Convenience

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kach22i

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I got to thinking that "convenience" drives a lot of product design.

For instance CD's replaced vinyl records because they were easier to use, and did not have to be flipped like most compact tapes. It was also more convenient to sell at a price point where an entry level CD (expensive at first) would beat the pants off a poor quality record or cheap tape. Very inconvenient to the user to have a proper LP playback setup, care, cleaning, isolation, alignment of cartridge, and storage - it was it's undoing.

Martin Logans, larger than conventional loudspeaker drivers, very sensitive to the room’s acoustics, early ones proved difficult to drive properly, and you have to plug them into the wall. Much more convenient to shove a little speaker on a bookshelf or a floor stander next to the TV.

Getting to the Automobile, Porsche has never been very convenient to drive or own, hence it occupies a small segment of the automotive market.

Heck I remember the Corvair comments/complaints from my childhood. One woman in a parking lot (it was about 1967) told my mom she did not like the car because she would pull her Corvair into a parking space, but the trunk was in the front so that getting groceries in meant she had to leave the cart and walk between the adjacent car to the front - one bag at a time. Getting the cart to the front was not always an option with closely parked cars. In fact the whole situation is coming back to me, I was about seven and stopped to look at the car, and also wondering why someone left a cart filled with groceries bag, my mom tried to hustle me along, but we got to talking to the lady.

So the Corvair was a bad car because the trunk was in the front, you could get a Mustang for less, and some lawyer wrote a book, which applied only to the earlier models.

Also, it's more convenient for the human body to have luxury. You don't want too sweat or freeze, that would be inconvenient, right?

Have the garage attached to the house - more convenient than walking outside into the street.

Fill up the massive SUV once every couple of weeks with bags of food rather than stopping everyday to pick up something fresh.

All for convenience sake.

When gas prices go up, why fill up gas so much draining your bank account? Drive a smaller car, that's more convenient!

The part, which puzzled me in this theory of convenience, is "PARKING". What is so convenient about parking a large car or truck which most American traditionally prefer. This was the part I never understood. Is it not a problem for most suburban commuters and dwellers?

I know trucks and SUV's have power steering, not unlike 30 years ago - but still it puzzles me. It can't be convenient crawling down from one of these giants, can it?

Why large vehicles, large houses, large boats and yet small loudspeakers and cell phones?

What am I missing here?

Is it just something related to electronics?

Or perhaps;

Large Outside = Large Inside.

End of debate?
 
WOW !!!! How many martini's did you have for lunch today ??
 
twich54 said:
WOW !!!! How many martini's did you have for lunch today ??
I skipped lunch, it makes me gitty when I do that, what can I say?
:D
 
Kachi,

It may be just me, but I enjoy your Off Topic threads... this one included.

:)
 
Joey_V said:
Kachi,

It may be just me, but I enjoy your Off Topic threads... this one included.

:)

Do us all a favor and when Joe sends you the ramen noodles, pass some off to pour Kachi. We don't want him skipping meals anymore. I am sure that after reading his post, many will support this position.

Kachi - You did forget that solid state replaced tubes as you would not have to run to the local drug store and buy more tubes in order to get your TV or radio to start working again. Come to think of it, I skipped lunch today too!! :eek:
 
MarkNewbie said:
solid state replaced tubes as you would not have to run to the local drug store and buy more tubes in order to get your TV or radio to start working again.
Good example, although some may argue or redefine the reasons as : cost, reliability, function, practicality, longevity, marketing and so on.
 
kach22i said:
Good example, although some may argue or redefine the reasons as : cost, reliability, function, practicality, longevity, marketing and so on.

The same arguement could be made for many of your examples. We are actually tettering on the brink of the right brain/left brain reasoning debate and what really drives our decision making process. This could get really deep and interesting quick. Especially with the brain power found in this forum! :eek:
 
kach22i said:
I got to thinking that "convenience" drives a lot of product design.

Why large vehicles, large houses, large boats and yet small loudspeakers and cell phones?

What am I missing here?

If the convenience drives the design, the advertising drives the buying, by inducing the belief of a superior, more enjoyable life experience (sometimes culminating in some nanoseconds of "happiness" - see Joey's saga elsewhere on the forum).

The large vehicles & co are status symbols. All starts with "mine is bigger than yours". Small speakers can also incarnate the search for the perfect sound source, which should be a point in space. WAF also plays a role sometimes. Cell phones are better small, it helps our daily struggle against gravity. Generally speaking , form should follow function and 2 key factors I see immediately are usability and the being part of a exclusive club, known also as luxury (funny enough, I'm writing this into a exclusive's club forum).

Anyway, sometimes we forget that a car is useful only to move us from one place to another and help us carry things, a cell phone only shows that we are dependent of being found fast when needed (the real luxury would actually be to don't give a s*** about being found or not) and last but not least, sometimes we listen to our gear, not to our music...
 

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