Reduce Gadget Envy

Death to non-3.5mm headphone jacks

2009-06-07T07:46:00.004-04:00

Can we officially have a retirement party for any headphone jack that is not a standard 3.5mm/1.25" jack? In the last few years, having a standard headphone jack was a competitive advantage. It's easy to understand that manufacturers make their money off accessories so selling a set of headphones does impact their revenue. The problem is that you have to sell the device first and a non-3.5mm jack is a major turnoff. That means if we want to use out existing set of headphones, we have to buy one of those 2.5mm to 3.5mm dongles. In that case, that leaves the consumer with an extra piece of hardware to carry around and the manufacturer without a headphone sale. Also knows as a lose-lose.

The device above is probably excluded from this conversation. The Blackberry 8830 is the corporate staple. RIM doesn't have to market these devices to consumers; they don't care if a single end-user buys one. Whether I want another device or not, I'm going to be stuck with the 8830 until something new my company appoves a newer model (hopefully the tour). Maybe it will have a standard jack.

Taking the headphone jack problem one step further is HTC and Apple. HTC doesn't even have a 2.5mm headphone jack. Their users are envious of people who can buy the $1.50 adapter at radioshack. The HTC G1 is stuck with a proprietary jack that requires its own adapter. Apple slapped consumers even harder in the face by requiring the new iPod Shuffle to have a chip in the headphone jack in order for it to work at all. That's a licensing cha-ching! There shouldn't be any surprise; we are talking about Apple.

Can we please agree to kill all non-3.5mm heaphone jacks? I have a better way to make even more money. I have a blackberry with a 3.5mm headphone jack. I could use any old set a headphones. Instead, I chose the premium RIM earbuds since they have a unit on the headphones that control the volume and media player. As a consumer, I chose to spend additional money with the manufacturer because they offered a quality product with a good feature-set. If I had to buy the same product in a 2.5mm jack, I probably wouldn't have out of spite. I have a better chance of being able to use this set of earuds on my next Blackberry. Happy consumer.

A "Case of Buyer's Remorse"

2009-04-02T22:05:00.007-04:00

I had to call Verizon's technical support today because of a problem with the blackberry that my work issued to me. While I was on the call the agent mentioned that they would need to troubleshoot my problem to ensure that there was really a problem with the device and make sure it wasn't just a "case of buyer's remorse."

Buyer's Remorse is a fairly common term, but it made me think about what I was trying to do with this venture. The Wikipedia article nails it. I should make this required reading for the site.

I figure there's only a few reasons that a buyer would end up regretting a purchase.

The device is missing a major feature that they value.
The device doesn't implement a feature in a desirable way.
The device functions as assumed by the buyer, but the received value does not match the buyer's anticipated value.

I think that my intentions with ReduceGadgetEnvy can nail #1 and support #2 if I can generate a community of support.

#2 is easily solved with a visit to a retailer and trying out the device firsthand. This assumes that the buyer hasn't idealized the device and can't be talked out of purchasing it. I was a victim of this. I'm not sure what to blame it on, but I'm sure it's more psychological than fact-based.

#3 must come down to personal taste. There are things that I enjoy about my smartphone that others with the same phone dislike.

Welcome to Reduce Gadget Envy

2009-03-31T20:11:00.000-04:00

We have a mission to stand up for consumers. It's easy to read a great review of the gadget that you want to purchase. It's not easy to sort through that review and find the features that are missing.

Didn't know that the Apple iPhone can't send a picture message?

Didn't know that the Blackberry Storm doesn't have WiFi?

Didn't know that the T-Mobile G1 doesn't have a headphone jack? Really?

You can get all this at the web site. I really want to use this first blog post to introduce how I hope this works.

I introduce a new gadget to the site.
I post reviews to the site.
Users can add in "Downsides" about the device.
Other users can vote on those downsides.

Definition of Downside:
1. Any component or feature that is either missing or poorly implemented on a specific device.
2. A specific drawback of a device that the manufacturer would not advertise.

You can find the downsides for each device right on the site.

Buying a new gadget can be a big decision. There are people who spend a long time saving up to buy the newest gadgets. By letting users vote on the downsides, I'm hoping that we can draw attention to the big problems with some of these gadgets that a consumer might not think about before making a purchase. This isn't about making fun of gadgets or hating on a manufacturer you don't like. It's about the big picture. Visit the manufacturer's website to hear the good stuff. Come to ReduceGadgetEnvy.com to hear the bad stuff. It may not even be a dealbreaker.

I own one of the smartphones listed on ReduceGadgetEnvy.com, but I won't tell you which one.