The Quest for Zero Defect

In the case of washing powder I always wondered how much more improved it could get? How much more brighter and whiter can your whites actually get before they completely vanish? MMmm. Maybe that's what happened to my lost clothing. I guess the question I am really asking is what drives the sale of goods. what makes us go out there and buy the latest gadget or upgrade even though the one we are currently using meets our needs quite well. Manufactures develop new models all the time with minute improvements like better screen resolution, longer battery life, increased picture clarity and so on. With the convergence of media into single devices it becomes increasingly difficult to make "good" choices where these devices are concerned. Perhaps this is part of the reason why we find ourselves with more than one of them. Surely manufacturers already know the shortcomings of their products even before they hit the shelves? Why do we accept improvements in such small increments by purchasing them?

Take printers for example. Printers become so quickly redundant that there is little hope of thinking that it is a once-off purchase as they stop producing ink-cartridges and they become so expensive that most people just go out and buy a new printer. All this leads me to conclude that the digital world is a very disposable world. Gadgets very easily loses its value over short periods of time. The same was true when digital photography was introduced. How we snapped away at the world around us without giving much thought to it and then just deleted pictures 'cause it was easy to re-take them. I'm not denying that it has its benefits but what are we losing in the process? Nowadays, we are exposed to the ultra thin notebook said to soon become the computer of choice over the next few years. One of its characteristics is that it is generally much lighter than the average notebook (laptop) and generally doesn't sport a cd/dvd drive. The most unlikeable characteristic of these products for me remain the price-tag so I suspect for a while it will remain out of reach of Joe Block.

So back to what drives us to by new products that come onto the market. I think that tops on the list for me would be FINANCES,'cause no matter how badly I want that new phone without "the big five" I will have to put that dream on hold. Then there is NEED vs WANT. What is the particular need for the technology and will it fit. The WANT is probably closely linked to FINANCES STATUS, for many is very important. It's nice to say that I have the latest product. EMOTION comes in to play when we see how beautifully a piece of technology is crafted (apple products come to mind). Last on my list but definitely not least is PEER-PRESSURE. I suppose few of us would like to admit that at time we succumb to it, whether in the positive form or the negative. It is often over-looked but has a major influence on the products we choose. I am sure there are other factors and I would like to hear your thoughts