Pogue on Value

An article by David Pogue in the "Personal Tech" section of the New York Times (May 14, 2009), entitled "Decoding the Hype on Gadgets", points at the distinctions between what tech ads tell you is important about their products and what you should really care about ... Here's one excerpt:

"COMPUTERS What you’re told is important: Price. (See, for example, Microsoft’s current TV ads, which focus exclusively on how much change you can get back from $1,000 after buying a PC.)

The cheapness of a computer is certainly an important factor. In fact, to some people, it’s the single most important factor.

What’s really important: Value.

When something is made exclusively to be cheap, there’s a price to be paid somewhere else. You may love your PC’s cheapo price, but you may not love the manufacturer’s low-rated, outsourced customer support. Or the ugly patchwork of stickers, logos and panels underneath. Or the huge, ungainly power brick. Or the obnoxious preinstalled junkware that drags the thing to a crawl from the first time you power it up. Or the annual antivirus-software subscription that you’ll need for Windows. Or the time you’ll lose trying to learn the potluck programs provided on your new PC from different companies, each with a different interface and conventions.

There are two kinds of people: those who value elegance, simplicity and beauty, and those who don’t. You’ll never convince either group to change their minds; it’s like a religious war."

Which kind are you?