1. Stop drowning us in sameness. Search for "5-megapixel camera" at Amazon.com and you'll be confronted with more than 100 choices. Most are differentiated only by memory formats and mild fluctuations in price. Canon alone released six point-and-shoots from its popular PowerShot Digital Elph series in 2005 - and that's just one of the company's three pocket-size digicam lines. Flooding the shelves with almost identical products just makes us feel overwhelmed. Innovative or get off the pot.
2. Stop making us feel buyer's remorse. Last year, Apple introduced the video iPod, which replaced the 30-Gbyte photo iPod, not to be confused with the regular 40-Gbyte iPod or its 60-Gbyte sister, both fourth-generation players. Did you get all that?
Don't forget the nano, the mini, the shuffle, and the limited-edition U2 iPod, which stayed on the company's roster for 12 months (a century in the land of Jobs). Apple has been spitting out so many versions of its ubiquitous music player that it initiated a recycling program last summer to deal with the huge turnover.
Sure, new products keep the market fresh, but it's infuriating to discover the $300 gadget you just bought is no longer being manufactured. At the very least, companies should offer software updates (yes, you can even charge us for them!) so a player that comes with features like a color screen, large capacity, photo handling, and a speedy processor can be configured for video playback.
3. Stop releasing features that aren't ready for prime time. At least on industry analyst says that cell phone makers found that customers will pay a 10 to 25 percent premium for new features. Built-in cameras top the list. Turns out users want decent built-in cameras. For two years, mobile manufacturers have tried to pass off cheap lenses and imaging chips as bonuses. What we got was poor image quality, bad interfaces, and tedious procedures for getting photos off the phone. "Camera phones were rushed to market without much understanding of what the technology was, how it was going to be used," explains Strategy Analytics' Eddie Tapiero. Has the industry learned its lesson? Music phones with limited storage, short battery life, and disappointing sales prove that it has not.
The gadget industry is at a crossroads. It can either continue to turn out products that barely one-up the competition or start to make products that are of great value to consumers. While technological innovation helps move more units, only true advances that enhance performance will satisfy buyers. Consumer electronics manufacturers should focus R&D on delivering what users want: an elegant interface, durability, added utility, and style. We're sold on the big picture: We've all made the leap to a digital lifestyle. Now treat us like grown-ups. We demand smart digital tools, not expensive disposable toys.
I love it.