Who needs college when we've got the O-list!
Oh, by the way -- my Framus is a Nag-4, with quadra-penta-dramus -- what's
yours?
"John A. Lind" wrote:
> Chris,
> You do not understand the need for a consumption based society. It's the
> desire of every for-profit business that sells new goods or sells
> services. Look at the business model for disposable diapers. The consumer
> thinks of this as a convenience, and with diapers it is likely
> true. However, from a business perspective it's a consumption business
> model compared to the one for cloth diapers. Use once, throw it away and
> buy more. Those that make "durable" goods want as much of this
> "disposable" business model as possible. Alvin Toffler called this the
> "throw-away society" in _Future_Shock_ published just over 30 years ago.
>
> Consider a ficticious new "durable" product which has no real competition,
> The Framus. The Framus does something useful not done (or done very well)
> by anything else, and what it does well is desirable in the eyes of
> consumers. As a durable object it has a design life of 10 years. It takes
> off following introduction because it is a "must have" with
> consumers. Production capacity for The Framus is justifiably increased to
> a high level. However, eventually the market saturates within a few years,
> including competition playing catch-up with their
> non-patent-or-copyright-infringing versions of The Framus. After all, it's
> durable. If a consumer already has one, why buy another for personal
> use? Sales of new ones begin to fall after a few years.
>
> Now trot out several business strategies to "fix" the problem of falling
> Framus sales:
> (1) Programmed Obsolesence: make it less durable so it wears out sooner.
> (2) New and Improved Framus: add some additional feature, real or
> perceived, to induce pitching the perfectly functioning one to "keep up
> with the Joneses" and have the "latest and greatest" version. If The
> Framus employs an emerging technology, this can be leveraged by employing
> incremental technology improvement as fast as it becomes available. Mature
> technologies must look elsewhere for some "breakthrough" of an alternate,
> but similar technology, the best breakthroughs being ones that make older
> ones obsolescent (e.g. CD --> DVD).
> (3) Stop providing repair parts and supporting repair of broken Frami
> sooner. If if has parts that wear out in normal use (e.g. automobile brake
> pads), or something consumable (such as film) make them unique to the
> Framus when it's designed and stop making them sooner. Broken ones and
> those with worn parts suddenly become non-repairable and those that require
> unique consumables become unusable (e.g., , 126 Instamatic --> 110 Pocket
> Instamatic --> Disk --> APS).
>
> IMHO camera manufacturers have gotten "smart" with consumer film cameras
> and even "smarter" with the digitals following market saturation with
> durable SLR's during the 1970's and 1980's. They're not made to last
> nearly as long as those made 15-30 years ago. The business cycle for
> introduction of "New and Improved" ones using "creeping featuritis" and
> "gadgetitis" has shortened considerably. All the major manufacturers
> employ marketing to convince the consumer the latest and greatest has some
> new essential to perfect photographs (as if it's the camera that does it
> and not the photographer). Furthermore, they're leveraging on incremental
> directly related technology improvements as fast as possible (more CCD
> pixels) and indirect ones such as introduction of new computer operating
> systems by not providing new operating system driver support for
> discontinued models.
>
> Yet one more reason I've kept my OM system and the medium format gear I
> have. It's inherently durable and employs mature technologies unlikely to
> disappear very soon (135, 120 and 220 film).
>
> Consume, Chris, consume. Don't stop spending! Keep up with the Joneses
> next door. Don't become an emabarrasment to the neighborhood! Prove to
> everyone you're up on the latest technologies; that you, yourself, have not
> become obsolete. Borrow money if you must to keep up! It's good for
> business, it keeps people employed, and it contributes to Gross National
> Product. Having a bank account with any money in it is shameful.
>
> :-)
>
> -- John
>
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