Originally posted by coathanger007
Nice comeback Krux. How 'bout we end it there. What I'm trying to say in this thread is that technology isn't moving nearly as fast as in the good old days. Technology was moving at a blistering speed updating every 6 mths or so. For a couple of years now people have remained satisfied with whatever they have been using. I'm referring to non-geeks not myself (hence my nice system specs). Now no one seems to want the latest Pentium 4 chip or the biggest Hard disk or the latest OS. I know many people who have 'upgraded' by using the second hand market to purchase cheap 1Ghz models that gets the job done running Win 98 and Office 97/2000. Personally, I keep in touch with I.T news being a geek of sorts. But no one else around me seems to take any interest relative to previous years. I even know of many in the I.T profession who have changed lines altogether and haven't even considered picking up the latest language etc - job market looks glum. Why did I put up this post? I simply wanted to see if you guys were in agreement over in the US of A and Asia as compared to Aussie. Instead you avoided the question by telling me about the latest technology on the horizon. But as I've said before, the growing non-geek population couldn't give a stuff being satisfied with what they already have.
I won't avoid the question...
What is it that your
average user uses a PC for?
(In no particular order)
1) word processing
2) email/instant messaging
3) browsing the internet
What are sufficient requirements to do so? PentiumII @ 300MHz and 64MB or RAM? 16MB graphics card? 10GB of hard disk space?
Does the average user
need the newest PC to hit the market? Absolutely not. If an average user buys the newest PC on the market, it is because (a) he or she believes that it offers something more that they need, or (b) he or she just wants a new computer and that one looks nice. Choice (a) is where the marketing comes in to play. PC manufacturers now have to convince the average user that they
need the newest technology. "Digital photos and video, space for all the music in the world," etc. We have now passed the point where the average user doesn't have to complain that his or her PC is too slow or that their hard drive is full... because chances are that his or her PC does just fine as it is.
Look at what Microsoft is doing/has been doing. For one, talking about Longhorn and how much everyone is going to need it...
at least two years before it is available. So by the time Longhorn is on the shelves, everyone in the world thinks that they need to upgrade (that's what Microsoft hopes at least).
coathanger007, I understand your argument, but it is not completely sound. Technology, in a sense, is in a war against itself. Is it becoming too good now, or will it do something so different and incredible that nobody will believe it? We'll just have to see.