Joshua Topolsky at The Verge:
I pressed the companies on whether or not technology manufacturers were simply producing too many gadgets, outpacing real consumer demand with iterative, insubstantial changes. “Are we creating demand where there isn’t any?” I asked.
He makes an interesting point. One of the issues we hear all the time about CES is that there is just “too much”. Too much of everything. As Topolsky says, “For a journalist, it’s daunting — for shoppers, it’s starting to seem impossible.”
Human psychological studies have been done on “choice”. At first, choice is fun and rewarding. There’s a certain threshold, however, where the burden to make “the right” decision between many competing products causes stress. There *can* be “too many choices”.
I distinclty remember reading about a study done by some electronics manufacturer around 2002 (or something), stating that customers want more gadgets, not few gadgets that do almost everything, but many, many specialised gadgets.
The reason for that? — The desire to show off.
I read that, looked down on my Compaq iPaq H3760 and my Siemens S45 and wished they were one device.
Choice is good. Choice is necessary, but as soon as consumers cannot clearly distinguish two devices from each other choice becomes a burden. With lack of differentiation the value proposition vanishes.