Comments on: Are We Really Seeing the ‘Crapification of Everything’?

By: palmfox

palmfox — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:48:29 +0000

Remember when products were designed to last a lifetime.. now they are live only through the next design cycle. I think aamp hit it on the nose. I am happy if my product does what it was intended to do well. I use my 3 year old mac mini because it suits my needs perfectly. I travel with a 12″ powerbook for the same reason.

I like to see what is out there, but I don’t have to have every little toy to make my life “easier”. By being selective, I avoid the “mediocracy of crapification”

By: doogald

doogald — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:40:27 +0000

Holy mackerel, for many, many, many years GM sold more automobiles than anybody else, well after they had anything even close to the highest quality, and this guy thinks that this is a new phenomenon? McDonalds/fast food of all types?

And yet, somehow Toyota was finally able to surpass GM in sales, despite the fact that their automobiles cost more. Somebody has already pointed out the consistently growing success of the Apple Macbook lines of laptops. Apple continues to open new retail stores. Niemann-Marcus has not gone out of business. There is a huge movement growing in people buying locally grown, high quality produce (‘locavores’) rather than buying the mediocre junk at the supermarket.

BTW, perhaps he should look up the derivation of the word ‘shoddy’. Hint: it dates back to 1813. This search for just good enough is not some recent phenomenon.

By: aamp

aamp — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:19:38 +0000

Another thought comes to mind…

I bet he’s a PC!

I am too, but your description of the article makes me think he is the type of person who values ‘features’ over ‘experience’.

I’m also that type of person, so for example, I can’t justify the added cost of buying a Mac over a PC…although the iPhone has given me a taste of what it’s like to have a holistic experience that outweights the added features of a fancy WinMo device…

By: Brandon (aka netsyd)

Brandon (aka netsyd) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:12:43 +0000

To answer the “is there still room for elegance and innovation and premium pricing” … my response is “yes”. My evidence: 13″ MacBook Pro.

In general, I will say that I completely agree that there appears to be broad based crapification of everything and as long as we continue to accept it, it will continue to get crappier.

By: aamp

aamp — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:11:34 +0000

I would have to say that his hypothesis is flawed. The definition of quality is not to provide a product that excels at everything but to provide a product that fulfils it’s intended purpose excellently.

With this definition all the examples above are of quality products. The Flip Video camera is not going to record video for HD movies – it’s intended purpose is to allow users to record video for online video sharing sites and guess what, it’s a quality product, excelling in ease of use, build quality and battery life…