“Each new medium has to find its economic place by replacing or supplementing what is already available, and popular acceptance, and therefore economic success, can come only by convincing consumers that the new medium improves on the experience of older ones” (68).
What is Bolter and Grusin saying exactly? The best illustration that I can think of is with the new iphone. Why is it that the day the iphone was released you couldn't drive by a Cingular Wireless store without seeing a line of people waiting to get into the door with hopes of possibly being able to make the $600 purchase. The answer is simple for them. The new iphone has capabilities that far surpasses any other phone on the market to date. They want what's cutting edge. They want to lead others into new technological advances. These are the same people who got Vista for Windows as soon as it came out and could not care less about the problems with incompatibility. So, why is it that other people that are still very interested in technology are still without the iphone and without Vista? It's because of the above statement taken from the Bolter and Grusin reading. These people are waiting for these new mediums to find their economic place. The price for such purchases are too steep and there are no doubt bugs that need to be ironed out. While these are popular items the first "batch" so to speak will be used to iron out any problems with the technology and the next "batch" will have addressed the problems with the first and also be less expensive. In short, more bang for the buck. This idea of getting more for your money plays a substantial role in whether or not a consumer will make a big purchase.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment