Consumer technology at a standstill
Did you ever stop to wonder what is actually available for the average consumer to purchase these days? If you go to your nearest tech store, you’ll see they have the place conveniently categorized: TVs, Appliances, MP3s, Cell phones, Printers, Laptops/PCs, and Accessories. Sure, this may seem like enough to the average person but what do you do when you’ve gotten at least one of each of these things?
That was the delima I had during my recent visit to the local tech store. I had a couple hundred dollars to spend and found myself wondering the isles over and over with no real clue as to what I wanted. I have all the things they had to offer. What quickly became clear though is there are several brands of each, different price points and small variations between each. Overall though, an MP3 player is an MP3 player and a Plasma TV is a Plasma TV with just different bells and whistles (contrary to what the store manager would want you to believe).
While I would love to see new and exiting inventions on store shelves at rock bottom prices, I don’t think this is going to happen any time soon. You see, there is not much incentive anymore to invent. The major players like Apple and Microsoft dominate and as long as they’re making money with what is currently available, why change! This is similar to the oil industry. Since the oil companies know they will stay rich with the current product, why invest in a new one?
Technology and inventions mostly are developed to either fit a need or fulfill a desire. If you look around, most “new” things are simply improvements or modifications to old things.