It seems like everything is complicated these days, especially anything electronic… which is a product that is increasing every day.
Why are they so complex? "Wow, our cell phone takes pictures, sharpens knives, mows the lawn, pays your bills, steers your car, and cooks dinner, all with voice command!" Give us a break!
Unfortunately, many electronic products are featured because it is cheaper to add features to them! Do we as consumers want or need those services? That is a completely different question. Often the answer is no. But manufacturers are also adding, in many cases, to advertise their features.
It costs a lot to decide carefully which features are most sought after and to design products to make them visually rich but easy and accurate for people to use. That is why this important step is always short.
Ever had trouble figuring out how to prepare your VCR? Have you ever thought that maybe it's not really your fault? It is the fault of the engineers who built the lousy user interface into the product. And do you think they are bad? Try using a combination of VCR-DVD players!
There is a second reason why manufacturers continue to focus on questionable features in products. About products such as mobile phones, sales have plummeted because most people are looking for one. Therefore, phone manufacturers continue to add features to try to find those that encourage people to buy new phones. They are still searching for that new feature that people are willing to buy for a new phone to get it.
Similarly, digital camera manufacturers continue to come out with multi-pixel cameras. Then, two megapixels, then 3.2, then 4.0, then 5, then 6, 7, or 8. Do consumers need 7 or 8-megapixel cameras? Not at all. By taking snapshots or sharing photos online, a 3.2-megapixel camera is more than enough. Really.
Why, then, do producers continue to increase power? It’s as we said above: 1) so they can advertise that they have it, and 2) try to get people to stick their old camera in the closet and buy a new one.
Our advice: It helps to look at the features offered to the products you are interested in. Do not think that a product with many features (or high numbers) is a better choice. Usually, it is not; it is just hard to use! Also, there is something wrong with it.
IBLOATWARE
There is something similar in the software. It's called "bloatware." Programs that are full of features, especially those that are not essential to the basic purpose of the software, handle this moniker.
While working in the software industry and working on the following versions of software products, programmers would sometimes come and say, "Hey, I can add such a feature with 100 lines of code," or such a number. That’s not much because a software system can have hundreds of thousands of lines of code. But often, it was a feature that users of that software did not need. Playing a consumer advocate, I would ask why such a feature would be needed. If the answer were doubtful, I would tell them to leave it at that. Too often, however, those features make it into software products, and they mature with unnecessary features. Bloatware.
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