Christos Stavrou wrote:
> On 26/12/06, Steve Dropkin <steve@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> In the "old" days, the product was as much about engineering and
>> quality as it was features. Nowadays it seems that marketing and
>> economy trump both of those, and items are made obsolete just
>> because their continued use threatens corporate income streams.
>
> [snip]
> All that, to such extent, that it's rather clear what the rationale of
> the producing companies is right now: Everyone must owe a digital
> camera very soon... And of course must change it in few years or
> months again!.. (otherwise how the profit will come through, apart the
> new/old recipe of using cheap and child and other well exploited
> labour in south east asia?)
IMHO, this emphasis on income through "new" product is not limited
to cameras. There is tremendous market pressure to sell more product
of any kind. Selling someone an item they can use for a couple of
decades does not meet that directive. Therefore the product must be
made obsolete or made to fail in a reasonable amount of time, or
there must be an overriding new feature that is a "must-have": more
pixels or anti-shake or a different color or a new flavor. In the
case of computer-related electronics, the state-of-the-art advances
quickly enough to obsolete products, as well.
At my desk I have an Apple QuickTake digital camera; it's about ten
years old. Owing to changes in the connections offered on computers
and the fact that the driver software stopped being produced a few
years after the product was discontinued, it is not possible to take
pictures with this camera today and see those pictures on a
reasonably current computer. If I want to use this camera, I'd have
to find an old Mac or Windows PC which has the appropriate ports, OS
version, and floppy drive (!) on which I can install the software
needed to transfer the pictures.
OTOH, 30 years after my OM-1MD was introduced, it takes as good a
picture as it ever did and I still can buy film and processing
readily. I think my E-1 can last, physically, as long as my OM-1
has. But being able to use it in 30 years -- that's a whole
different thing.
Steve
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