picky about whats in your laptop, check them out.
backporchprophet - January 21, 2012
Apple Doesn’t sell many different computers.. Hp and Dell sell way more choice then Apple.
Ceveret3 - February 5, 2012
I’ll agree with that, but the choice is necessary for those who DO want it. PC makers should have two separate sites for buying a PC: One site for those who want pure customization, and another that features five featured laptops with specific features that makes it easy for the plain consumer. Don’t know why that’s not been done…
lividcreature - January 20, 2012
They do. Most sites have the most popular pre-configured machines. And then the all the options you can add. Then they have all the machines at Best Buy they sell the most of. Simple
Ceveret3 - January 20, 2012
Microsoft have Windows Signature, where they pick the best PCs and laptops.
One big advantage of signature is you get a clean Windows 7 install.
The bad things are:
- You don’t get the best discounts and deals
- Hardly anyone seems to know about it + US only
aThingOrTwo - January 21, 2012
I disagree, I’ve bought from those websites or looked at them (also, many other OEM websites). Asus is horrible (even though their computers are the best), but most websites have a fairly straight forward navigation and setup. Most of the variations have to do with customizing specific parts for a model. There’s always a clear division between business and consumer laptops, and then there are a few lines in each (Dell for example has a low end laptop line, mid range laptop line, and high end laptop line). Then, you just get a choice of screen size. It’s not that complicated and offers so much needed choice considering that “one size fits all” simply does not reflect reality.
Again, some OEM’s have horrible organization or clutter, like Asus or Sony.
In any case, Ceveret3 is right. Most people go to Best Buy or Staples or Radioshack or Walmart to buy computers, so it’s really not as big of a deal.
Do I think that OEM’s should simplify their product lines a bit (in both computers and phones)? Yes.
Do I think it’s as terrible as some people make it out to be? Not at all.
notoriousyid - January 20, 2012
Toshiba and Acer are terrible too. The websites make it hard to find anything. Even what they’re advertising. They should all just make iPad apps in HTTP5
ALL_OS - January 20, 2012
Amazon.com makes me want to claw my eyes out.
sonicmerlin - January 21, 2012
Agree to some extent but with them I think it’s less a matter of bad design and more a carefully thought out way to make you buy more stuff.
Sapereaude - January 21, 2012
Too much choice = consumer paralyzation.
Simple example:
1) Go to the grocery store
2) Go to aisle with peanut butter
3) Pick one
Unless you KNOW you want Creamy JIF (an example), regardless of the price, people who are not brand loyal see:
1) Peter Pan, JIF, Resses, one or two regional brands and a generic store brand
2) For each type you are going to probably have creamy and crunchy… maybe more
3) Consumer sees 12-14 different peanut butter types/brands – many will freeze or pause for longer than normal, someone may call their spouse and ask “which one do i get?”
(This is a reason why places like Trader Joes or Aldi work well here: 1) enter store 2) find peanut butter 3) store brand, simply choose crunchy or creamy 4) done)
While this is not technology… take the peanut butter example and take someone to the Best Buy. Show them the 20-30 different laptops for 4-5 brands scattered throughout the store. then know that the consumer probably knows WAY WAY less about these computers than peanut butter… consumer is paralyzed for a LOT longer, and may need significant help on picking one.
revlayle - January 20, 2012
and for most people, they dont have the time, energy or desire to figure out what is the best for them. So they either pick randomly or take the advice of the idiotic sales clerk, then end up with a terrible user experience.
tekapo - January 20, 2012 via mobile
With infinite possibilities, comes an infinite learning curve. This applies to just about everything, but it’s a convenient philosophy in this debate, too.
backporchprophet - January 20, 2012
I think Best Buy actually likes that in a way. At that point, the associate sees the paralyzed customer, offers assistance, picks a laptop for them, and then is able to sell additional money making accessories/plans to the customer. From a business perspective, it has some merit.
WhiteNiteLite - January 21, 2012
That and it provides them, perhaps, a bigger chance too sell Geek Squad services to those very customers.
revlayle - January 21, 2012
And now they’re staring down the barrel of the bankruptcy gun.
backporchprophet - January 21, 2012
I like your example, ultimately I think its the consumer that is to blame if you are planning to spend 500-1000 on a computer you should know what you need it for and what is the best fit for you. Dont go to the store and not know what you are going to spend 1000 bucks on.
If we sit around and dumb every thing down then the price of it will be innovation . Apple has been extremely successful but I think their business model only work because there is HP, Samsung, Dell, ect…
Fonzo - January 21, 2012
You don’t need a complicated product range for innovation to take place. There’s nothing innovative about most PCs.
RichyM - January 21, 2012
Reminds me of this
Champino - January 22, 2012
To put it simply; “We don’t need more choice, we need quality!”
-Absolutely Fabulous.
Player_16 - January 20, 2012 via mobile
Specifically what are you NOT getting from a Consumer Mac vs Pro Mac? Be specific! FFS you can run any OS on Earth on the damn things. You want SD card slots and shit, just pay a few bucks for a dongle/adapter, etc.
21tiger - January 20, 2012
Proper video cards come to mind. Even Pro Macs require an optional video card to deliver decent performance.
And before you repeat the “Apple isn’t for gamers” line, let me point out that prior generation Mac computers had proper video cards before being “decontented” to Intel integrated graphics. Apple’s removed value while keeping prices the same, and many users don’t realize it until they try an hour-long game of Civilization V or Dragon Age II (both available from online Mac app stores) only to discover it runs poorly or doesn’t run at all on their $1,500 machine.
Brian_M - January 22, 2012
I don’t mind if there are a lot of choices. I just want them to be actual choices, not just the same thing with a different name.
ahitchen - January 20, 2012
Seconded. Choice is good. But, are companies like Samsung really offering much in the way of choice? Or are they just rebranding and rehashing the same designs and feature sets over and over again for their 30 different Galaxy branded devices?
I’m not accusing Samsung of not innovating. They certainly do that. But, instead of sticking with a streamlined portfolio of well differentiated devices, they just barf out a mess of poorly differentiated products.
I’ll give it a try:
- Regular Galaxy phone.
- Regular Galaxy phone + a slide out keyboard.
- Smaller version of the same thing.
- Smaller version + slide-out keyboard.
Tailor each phone for either Android or WP7. Give each phone a hybrid GSM/CDMA chipset. Release new versions once every 12-18 months. Keep selling the old versions for an extra year as lower budget versions. And with that, their product portfolio has been reduced from over 100 devices per year to 8.
floobie - January 20, 2012
It’s basically a Morton’s Fork that we have. Lots of apparent choices which, in the end, really lead to the same thing.
Lomifeh - January 20, 2012
see: Sony Ericsson/Sony
last year:
Xperia Arc/Arc S
Xperia Neo/Neo V
Xperia Ray
Xperia Mini
Xperia Mini Pro
and now Xperia S/Ion
And that’s all
JimRamK - January 20, 2012
forgot the Xperia Pro and Xperia Play
but overall, they’ve done much better than the rest of the Android crowd
JimRamK - January 20, 2012
So if Sony’s approach is preferable to Samsung’s, why was Samsung’s Q4 a killer blow-out record-breaker of a quarter, while SonyEricsson’s was a disaster?
Brian_M - January 22, 2012
Totally agreed. I’ve been really impressed with Sony’s phones lately. I love their Android skin and their hardware designs are definitely the most unique. And, indeed, they have a nice, concise portfolio. There are a few redundancies here and there, but compared to basically every other Android manufacturer out there, they’ve done a great job.
floobie - January 21, 2012
Congratulations, you’ve just saved them millions.
greatestNothing - January 21, 2012
Millions of sales? ;-)
Distribulle - January 21, 2012
After reading this article, the first question that occurs to me is “Wasn’t Gizmodo banned for life from CES?”
Paten1 - January 20, 2012
CES? I thought it was from Apple Events…
Kiso - January 20, 2012
They were banned because they pulled a prank which messed with alot of people’s Keynotes
kalikot - January 20, 2012
No. Only Richard Blakeley, the video editor, was banned: http://gawker.com/344064/gawker-staffer-banned-from-ces-additional-sanctions—under-discussion
Felipe Ventura - January 20, 2012
Come on you can’t say you’ve never seen the massive amount of TV there and been tempted to use a TV Be Gone, although doing at an event is a little off. I can just imagine the LG Booth going dark all at once… Also I just had a brilliant idea, it involves an AR Drone, several high power infrared LEDs an Arduino, and the IRremote library. CES 2013 (and never again afterward) here I come…
Sapereaude - January 21, 2012
No!
People are the target of these businesses and one thing they must understand is that people are unique, variety is something they must provide if they want to succeed.
_Alpha_Bravo - January 20, 2012
If you use Apple’s example, you’d see the opposite.. They used to have a very large bewildering product line, now it’s the most simplified of any major manufacturer. Yet they’re having more “success” these days than many of their competitors with expansive numbers of offerings.
darkcrayon - January 20, 2012
That’s called marketing and mindshare. They spent years trying to embed the idea of viruses on Windows-based computers. I cannot watch any channel without one commercial every 30 minutes being about an Apple product. Watch a football game every or every other commercial break is an iphone/ipad commercial. Fact is marketing works.
Being forced to purchase a Macbook Pro for a new employee that was being relocated to Honduras to run a program and do video work for advocacy, I had no problem getting a mac since he knew imovie and final cut pro. If they used Adobe Premiere, this wouldn’t have been a discussion. I spent almost a month straight with the laptop trying to get things working with our infrastructure and installing programs and becoming familiar with the OS. We use things like Exchange/Sharepoint/Project/Lync and the rest is web-based.
OSX does have its strong points, I was able to upgrade the HDD with a SATA→USB adapter and a program like super dooper! and have a bootable clone within an hour. Also I like how zip/rar/iso/dmg files auto mount. I did like the streamlined installing at first but when I went further with things like Office 2011 and Adobe CS5.5 it became annoying and I would have preferred Windows installer. Also the function key being the far left of the keyboard is stupid and using command+c/v/x is uncomfortable as well and windows ctrl commands are much more natural.
Compared to XP the experience is great but it is a mess compared to Windows 7. To be able to press the windows logo and start typing whether searching a file or program is much better than trying to access spotlight to be able to search. Keyboard shortcuts are much more natural with the windows key commands. Accessing a network share is much more effort on OSX compared to being in any folder and just typing \server\ The colors of files and folders are horrible on OSX and makes it hard to find things easily and distinguish between things.
OSX great for audio/video people, good for non-business users, Garbage for corporate users. Fact Josh said Windows is poison shows how out of touch he is with reality today on this issue. If you had average users of both platforms with a stock load of Win 7 and Lion the speed to do common tasks would not even be a close competition.
jas0nmack - January 20, 2012
I think familiarity plays a big part with keyboard shortcuts.
I find CTRL + C/V/X harder, because the both command keys on a Macintosh sit either side of the space bar and thus are under my thumbs when typing.
Whereas to access CTRL I have to move my thumb underneath my palms, or reposition my hands entirely in order to hit the CTRL keys.
The positing of the CTRL and FN is the same on Lenovo Thinkpad keyboards as well – so it’s not just a Mac thing.
Using both systems on a daily basis (but having used the Mac since) I don’t see Windows has a big advantage in keyboards shortcuts. Plus Mac OS X has a standard system wide method of customising the keyboard shortcuts for almost any application, whereas Windows doesn’t.
Command + space for spotlight is a convent. It even does maths, dictionary definitions and remembers what you last typed. Whereas Windows search does none of the above.
I agree with you that Windows will always have the edge with Microsoft technologies like Exchange/Sharepoint/Project/Lync and that’s how it will remain. But the Mac offers some Exchange support out the box (without requiring the purchase of Outlook – not that this is a concern for most corporate users).
aThingOrTwo - January 21, 2012
First and foremost, I think it’s quality of product and good customer experience, and not so much “marketing and mindshare”. Not that Macs outsell the entire PC industry as a whole, not even close. But as an individual manufacturer (and not an OS) they are successful compared to most of their PC competitors. Having a smaller product line keeps their costs down for obvious reasons.
Absolutely no idea what you’re talking about here. How are the Windows and Mac OS X Adobe CS 5.5 installers even different? The only thing I can think of is the Windows versions (at least it did on cs4) insisted on decompressing a huge self extracting installer to the desktop first whereas the mac ones just run happily from the disk image. And office? You just double click the installer and hit next a few times. You can’t just say “it became annoying” as an actual point. Ok, Windows 7 gets really annoying to me and I don’t like it. That’s a point? :)
I work for a corporation and no one seems to think their macs are “garbage”, in fact the trend is toward people switching from windows only laptops. I find that usually IT types find 1 or 2 pet features their particular company uses, that Mac OS X doesn’t support or support well, thus they call the whole platform “garbage” for business. Instead of saying something more rational like “It lacks some features we require at my company”… Spare us the hyperbole ;)
darkcrayon - January 21, 2012
How about slimming down the product line while letting the products be configurable? Wouldn’t that solve everything? Look at Apple’s Macs!
lap.felix - January 20, 2012
That doesn’t work with consumer electronics though.
dagamer34 - January 20, 2012
Macs are not consumer electronics now? Last time I checked consumers are buying Macs in masse, with 33% growth year-over-year, and 20% market share in the US.
Renverse - January 20, 2012
I agree we need more options to custom-configure even things like smartphones. I think that will come.
Joshua Topolsky - January 20, 2012
How cool would it be to simply swap out the internal components (CPU/GPU) of our smartphones?
Essex - January 20, 2012
YES! Xperia S, but with cheaper internals and WP7.5 so that it isn’t $500+ (unlocked) for a phone that will quickly become irrelevant? WANT.
ALL_OS - January 20, 2012
Please, no. Stop!
Don’t even go there!
lancelott - January 30, 2012
People are unique. Thank god for Software which is EXTREMELY customizable.
The point is arguing over HARDWARE LINES.
You can give somone a 15" laptop and they can do whatever they want on it, software wize. Sorry, this is such a weak argument.
PS. A huge chunk of the PC market, Microsoft’s bread and butter, is the ENTERPRISE market, where, as it turns out, people are NOT unique. These are big banks, big companies, accounting firms, department stores, whatever. They don’t buy Windows because it’s unique (there’s absolutely nothing unique about what they intend to do with those computers) they buy it because it’s cheap and offers hardware from different vendors (which allows for bidding wars, driving contract prices down).
If your argument is that people are unique, a dumb Dell tower loaded up with crapware and security software that lasts 30 days is not the first thing that springs to mind.
21tiger - January 20, 2012
Honestly. I wouldn’t mind if there was 1 or 2 options for all electronics, that were just updated yearly…Buying accessories would be wonderful seeing as everything would just work together. Trouble shooting would be simple. Thats the world I wish for
ijcal - January 20, 2012
The lookalikes are a problem, but there’s still room for improvement. Vast improvement. Even on the hardware side. Howcome all tablets hav shitty cameras for example? Much worse than the phones. And why aren’t there any Android devices with a Xenon flash. This is just one area to improve. I find that a device such as Samsung’s Note really stands out, and does get limelight and coverage in the media. It gets noticed. Sony has started som inventive practice with Sony S and P tablets.
This brings me to the role of journalists and bloggers, magazines and sites. They have a really crucial role to fulfil. Superficial accounts have no place. We need in depth reviews to make an informed choice. That is how to help customers. I don’t think I’m tired of innovation, nor of variety, but it takes time to sift through the uncritical bull being bandied about. How else can half baked totally shitty product be release, such as the original Sony Live View to just take one example. It was brought forward by journo’s as if the product actually did what it was supposed to, without critical review.
Furthermore, I get a feeling device manufacturers hold specs back, or slowly feed them in, simply because there’s more money to be made by creating a ‘new and improved’ gen II device. It also gets media coverage and shelf space.
Gadgety - January 20, 2012
I honestly think cameras on tablets are stupid (outside of FaceTime / Skype). A long thin device introduces more sudden shakes / movements to a photo than any other form factor.
creativereason - January 21, 2012 via mobile
BTW, I wouldn’t mind an edit function on the Verge, as I see a few spellos in my post.
Gadgety - January 20, 2012
HTC certainly need to.
Jameseh - January 20, 2012
Too much choice causes anxiety for the purchaser. Differentiation of the choices into intelligently aligned brackets would make for an overall better consumer experience, and support scenarios for those devices would hopefully improve the end user experience.
Of course the flip side of this could be the vertical up sell that Apple seems to have mastered. Oh wait you want the good video card in your MacBook Air, you’ll need to get the 13 inch screen with that and 2GB more of RAM with the core i5 or i7.
chesterharry - January 20, 2012
At the very least, decide on a flagship product. Samsung did it with the Galaxy S line. If you buy a Motorola or HTC handset, you’ll get buyers’ remorse in three months.
tranceformer978 - January 20, 2012
Now did they? So if I want to buy the best Samsung smartphone right this moment – which one would that be?
aperley - January 20, 2012
Samsung Galaxy S II. Or if you are on Verizon, the Galaxy Nexus.
dagamer34 - January 20, 2012
You have to admit it’s kind of funny that aperley asked, “Which one?” and you answered with two.
That’s funny…and the exact problem being discussed.
Vendrazi - January 21, 2012
The Galaxy S II is clearly king of the hill until the S III replaces it for Samsung. It’s going to be their yearly product cycle with the other variants being the mid-low tier
The Note is another option, but that’s a niche product and isnt their “flagship”
kalikot - January 20, 2012
And how many versions of “Galaxy S II” are there? Doesn’t each carrier have a few of their own versions of “Galaxy S II” under some ridiculous names? How do those stack? Which one is the best? Isn’t Galaxy Nexus a version of Galaxy S II as well? Isn’t the Note one of the bazillion versions of Galaxy S II, this time with an oversized screen and a stylus?
Talk about a clearly defined flagship product…
aperley - January 20, 2012
It’s pretty simple. Each carrier has a Galaxy S2 except Verizon I don’t know where you’re getting each carrier has multiple versions that’s just not true. Verizon has a Galaxy Nexus which is a different product line.
The names are only as they are because carriers want to differentiate that isn’t Samsung’s fault.
You don’t have to worry about which is best because you can only be on one carrier at a time. If you have the luxury of choosing just choose which carrier works and get the S2.
The Note is not their flagship it’s if you want something bigger.
It is a lot simpler than you make it out to be.
Nymbus - January 20, 2012
AT&T carries the Galaxy S II, the GSII Skyrocket (LTE version) and will soon have the GSII Skyrocket HD.
ant1pathy - January 20, 2012
Yes, every carrier has their own version of the Galaxy S II. They may call it a different name and modify it, but it’s still a Galaxy S II. You buy it knowing that the Galaxy S III won’t be coming out for another year.
The Galaxy Nexus isn’t a version of the Galaxy S, it was designed in conjunction with Google for the Nexus Series (I’ll also consider the Nexus line Google’s flagship series). I think the reason why dagamer34 mentioned it is because it’s not available on Verizon and the next closest thing is the Galaxy Nexus.
As for the Note, I agree with kalikot that it is very niche. It’s not a product for everyone.
Flagship products can be re-released in different colors and configurations to boost sales.
tranceformer978 - January 20, 2012
Droid and Amaze aren’t flagships?
ALL_OS - January 20, 2012
not when there was less than a 6 month gap between the Droid 3 and Droid 4 being announced.
greatestNothing - January 21, 2012
I’m actually okay with this. For retail purposes, you don’t need to make almost everything customizable. Just have 3, low end, mid end, and high end. If people want truly tricked out computers, let them go to the company websites.
Kirielson - January 20, 2012
‘NPD is “seeing consumers shift their electronics spending to new, more versatile and more mobile products such as tables and smartphones.”’
I have found that versatile and mobile tables are usually too small for me, because you can hardly fit a single meal on them. And I think most consumers agree.
Anyhoo: Many offerings means fierce competition, and that is always good for the consumer. I also think that for the interested consumer, the offerings are still fairly transparent. In my opinion, the computer market (x86) has not developed significantly in many years in terms of fulfilling the consumers needs (meaning that a 5 year old computer can still handle the needs of far more than 90% of consumers today). Because of the competition in the space, however, technological innovation has put up performance still, and drove prices down. If that’s not nice, what is?
msl86 - January 20, 2012
What competition? WTH are you talking about? Smartphones still cost $600+ retail, even though their BoM is $200. You can’t walk into a Best Buy, buy a phone and use it with any carrier. And if you bring your own phone you won’t get a discount on the monthly price. You pay the same “subsidized” price, which is essentially usury and in a sane world would be illegal.
sonicmerlin - January 21, 2012
As Josh says in the article, the problem is not just that there are too many gadgets, but that there is not enough variety. You can argue that choice is good for the customer, but quantity is not choice. Variety is choice. The sheer quantity of products all these companies are producing is actually holding them back from offering differentiated products. They have to work so hard and so fast to make 5 laptops / phones / whatever that are all basically the same, that they use up all the resources which are required to do real research, development and design.
So who’s to blame? In the phone market it seems, based on Sanjay Jha’s comments which Josh alluded to, that the carriers must take some of the blame, forcing manufacturers to produce many SKUs with minor, useless diffentiation. But what about other markets? I think it’s an important question but I don’t know the answer. I don’t want to get too broad but I believe it is a large societal issue based on both an obsession in corporations with “measurable” returns (return on investment in shorter product development cycles based on incremental improvements is easier to predict than a long R&D and design process) and a consumer mindset which value’s newness over quality.
cobyrne - January 20, 2012
Really good points — and that’s right. Carriers absolutely play a part. Another thing to consider is that we’ve simply been going through an explosion in tech. That will settle a bit, and manufacturers will have to show they’re adding real value and making significant updates, rather than just slapping a different casing on or swapping out the CPU for an incremental .2GHz bump.
Joshua Topolsky - January 20, 2012
I don’t hold out much hope, and to be honest I don’t care all that much. I look at refrigerators. A mature market. A commodity. Everyone has one and uses it daily. And there are thousands of choices. Same with TVs, PCs, and cars. It just seems to be where the equilibrium lies in a modern capitalist consumerist system. The only difference with smartphones is that for now they are new enough and exciting enough for tech journalists to attempt to review them all in all their minor variations. I don’t see that situation holding for much longer.
I watched the super session and didn’t really get the impression the concept of fewer SKUs had much traction with the OEM representatives. You pushed them to talk about the downsides of SKU proliferation and they reluctantly did so. OK after some leading questioning the HTC guy said "it’s a goal for us". But it seemed like one among several mutually incompatible goals, and I got the impression it was a low priority one.
Where I was cheering for you though was when you suggested fewer models might mean they could support their phones better and provide faster updates. I’ve got a Galaxy Nexus now cos I think it’s got the best chance of staying up to date with its OS. If HTC released a hundred smartphone models per quarter and supported them all with prompt OS updates I would probably buy one. So what if there was loads of choice? – I would narrow it down and choose the best one for me. If on the other hand they reduced their output to phone a year but didn’t improve their update track record then I would still steer clear.
Oh, and your comment near the end about expecting them to ruin ICS was brilliant. Hehe. With ICS as good as it is skinning is now lose-lose. Worse experience. Fewer and later OS updates.
YellingMelon - January 20, 2012
No the problem is there’s no selection process- there’s no real competition. Prices of phones on retail are all still $600+. Margins on these phones are still 100%+. It’s insane. Carriers force you to pay the same “subsidized” monthly fee even if you buy your phone outright. That’s technically usury.
The 3G Vita costs $300 (and a recent report found it costs a measly $160 to make). Where are the quad-core smartphones that cost $200-$250 at retail? The Dell of the smartphone industry that willingly sells devices at cutthroat margins? There’s none, because the industry is massively collusive and utterly broken.
sonicmerlin - January 21, 2012
No it’s absolutely nothing to do with usury.
usury |ˈjuːʒ(ə)ri|
noun [ mass noun ]
the action or practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest.
• archaic interest at unreasonably high rates.
Cloudgazer - January 21, 2012
tupz - January 20, 2012
amazingMic - January 20, 2012
While they need to expand their options a little, I think Apple has it right: release one major revision of your product every year. Customers are safe in the knowledge that it is better in all regards.
This in contrast to other manufacturers, who release several devices with different configurations that usually result in some kind of trade-off… e.g. this one has a physical keyboard, but the camera is 5 Megapixel instead of 8 Megapixel.
As others have pointed out, it has also helped Apple be more profitable. It’s more cost effective to produce and market fewer products with fewer different configurations – they benefit from economies of scale that no-one else seems to.
FaustsHausUK - January 20, 2012
It’s too much choice combined with very Marketing. OEMs build 6 variants of the same phone with different names and are surprised when it doesn’t sell that well. For example, the LG Nitro (AT&T) and Spectrum (Verizon) are literally the same phone for all intents and purposes, and yet they have different names. Why?
Or even worse, the Droid RAZR Maxx comes out 6 weeks after the original Droid RAZR. Or the Skyrocket HD 6 weeks after the Skyrocket which was 4 weeks after the AT&T Galaxy S II. And companies why people just buy the iPhone; it won’t get replace for a year! (and that matters because if an Android phone’s been replaced, it’s less likely to get updates).
It’s all madness.
dagamer34 - January 20, 2012 via mobile
It’s a mess in the enterprise too. I can’t buy the same device for an employee who started 3 months after another.
BrianG - January 20, 2012
Yeah and in the end they tend to suck. Thats why I keep my next phones choices to the newest Nexus or iPhone then I know I’m getting a good phone.
jdog25 - January 20, 2012
They should make less models and focus on making those work better. We will still have a lot of choice because everyone one of these guys will be doing this. They should have a few Ultrabooks and Laptops in different sizes that come out once a year, like what Apple does. I have been buying a $1000 to $1500 laptops every year for the last 6 years, mostly either a Sony or HP made model but I decided to buy a MacBook Pro and I am not going back to a Windows PC. Its not Windows that bothers me, it is the build quality of the laptops, I still use Windows 7 everyday along with OSX. If they make less models then hopefully they will be built better so that they prices matches with the build, I paid less and got a better laptop by going with the MacBook.
jdog25 - January 20, 2012
One of the points Steve Jobs made about having too many products is that you can’t put the “A” team on every product.
Taking the best engineers and designers giving them time to put their best thoughts and ideas into a single product will almost always result in a better, more refined product.
Anything else is a compromise.
aThingOrTwo - January 21, 2012
I think the big offenders on this front, in terms of tech people actually care about versus the random electronic tchotchkes that litter the floor of CES, are phone manufacturers. The level of turnaround between devices is getting to the point where it’s actively ticking people off – not just techies, but average consumers too. And the priorities some of the phone makers have are clearly out of touch with what the general public wants or needs. The Droid RAZR MAXX seems like an outright lemon fix, one that could’ve been avoided in the first place if they’d just made the phone with a freaking upgradeable battery. And the Droid 4 is basically what I, and probably many other Droid or Droid 2 owners expected the Droid 3 to be… except with a non-removable battery that’s smaller than the extended battery on the Droid 2 for a hardware package that’s more power-demanding and taps into the battery-sucking LTE network!
It’s getting to the point where some of these manufacturers (yes, I’m looking at you, Motorola) need to Apple up and offer people partial refunds or the chance to upgrade at no cost.
Principia - January 20, 2012
I totally agree with this. I feel Motorola could have really handled their Droid and Razr brands better. There’s no reason the Razr Maxx should exist if they’re pushing the Razr as the latest and greatest thing.
MrHaroHaro - January 20, 2012
Blackberry is another great example. 9350/9360/9370 are all almost identical. this chaos is what eventually drove me to apple as i was tired of the barrage of marginally different POS’s.
Cplush - January 20, 2012
But the iPhone lacks text reflow so it’s useless for browsing.
sonicmerlin - January 21, 2012
How many times do you have to make yourself look a fool?
Dobba Jenkins - January 21, 2012
At this point it looks like performance art.
Vendrazi - January 21, 2012
“…products such as tables and smartphones.”
Yay tables! /s
2003aaa - January 20, 2012 via mobile
But it says they’re mobile tables!
achoj - January 20, 2012
I guess Microsoft Surface is already mainstream!
WhiteNiteLite - January 21, 2012
Barry Schwartz wrote an interesting book on this very issue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice:_Why_More_Is_Less
He was invited to TED to present his ideas, and the talk has been viewed almost 2 million times:
http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html
The most important thing is that we have this discussion in the first place. From a practical and philosophical point of view it will only become more important and relevant as the years go by.
Michael Shane - January 20, 2012
Deeply insightful and I would strongly recommend at a least watching that video.
“I want the kind (of jeans) that used to be only kind!”
aThingOrTwo - January 21, 2012
I believe their greatest concern should be e-waste and what happens to all those phones people upgrade. e-waste handlers are becoming the new barons of the 21st Century.
Badlands75 - January 20, 2012
Shhh! Don’t mention e-waste! Nothing to see here folks. Move along…
Essex - January 20, 2012
I agree, it is massively worrying.
The only two possibly positive things is:
1 If manufacturers focus on building fewer products, but building each one better, then those products may last longer.
2 If software becomes the main differentiator, hardware may be able to last longer
aThingOrTwo - January 21, 2012
It depends I guess. Most Android phones are superfluous but I would love to be able to buy a 15" MBP with a dual-core processor and without dedicated graphics for $300 less.
Dell used to have really thorough customization options inside of a single model range. That was a nice compromise…
transistor - January 20, 2012
Consumer choice is a fallacy when the majority of the products are garbage, and when that choice is predicated on minor differentiation.
I’m not saying consumers shouldn’t get any choice, but deciding between 20+ Android handsets is a dumb, and not good for consumers. This is one aspect where, like them or not, Apple is doing things right. It goes back to Steve Jobs’ refocusing of the company in 1997:
DESKTOP | LAPTOP
PRO
CONSUMER
I’m pleased to hear that a lot of these companies are conscious of this problem and do want to address it.
ryhei - January 20, 2012
My formatting on what was supposed to be like a table totally fucked up.
ryhei - January 20, 2012
Who has to decide between 20+ Handsets? Your carrier of choice will only have a handful to offer.
J3R3MY_H - January 20, 2012
AT&T currently offers 19 different Android handsets, not including refurbished online offers.
Handful?
How big are your hands?
ryhei - January 20, 2012
I just checked the site and you did include the refurbished online offers. I counted 12, but either way I could hold 19 phones at one time.
I dont see how Apple has it right when your choices are a brick, a brick, a brick, or a brick. If you wnat a keyboard then your choices are much smaller or if you want the big screen your choices much smaller.
J3R3MY_H - January 20, 2012
I looked again. I counted 18. Doubled up one.
Okay, so now you’re bringing personal preference into it by calling the iPhone a brick. That’s just lazy. People love the iPhone. Deal with it. That’s not the point.
The point is you can go into an Apple store and get the iPhone perfect for you based on cost and storage. That’s it. If you want an iPhone, the decision is ultimately easy. If you want an Android phone (especially if you aren’t a gadget nerd) the choice is difficult and ending up with what could be a complete turd of a phone is huge. You are also looking at dummy units at a carrier store, which is, let’s face it, not a great shopping experience.
Again, consumer choice is a fallacy in a market of a me-toos, having to be bought in a bad shopping experience.
ryhei - January 20, 2012
By brick i meant the hardware design. They are all the same
J3R3MY_H - January 20, 2012
Actually, until they release an iPhone with a hardware keyboard and/or faster than 3g connectivity, no, I can’t.
greatestNothing - January 21, 2012
Take in the whole post next time.
ryhei - January 21, 2012
you have… large hands?
revlayle - January 22, 2012
The problem seems very specific to Android with new flagships being released every five minutes. Not only is it frustrating to see your halo device being usurped so soon, but each iteration also brings with it the knowledge that your handset is sinking further down the priority list for updates.
I’m not saying Apple’s model is perfect for everyone but having any sort of strategy in terms of product line up would be good. E.g. small, medium and large devices, with and without keyboards. This would at least make it easier for consumers to determine which device is right for them, as opposed to struggling to identify the difference between a Desire S and a Rhyme.
Personally it isn’t an issue because I only need one device a year and its called the Nexus.
But it must also make sense to OEMs on some level. It surely must be cheaper to produce a great number of fewer devices then a smaller number of many. Imagine the economies of scale Apple reach on the iPhone 4S compared to a Droid Bionic.
ravipatel - January 20, 2012 via mobile
There’s a general growing sentiment within the product development cycle, especially in Western companies, that too much choice can both weaken a brand and cause havoc for already-strapped design teams. Quantity vs quality is something that has plagued the automotive industry, for instance.
The simple fact, though, is that it actually consumers longer to make a choice when so many are available, and they end up being less happy with their final choices, second-guessing what else they could have purchased.
Example: A typical Baskin-Robbins has 48 flavors of ice cream on hand, 16 of which are described as “chocolate with nuts” combinations. Now, do you want chocolate with peanuts, or pecans, or macadamias? How about with or without marshmallows in it? Or fudge and chocolate chips? And most importantly, will it taste good? It becomes confusing.
I don’t think we need to advocate for vanilla ice cream across the board, but having clear differentiation between the flavors (products) serves well.
But don’t get me started with butterscoth. That sh!t will make everything taste good.
kewlrats - January 20, 2012
Great article Josh. Definitely something that has crossed my mind from time to time, so it’s nice to see a well-written report on this topic.
ekolibas - January 20, 2012 via mobile
It’s inconvenient, but not really a problem.
Darren Gilleland - January 20, 2012
The line between offering innovative products to consumers and merely offering the guise of innovation to consumers in order to exploit them/extract their money is quite blurry.
I think we’ve reached it in the gadget space. These companies (particularly the Asian handset makers) aren’t innovating, they’re just pushing units to try and trick consumers into upgrades that aren’t necessary.
But I don’t think government action or anything like that is necessary. Where we’re at in 2012 is similar to where we were at in say, 1984. The IBM PC was not yet the supreme standard; it was competing against Commodore, Apple, TI, Amiga, and other computer platforms. The pace of innovation was quite quick in those days (from green screen to color to speech, sound, gaming, storage etc) but it was a dangerous and expensive market for consumers.
Eventually the market settled on a few standards- Mac & PC for home, Unix/Windows for business.
I think we’re beginning to see the same thing happening in mobile. iDevices are the PC of the mobile world, everyone else is competing for second and third place. But the pace of handset releases in 2010-2011 is unsustainable and won’t continue.
Jeff Wilson - January 20, 2012
About a year ago I was helping my cousin pick out a netbook and the same problem plagued that market at the time. There were dozens of models to chose from with virtually no differentiation between them. After a couple weeks of trying to wade through the different specs, she just finally chose to go with the one that Amazon had marked down a bit on the day she went to order, not one that a manufacturer had managed to make stand out through superior specs. The average cellphone buyer probably goes about buying a phone in a similar way.
albooher - January 20, 2012
Unless the reduction in proliferation is accompanied by an increase of quality I doubt that reduction alone will solve much.
crichton007 - January 20, 2012
I will take mobile to explain -
Before 2010 (android take over starts) : Still in US, it was not so easy for Samsung, LG, HTC, etc to come to market with same device with minor mechanics and cosmetic changes to make operator specific phones. Also operators started requesting, hey you are making the same phone for everyone, I want something special for me. It not just I want my apps (which was there before also), but also they started demanding even more hardware customization. Which basically meant minor changes, lead to multiple phone announcements – just there in US.
Just one example .
sranzha - January 20, 2012
Josh, please stop using “amongst.” Here’s why: Garner, B.: Garner’s Modern American Usage, 3rd Edition. Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 42.
BobS67 - January 20, 2012
This from the man who has spend his career getting us nerds ridiculously over hyped over the latest minute incremental changes in technology and products. Please Josh, you’re complaining about the monster you’ve spent years feeding. Ironical.
middaleman - January 20, 2012
Certainly reviewing the same phone twice, on two different carriers, is a good example of this. But I don’t know if Josh (or The Verge) is guilty of doing this.
BobS67 - January 20, 2012
Meaning, other tech blogs are definitely guilty of doing this.
BobS67 - January 20, 2012
How many times have I heard Josh say on the podcast something about not being able to remember or keep track of all of the phone’s he’s used 2 months ago. Sometimes I think that’s why he latched on so strong to the Galaxy Nexus. It’s Google’s flagship which is on an annual cycle, meaning (like the iPhone) there’s one and only one choice per year to make. When you get the Galaxy Nexus, you have a certain comfort of knowing you don’t have to worry what’s coming over the next 11 months (not to mention knowing you’ll get Android updates.)
RF9 - January 20, 2012
That is, I agree with you BobS67
RF9 - January 20, 2012
The coverage we provide is really about helping consumers make informed decisions (at least I hope it is). And of course, there is something about chasing the latest thing that’s appealing to nerds.
The point of the article (which is not an editorial, rather a report) is that there are too many devices that don’t stand out. I see it, consumers see it, and now companies are starting to see it too, and that’s impacting what they’ll do in 2012.
Joshua Topolsky - January 20, 2012
“The point of the article (which is not an editorial, rather a report) is that there are too many devices that don’t stand out”
Also worth noting the ‘point’ (the marketing line) of Windows for the last 20 or so years, was that you could get countless form factors and variations of specs, etc, that weren’t available on the Mac. It’s SO obvious that just copying Apple’s strategy is the right thing to do. It’s only because Apple is massively popular, and successful (iOS and OS X devices) that PC companies are buckling on this.
21tiger - January 20, 2012
I hope they do, it is easy to fall into the trap that thinking if you provide 1000 hardware permutations which are basically the same you will get everyone. Reality shows the opposite though.
Lomifeh - January 20, 2012
This article is really interesting. I really think the market for smartphones is insane right now. Too many devices, these compagnies like HTC, Samsung, Motorola, etc should ship one or two high-end smartphones each year in which they will put all their efforts and innovation. This would also get the consumers really excited for each new products and I’m sure they would sell millions of devices if they did a good job.
Habsfan1 - January 20, 2012
Finally. In my opinion, Apple’s success is no accident. While Mac OS X can account for some of its computer sales, I think it’s clear that its major success has always been the implementation of a minimal, polished and refined product line. Each product has a clear demographic target, and R&D + marketing costs are not diluted over a large product range. That means the product can be better engineered, better designed. Support calls are shorter and less expensive. Replacement parts are more readily available.
Other than acting out of fear that your company’s single product will fail, what possible reason could you have of creating a convoluted and redundant product portfolio?
PopcornPenguin - January 20, 2012
Very nicely written. I’ve been saying this for the last year or so, the laptop manufacturers and to a certain extent the smartphone manufacturers need to simplify the number of SKUs they currently offer. The current naming conventions don’t really help either. I dont want to buy a Dell XPS DE8283848382TL. Its just confusing for the buyer and isn’t conducive in selling the product. They need to cut their lines down to 15-20 (If that many) products a year in nicely categorised product lines. Sometimes I feel like Apple pays the OEMs to give their products confusing names so people buy their products instead…
TheCrippledNewt - January 20, 2012 via mobile
Why dont we create a website that would show the stats of products, and what difference different stats mean? This whole thing about a computer with a intel atom processor and I7 processor are the same, because stats dont matter is just wrong. Most everything in a electronic device you can measure. Ignorance is not the answer. 7,000,000,000 people are on the planet and they should all use 1 phone? really
UlookNiceToday - January 20, 2012
Exactly. Been article went moorteered, and its likely adage rel-tel to be backward. Darnitored.
BobS67 - January 20, 2012
Actually, 7 billion people all with only a few models of phones wouldn’t be a bad thing. I would expect more things would work together.
RF9 - January 20, 2012
Spot on!
Great article. I wish that interview was recorded live.
markiz von schnitzel - January 20, 2012
Awesome.
Basically what Gruber has been alluding to before CES with his video about more choices making the consumer less happy even though the quality of the product he choses is better than in the years before..
Unfortunately you don’t mention users not chosing AT ALL because of too many choices.
Stupid fanboy is just saying that because apple has only three iPhone models.’
(*sarcasm)
Sebastian.de - January 20, 2012
So, three “representatives,” and only one executive, from Samsung, HTC, Motorola, and Acer say they are going to seriously pare back their product lines. Easy to say. I’ll believe it when I see it.
BobS67 - January 20, 2012
I don’t get it — are we seeing Topolsky morph into Gruber / Siegler / the Instapaper guy right before our eyes?
Maybe thats why Instapaper gets the free advertising each week on the ‘Tech Writing of the Week’ post, instead of its competitors.
Ocean12 - January 20, 2012
I don’t understand what you mean.
RF9 - January 20, 2012
Never mind. I think I get it.
RF9 - January 20, 2012
As a iPhone user who has thought of making the switch to Android on a handful of occasions, I can tell you first hand that this is a problem for savvy consumers.
I was ready to buy my new phone. I started researching.
First I was going to get the Thunderbolt, but I heard rumors for this Bionic device. Then I was going to get the Bionic, but heard rumors about the “Nexus Prime” and so on and so forth into eternity. I don’t know if I got those in the proper timeline, but that’s rather unimportant anyway.
What is important is that with such short upgrade cycles and constant so-called “game changing” product launches always on the horizon, consumers with brains will always wait to see what’s next.
TheDewd - January 20, 2012
And Apple knows what they are doing. It’s simple less choice more buy. Not that I like Apples stupid one-size fits all policy. But it works brilliantly from a finacial perspective.
Jonisme - January 20, 2012
I was going to say. Steve Jobs did the right thing when he returned to Apple and slashed the number of products they were shipping. I would LIKE a few more choices from Apple, but I understand customers enjoy the comfort of not having to decide more than 3G or Wifi only, white or black, and how many GB of storage? Really Apple could make it black or white and make 3G and storage add-ons, but we know these are high margin upsells.
It’s a good model. I know I personally hate having to try to understand what the difference is between 12 different SKUs of the same exact product like an Onkyo receiver or Samsung TV. Often the only difference is the addition of an input port. Really?! Pair down the choices, lump the differentiation in to larger deltas and prices.
Give me 3. “cheap consumer,” “mid range really good prosumer,” and “I’ve got money to burn, give me the best with stuff I don’t need.” There should never need to be more options than that.
Try buying Sony ear buds sometime and tell me what he difference is between all of the different models.
RF9 - January 20, 2012
Have you ever shopped for a Mac online? Ever? You can customize them plenty. The illusion here is that PC makers were actually doing lots of different computers, when all they were doing was confusing customers with stupid product names. Macbook internals are by and large off the shelf. The difference is Apple doesn’t feel a Macbook Pro with a 17" screen should have 18 different code names, just because what’s under the hood can be configured 18 different ways.
Are you listening Sony?
21tiger - January 20, 2012
Yep.
Look at the car market. You have the model then you have the option. But if that’s the same car even if one is blue and one is black.
Distribulle - January 21, 2012
I have now. And your right. When I wrote this I was thinking of the Iphone . My question is what percentage of people actually buy their Mac online?
Jonisme - January 25, 2012
Google have a “one size fits all policy” – along the lines of: “you can buy any smartphone you want, as long as it runs Android”.
Microsoft have a “one size fits all policy” – along the lines of: “you can buy any PC you want, as long as it runs Windows”.
I think you overlooked one important and brilliant part of Apple’s strategy:
Because of their refusal to licence (i.e. push their software onto every other hardware vendor), they are never in danger of completely taking over an entire market segment.
This has two effects:
1 They avoid many any regulatory concerns (from being in a monopoly position).
2 (far more important) they leave space open for competition and for people to buy other stuff. Here is the crucial point: not just different hardware, but different software as well.
Thus it is not “one size fits all” policy that Apple has.
If you like Apple’s products, you can buy Apple’s products.
If you don’t like Apple’s products, buy something else, because Apple has left the market open for other products to flourish, if they are good enough.
aThingOrTwo - January 21, 2012
Do you want to learn how to use more then one different OS from a particular company? No. From what I understand Apple has only one current OS, and it doesn’t even have the little bit of choice (‘Professional’ or ‘Home’) that Microsoft has. I was talking aout Apples one-size fits all policy with their smartphones, and I highly doubt that they don’t believe that the Iphone is right for everyone. I also don’t believe that if they realize, that because they have only one smartphone out they are loosing customers to others, that they won’t try to make another phone.
Jonisme - January 25, 2012
Blame the carriers. They all want a phone that’s different than what’s available on the other networks so every big manufacturer needs like 4 flagship phones plus all the mid and lower end models.
For laptops and PC’s, I don’t agree that it’s a problem at all. There are a lot of different variables in those that justify the large number of devices. Processor, screen size, weight, battery, graphics card, hard drive size, hard drive type (SSD or spinning platter) and so on. It’s fine for Macs to have just a handful of models as their users don’t care much as long as it has the Apple logo. But for PCs I prefer a wide selection, thankyouverymuch. If anyone is confused by the choice let them consult a relative with tech knowledge. Everyone has such a relative.
lundsh - January 20, 2012
No, no, no, it’s a historical oddity. HDTVs collapsed as 3d was overhyped, and coincidentally, people overhyped Android tablets based on the smartphone market. Vendors now have to keep trying tablets because they already invested in those form factors. Add in MS and Intel trying to prop up regular PCs AND bust into smartphones AND get into tablets with their piles of monopoly money, and you have a unique time in history. There will be even more devices in the future, of course, but they will largely be cheap to the point of disposability.
nico_mach - January 20, 2012
I think the market, especially for cellphones and tablets is forced to change by a simple reason.
People are locked in. It is a poker game in which the Bank takes it all or you try to stay in as long as possible.
If you chose to go iPhone/ipad and you an an average consumer you had a big “buy in” and are constantly getting more and more chips (apps in this analogy) . You stack up more and more over time. You might even get a couple of hundred bucks worth of iBooks. Son now what will you do? Go “all in” an loose it all switching Platform?
If you chose Anroid well you do have different Tables (Devices in this Analogy) to go to with your chips, you can play on the Samsung table or the HTC table if you like. You can even get different colors of chips or switch the dealer (Androidmarket and others). But in the end you spend Money on the ecosystem and what will you do? go “all in”, loose it all for switching Platforms?
And there s Hardware, too. Docks, Apple TV, and other stuff that adds up to a huge amount of Money.
So consumers in these fields are going to stay a while. And there is no need for 3 Month updates in Hardware. Apple got that a long time ago, and just like with design, and marketing the others will follow.
iEverything - January 20, 2012
Manufacturers are realizing the disadvantages of seling a lot of models with little difference between models. It can reduce the impact of marketing. People can go in to thousands of stores worldwide and buy an iPhone. Verizon stores don’t carry the Samsung Galaxy S II.
Virtuous - January 20, 2012
To be fair people can go in to thousands of stores worldwide and buy a Samsung Galaxy S II. Just not American ones.
aThingOrTwo - January 21, 2012
I saw this video on Daring Fireball and it really cut to the core of how having too much choice can decrease sales and in the end make customers less satisfied with their purchase.
http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html
There will always be needs for customization and edge cases but I think it will be better all-in-all for these company’s to spend more resources on less products.
RightiousToast - January 20, 2012
Are you guys going to post the video of “Argue the Future”?
TFausett - January 20, 2012
About time manufacturers realize oversaturation…
DarkHorse87 - January 20, 2012
Re: smartphones- How much of the blame for this can we put to carriers? As Sanjay Jha said when questioned about stock android “Carriers don’t want to offer 15 phones all running stock Android.” I would imagine they have a similar desire with hardware. Just look at the Samsung GS and GS2as examples. Samsung made 3-4 models of the same phone with minor differentiation just because US carriers don’t want to sell the same phone as another carrier. Apple can get away with it because 1). they move so much volume and 2).people with iPhones probably have higher margin data/calling plans.
blattlaus - January 20, 2012
Oh and if “Elegance replaces brute force”, will that hurt Android? I would say that it has achieved much of it market share through sheer product volume.
blattlaus - January 20, 2012
Choice is only a really a choice if there is significant difference.
Many of the “choices” of PC are the same hardware, same software done in different wrappers.
Same with phones.
Same with all commodity goods.
Create the differentiation and you can win. Apple do it, Audi, BMW,… Sony used to but have lost it… Nikon sometimes.. Dyson.
Boghog - January 20, 2012
Bingo.
Sony still make great products today. Don’t forget who makes the Verge’s camera of the year. They are a definite candidate to trim their lineup down.
aThingOrTwo - January 21, 2012
too many i gadgets ..nothing more
rkl sweden - January 20, 2012
curated choice for the win. i want VZW to have a wide variety of devices, but I don’t need them to have 12 devices in every niche. the sheer amount of first-crop LTE devices that were only slightly differentiable was ridiculous
arthur.serer - January 20, 2012
You all are kind of funny. You’re right, the Eastern Europeans had it right during the Communist era. If you wanted a car in the Democratic Republic you got a Trabant, and you even got to pick one of five colors – the party knew what you needed. The fact of the matter is that while Apple has had one very nice cell at a time Android with it’s hundreds of choices ranging from the cheap to expensive is now selling many more phones – and yes, Apple gets a small tick upwards when they release their yearly model, but the overall trend is clear. Same with PC’s. Apple had a few models and controlled a huge share of the market. Then MS started making it possible to offer a huge variety of products and to this day Apple still has a small pie of the overall PC market. Each way has ups and downs, but in the long run companies that make a small selection of expensive beautifully crafted products will remain niche market companies, such as Rolls Royce and Ferrari. They can be very profitable, but they will be a niche player. Wait a year or two until the vast number of people in emerging markets like Brazil, China and India make up the vast majority of the world’s gadget buyers. Somehow I don’t think they’re all going to be buying the most expensive goods.
solom01 - January 20, 2012
One thing that unite the hundreds of Android “choices”:
1 They all run Android.
One thing that unites the hundreds of PC “choices”:
1 They all run Windows.
Choice is about products working different, as well as offering minor cosmetic/spec differences.
If you are drawing communist analogies, you could say Android and Windows are the People’s software.
aThingOrTwo - January 21, 2012
Exactly.
Android phones are the classic Marxist commodity item – can be made by any factory but its the same thing inside.
But like the Soviet version of Communism, Google are the Politburo sitting at the top getting rich:)
Boghog - January 21, 2012
Perfectly stated. This “choice” meme that the Android community incessantly brays about has always been complete junk. The choice you have with Android is this: you can have a cheap handset with crappy specs or you can have a cheap handset with really good specs. Ask original Galaxy buyers if they feel they got a lot of “choice” with their handsets when it came time to upgrade the OS.
Ross74 - January 22, 2012 via mobile
In other words, heads of all major PC makers read the Steve Jobs bio.
Movin’ on.
21tiger - January 20, 2012
SO companies are FINALLY realizing what Apple figured out many years ago, and who they’ve been mocking for not having enough ‘choice’? Newsflash: 95% of people don’t have such specific needs as to require 15 extremely similar models from one company. I recently went windows laptop shopping with my sister, and even me, while being extremely technically inclined, was paralyzed and confused with the ridiculous options from a single manufacturer. ie every single hp model looked similar but had diff model #s. Clear models and differentiation is needed.
Slurpy - January 20, 2012
HP? Were you looking at their “Pavillion” (consumer) line ? This is the worst case example of Topolsky’s rant. From a sing;e source!
I bought two, back to back, for a dear family member. They apperar to be designed and engineered to last 15 months or so at best. Never again. I get nauseous just thinking about how I was taken in.
However, keep in mind that HP will deliver on corporate contracts that specify 3 year warranty. It is a separate business line and the product is prety good.
Get it?
xboomer - January 20, 2012
Having too many choices is a bad thing, but not nearly as bad as having too few choices. People will still make the wrong choice for themselves with only a few choices, but with more choices you get those niche products for niche users.
“Awesome, a 3D keyboard Android phone with no camera so I can take it to Singapore! Perfect.”
VergeOC - January 20, 2012
yeah, and i’m looking right at you & and your weekly android spammage, samsung.
sighclops - January 20, 2012
and*sighclops - January 20, 2012
This issue is most blatant in the smartphone market, especially and unfortunately for the platform in Android phones. I began saying this towards the end of 2010 and 2011 it was just ridiculous in the number of launches and insignificant spec bumps became totally new phones. The large variety definitely helped Android get to a nice spot but I think if this isn’t curtailed a bit, it will hurt the platform in the long run (I really think Motorola is leaving a sour taste in their customer’s mouths with the Droid lines and now the Razor).
As others have said the Windows desktop/notebook market could also use some product line trimming. It isn’t as bad as the smartphone market, but it’s confusing for consumers and isn’t doing the companies any favors financially.
zer0future - January 21, 2012
That’s why I’m buying a Symbian device again(Nokia 701). I was overwhelmed with the Android smartphones and Windows Phones…same specs and features, different prices. It was much easier to choose a Symbian device(Nokia 603 or 701? 701, because it has more features)
And it is very difficult to choose a point and shoot camera.
And for computers…I’d just buy anything that suits my needs(HP excluded).
Bharat Justa - January 21, 2012 via mobile
Breaking: Samsung officials say the company will copy Apple’s business model in 2012, sell more copied products
evilapa - January 21, 2012
Apple’s ecosystem, that is branded as “evil” by many, is basically a product, that is intended for the user. Having an ecosystem of products, that “just work” and is simple, is only better for the user. It makes life easier.
ryansimmons323 - January 21, 2012
Do check out this related article, as well http://www.maindevice.com/2011/12/14/sick-of-gadgets/
RaduTyrsina - January 21, 2012
I think this very same topic the US auto industry has gone through over the last 4 years. Too much overhead and it was business model that didn’t work it was similar to trying to fit a square peg through a round hole. This overhead choked the R&D and the consumers variety. Dash and trim prices passed along through different makes and models – it was hard to find something truly unique vehicle within a manufacturer. The consumer on a budget realized there was no added value to upgrade. Therefore, manufacturers began to tank. Since then, some have trimmed the fat and focused on offering a truly unique line from other manufacturers and resulted in better end user experience.
methyl - January 21, 2012 via mobile
you right! no one ever went wrong with a nice black Ford, and that market has been going downhill ever since.
markhahn - January 21, 2012
Believe it or not, there is a middle ground between ‘too much choice’ and ‘no choice at all’.
macomeau - January 21, 2012
I think tech companies need to see what their doing, see what Apple are doing and then offer something inbetween that. For laptops/desktops instead of having products overwhelm them by sheer weight of numbers, entice them in with a small pool and then let them customize to their hearts content so they get what they want instead of being confused.
For Smartphones they need to scale to. It felt like HTC offered about 5/6 different versions of the Sensation last year for no apparent reason. Samsung are better since they have their Galaxy flagship but even they flooded a lot of phones into the market,
I just hope that when smart televisions really kick into gear that they learn something. Doubtful though.
By making it simpler customers are more likely to be knowledgeable about the products and less likely to think that they have bought a dud when two weeks later the HTC Sensation XL OMFG It’s Awesome phone comes out with .4 GHz better processor and Sense 3.whatever.
PhoenixMaster00 - January 21, 2012
This is a huge problem in the “mobile” industry right now. It is the worst for smartphones and tablets, but now with everyone jumping on the ultrabook bandwagon it is getting terrible for computers. There needs to be a happy medium where there are a few different configurations that happen once every year. Technology is an investment, and not many people want to spend $300+ on a new gadget every year to replace their old one, especially when the new one doesn’t do much more than the current one does. This creates value in products that don’t get outdated so soon.
For example, I am one of the lucky consumers who chose to buy the Droid X at launch. There was a lot of controversy between the Droid X, the Droid Incredible, and the Droid 2. Specs, form factor, software, and everything else were taken into consideration. Luckily the Droid X had extraordinary hardware for the time, and was also the choice of many Android developers. This combination made it a winner, as I am still satisfied using it to this day, a year and a half after it launched. You can’t say that for most almost any phones.
However, people who got the iPhone 4 are just as (if not more satisfied) with their purchases. It still feels new and great despite coming out around the same time as the Droid X. People who have a 3GS have started to feel dated, yet most Android phones that have been on the market for only 6 months to a year are experiencing the same thing. The Nexus series is exempt from these because of how long the phones are supported and the fact that it isn’t outdated until a year later, so it’s easy to be satisfied with the “second best” phone for a year before grabbing the latest every other year when you’re up for another subsidized upgrade.
The practice that has to stop is this crap like the Droid 4 and Droid RazerMaxxx. Their previous iterations have been out for a couple months, and already they are being outdated. Same thing with the Transformer Prime! It was barely released, people still can’t find it anywhere, and already there has been the 700T announced that has a better screen and that fixes most of the problems people had with the Prime. And this comes on the heels of the Transformer which was released earlier in the year. Why would anybody dump a few hundred on a device that is going to be obsolete almost immediately after you get your hands on it?
HappyG0at - January 21, 2012
As some who watches the advances in technology with eager anticipation, what we have seen in the smartphone space in the last 5 years is nothing short of amazing. As a consumer though my decision making is made by what i need to do with my device and the ecosystem i prefer to live in.
Apple is a no brainer for most consumers as the complexity of choice has been taken away from the average consumer and those with advanced knowledge will make a more informed decision on the extras (SSD, RAM, Display, Size, etc..). Android is pushing the boundries but the overwhelming choice dwarfs the average consumer. I personally “nearly” brought a Galaxy Nexus after reading the reviews on The Verge but what stops me is that there is nagging thought that says “In two months times this will be supersedded by another device” and that is were the crux lies.
The average consumer is not enbroiled in the Apple Vs Google vs Microsoft war, but more in the " wow, i like the look of that device". The market has reached saturation point and personally all the so called “advancements” are all now “incremental” steps in evolution and are nor spurring innovation. Case in point, If you have a iPhone 4 do you need an iPhone 4S? Most probably not , but you cannot get pass human nature which always pushes to the theory thats something newer is most probably better. Hence why manufactuers can push these iterations into the market.
underdeinfluence - January 22, 2012
I agree with the title of the article—fewer gadgets. The way to do it seems to be, devices that might run (though even poorly) through several iterations of OS/app versioning, and devices whose hardware components (e.g., memory, internal storage, and what the heck, battery) might be available and open to user upgrade.
Our old IBM A31 Thinkpad was a workhorse for many years, through several vearsions of Windows. I would hardly expect a laptop to be usable that long these days. Hardware versioning is much like browser versioning: there’s a new gen every year and guess what—you all know I have to send my iPad and iPhone to the factory to get the danged battery replaced. My first gen iPod Touch is already nearly obsolete: no new apps.
I understand that the plethora of devices is necessary for the plethora of jobs. Factory workers and designers have to put bread on the table and pay the rent. But it gets out of hand.
fjpoblam - January 22, 2012
What are you talking about? This is the gadget version of the Cambrian explosion. Darwin’s laws will win the day and things will sort out. In the mean time the competition is driving innovation in change. Love it!
JeffWolfers - January 22, 2012
And I’m talking about fewer device varieties due to a more concentrated effort on the few: economy of effort and efficiency. All this device proliferation yields a proliferation of industrial waste. The April 2008 green issue of PC magazine said, “A pile of our obsolete computers could make a 22-story mountain that covers the entire 472 square miles of the city of Los Angeles.” Too many gadgets instead of fewer gadgets with less built-in obsolescence=less resource intense industry. Imagine that.
fjpoblam - January 22, 2012
You guys are years late.
http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html
descendency - January 22, 2012
I’m talking about more time spent on designing quality and less spent on quantity.
fjpoblam - January 22, 2012
This makes the assumption people care. I’ve seen am lot of people just go into an electronics store and buy whatever was recommended to them. If online, it usually seems to be whatever a friend or some media outlet suggested. I wouldn’t even argue less lines would change this behaviour and see consumers research beforehand more, as they already just don’t seem to care.
In short; it just seems to matter to us geeks and nerds. Although we can be the source of such information. I like researching which product is best though.
Tams - January 22, 2012
Addition:
For companies it may well be different. Less variety can mean greater efficiency.
Tams - January 22, 2012
“Apple releases a single iPhone and iPad per year, but the differences between models (in both software and hardware) tend to be significant.”
yes, because the iPhone 4s had significant software and hardware changes…
allstar0419 - January 22, 2012
Wow, this thread is a month old and here I go opening up debate I suppose. Lividcreature, besides having a colorful name you are incorrect on some of your points. Moving along however many comments could be made about this article being correct, being hyperbole and nonsensical, and way behind times.
It is obvious that “product fatigue” is not new. Also there are tens of thousands of choices for many items – not just electronics and gadgets, not even only consumer stuff. Summing up… I doubt much will change. Should it? Sure, marketers and producers need to be smart (not unlike a smart phone", well smarter, less wasteful of energy, materials, even the public’s time, and realize no one needs 400 choices of a particular item. Just because you can saturate the market with 25k products of every description be it cameras, laptops, golf balls, etc, doesn’t mean you should. Minute differences between items should be obvious – it is common sense. As for behind times – this article should have been written about three years ago. Welcome to the obvious, y’all!!!
Another thing… yes, communism, socialism, whatever else and lack of choices is not part of this discussion. It is a no-brainer that empty shelves and only a choice like 2 or 3 kinds of canned goods is no choice at all. Use your brains more, everyone!
acting - February 26, 2012
Wow, this thread is a month old and here I go opening up debate I suppose. Lividcreature, besides having a colorful name you are incorrect on some of your points. Moving along however many comments could be made about this article being correct, being hyperbole and nonsensical, and way behind times.
It is obvious that "product fatigue" is not new. Also there are tens of thousands of choices for many items – not just electronics and gadgets, not even only consumer stuff. Summing up… I doubt much will change. Should it? Sure, marketers and producers need to be smart (not unlike a smart phone), well smarter, less wasteful of energy, materials, even the public’s time, and realize no one needs 400 choices of a particular item. Just because you can saturate the market with 25k products of every description be it cameras, laptops, golf balls, etc, doesn’t mean you should. Minute differences between items should be obvious – it is common sense. As for behind times – this article should have been written about three years ago. Welcome to the obvious, y’all!!!
Another thing… yes, communism, socialism, whatever else and lack of choices is not part of this discussion. It is a no-brainer that empty shelves and only a choice like 2 or 3 kinds of canned goods is no choice at all. Use your brains more, everyone!
acting - February 26, 2012
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