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Overhype

by Mike Masnick

Mon, Mar 11th 2002 11:53am





Cool Design, Bad Sales

from the not-everyone-buys-the-cool-design dept

A good article about how a cool design often does not mean success in the marketplace. Ever since the first iMac (which, obviously was quite successful) launched, there has been a resurgence in the importance of industrial design in the tech industry. However, many of the "cooler" award winning products still fail - for a variety of reasons. The article talks about three main reasons for such designs failing in the marketplace. First, too many designs are slapped on to a product at the end, after everything else has been designed - instead of being an integral part of designing the entire product. Second, is that a design doesn't fit with the brand that is promoting it. People don't look to Dell to get crazy hip computers. The want cheap computers that work. Finally, it helps to have a big marketing budget to get the word out there.

5 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    becoming more important

    identicon
    Brian, Mar 11th, 2002 @ 3:54pm

    As computers become more of a commodity item (like stereos are today) the form factor becomes a more important point of differentiation. Example: Most people own boom-boxes today (vs component stereos), and probably make their decision purely based on form.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Re: becoming more important

    identicon
    msykes, Mar 11th, 2002 @ 5:02pm

    Yeah, form is great, just so long as it's not at the expense of function. That was the good thing about the iMac (old and new). It was really cool, and functionally it really only gives up expansion, which most people don't need. The new iMacs are even better... oh hang on, I'm just randomly praising Apple again :-)

    msykes

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Re: becoming more important

    identicon
    pippin, Mar 12th, 2002 @ 1:39am

    Yeah, but deep down inside you are still the old apple hater. Don't worry about it, and random apple praise won't get you taken off the list for when the revolution happens......

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    No Subject Given

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Mar 12th, 2002 @ 6:16am

    Form sometimes does outweigh function .... let's see, GT Cruiser, BMWs, LCDs vs Monitors, sub notebooks vs BF notebooks,... Form counts, specially when the money is available to pay that little bit extra.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  

    Re: becoming more important

    icon
    Mike (profile), Mar 12th, 2002 @ 8:54am

    Yeah, but deep down inside you are still the old apple hater. Don't worry about it, and random apple praise won't get you taken off the list for when the revolution happens......

    Huh? Was that directed at me or at msykes? Because msykes is most certainly a huge Mac fan.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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