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?
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?
