Perspective: If only Apple made a digital camera

My wife doesn't know it but I'm looking to surprise her with a new digital camera for her birthday. Problem is that her birthday was two weeks ago and I'm still shopping.

The bigger problem is that I'm no closer to finding the right digital toy than I was when I began searching a couple of months ago. Not that there's any lack of selection or that the prices are out of reach. Just the opposite. In fact, there are more choices than ever and prices are fairly reasonable by historical standards.

So what's wrong? Chalk it up to gizmo overload.

My wife's not going to need half of the features that manufacturers stuff into the units I've examined. I suppose she'd be able to eventually figure out how to use most of these cameras but there would be a phonebook-size product manual to master.

Technology buyers have had to put up with this nonsense for the better part of the last couple of decades. We're made to feel stupid again and again and again.

Maybe I'm being a knucklehead about all this but my hunch is that a lot of people are in the same boat. You wind up scratching your head trying to make sense of a dizzying array of advertised features. For salesmen, it's the equivalent of a full-time employment act. For the rest of us, it's misery.

Don't let's dump only on digital camera makers. Have you gone shopping for a cell phone recently? The relatively simple Nokia cell phone that I have comes with a Cingular interface that's utterly brain dead. The design is so flawed that it reminds me each time I use it never to buy another Cingular cell phone again.

Or how about televisions? Are you ready to explain the advantages and disadvantages of an HD-ready system versus one with HD already built in? Care to recite the sundry pluses and minuses as you choose among plasma, LCD and DLP screens?

Technology buyers have had to put up with this nonsense for the better part of the last couple of decades. We're made to feel stupid again and again and again. Maybe we'd be more willing to accept our lot if Apple Computer hadn't had the audacity to remember that products are supposed to serve human beings, not the other way around.

Remember the iPod? (Note to myself: That would be a nifty slogan for a mass consumer rebellion.) It's no surprise that this little MP3 player has been the centerpiece of Apple's revival. The elegance of the product's design has made all the difference. You pick up the device and you just get it. Apple makes a big deal of its design edge over the rest of the technology industry, and rightly so. The company's products--including the iPod, the Macintosh and the online music store--reflect an attention to detail that rivals should study.

Is it really that hard? Beats me, but Apple's designers just do a better job putting themselves into real peoples' shoes. The upshot: Apple does not waste folks' time by coding in a lot of stupid, confusing features. Why can't other companies do the same? Apple doesn't have a monopoly on smart people. The tech business is filled with brilliant engineers and product designers.

What's often missing is the management rigor to say, "Stop!"

Speaking at a conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, Sony boss Howard Stringer gave voice to the frustration of product design run amok.

"It's exhausting trying to win on every front and marketing across so many products. Every Sony engineer loves his own product?-an electronic toothbrush with a camera?"

Interesting hyperbole but Sir Howard made his point. There's a fine line between feature-rich and feature overload. Somewhere along the line Sony forgot that lesson. Is it any wonder that it churned out a series of so-so products consumers ignored?

At least someone in authority at Sony recognizes there's a problem. The crying shame is that most of the technology industry still believes things are just hunky-dory.

Biography
Charles Cooper is CNET News.com's executive editor of commentary.

More Perspectives

[BetterthanurX]

Couldn't agree more

These are the reasons i have yet to find a replacement to my
current phone (everything out there is either boring or lacking in
something) and the reasons i use a mac more than i do a PC. Lets
hope things change.

[jabbotts]

nah, your on the right track

"i use a Mac more than i do a PC"

Your on the right track. In this case I'm a little behind; I know far too much about IT to still be using a PC.

[Lefein]

Kudos

Product integration is nice and all, but it has gone much too far in recent years. I just wish I could use my PSP as a cell phone and be done with it.

A digital camera shouldn't have a half-inch thick instruction booklet.. It's just silly. It also shows a lack of focus on quality in the electronics industry.

[JohnMcLeod]

If Only... Oh wait, they did.

Apple made, I believe, the first consumer digital camera. The Quicktake if I remember correctly. Friends who owned them loved them. As the category matured, Apple left the market. Now imagine with today's technology what you could get from Apple in a digital camera. It's nice to dream.

[Andrew J Glina]

No

They sold the first. Kodak made it but hated it so much that they didn't want their name on it. I used one and they were right.

[BMoake]

I don't understand the shine.

What is the big deal? The cameras couldn't be easier to use. Find one that does what you want. If you don't like the extra features, don't use them.

My camera has a lot of features I have never used, and probably wont', but it does everything I want/need it to.

[BMoake]

I don't understand the shine.

What is the big deal? The cameras couldn't be easier to use. Find one that does what you want. If you don't like the extra features, don't use them.

My camera has a lot of features I have never used, and probably wont', but it does everything I want/need it to.

[BMoake]

That was supposed to be

Who needs proofreading!

[BMoake]

That was supposed to be whine

Who needs proofreading!

[e3954]

Confusing tech

Technology product manufacturers are constantly looking for something new to offer customers. If there isn't anything absolutely mind-blowing "must have" just about to make its appearance, the marketing folks take over and take features/benefits and try to make them indispensible on existing technology products. Indispensible, that is to say, in the minds of us consumers. That's why we now must have HD TVs, never mind the very great possibility that when this technology finally "arrives", the stuff we bought won't work without modification (at our expense, of course)if it works at all. After all, TV manufacturers still have to sell lots of TVs to stay in business, and if there isn't anything really importantly new, well then they just create from marketing techniques, something and make us feel that we have to have it.

[jty12388]

3D pictures

Who do you think fault really lies on here? If you walk into BestBuy and theres two cameras that are the same price do you pick up the 4 megapixel or the 6.2 megapixel? Do you really know which one takes a better picture? No, the average person just sees a bigger number and possible a Sony logo and that must be the best one. So if manufacturers don't throw the right number at you they don't sell their product. Besides if they did not constantly make changes and improvements we would not be moving forward and someday I might want a 3D picture. I have never picked up a digital camera that I could not figure out how to use without an instruction manual, but if its that hard for you I have a really simple solution for you. Go to your local RadioShack and find the guy thats been there for a few years. It shouldn't be hard due to the small size of the store. Answer a few simple questions including what your main use for the camera will be as well as how technologically inept you are and they will show you the camera that is right for your needs. If your really bad I bet he will show you how to take pictures right in the store. The bottom line is that all the numbers means that there is competition. Competition means better products and lower prices so don't complain. If you can't figure out the easy to use cameras on the market today maybe you should get a sketch pad.