It’s that time of year again…Gadgets and Gizmos Time!
Yes, January has become the second “Christmas” for geeks the world over since the onset to the annual Consumer Electronics Show some forty seven years ago. It has become almost a holy pilgrimage each year for the geekiest among us. Tech toys and tools of all shapes and sizes with plenty of glamour and glitz as befits a Las Vegas Revue — an ensemble of sexy tech just as seductive to techheads as any revue of beflowered, lovely, and scantily clad showgirls.
Newspapers and news shows around the world have already started their buzz about “what X vendor will announce at CES2014.” As the show proceeds, we’ll see more and more press about the latest and greatest from televisions to smartphones to Scanadu (the “tricorder” from Star Trek, sort of) to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I’m as geeky as the next guy (heck, probably more), so don’t get me wrong: I still love the world of digitalia. What is beginning to bother me, and bore me to some degree, is the “same old, same old” nature of all the so-called stories surrounding the next greatest gadget.
Every time some i-vendor or e-vendor enhances their product, it’s pitched to the world as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Whether its an app, a TV, a computer-variant, or some other digital tool, each vendor puts out press releases that proclaim it as nigh on the Second Coming. Mostly their pitches are just a reorganized collection of the same old selling points. And, they’re all starting to sound the same. Such repetition leads to…YAWN!
Making great tools that help people achieve goals – whether they’re work goals, home goals, health goals, or relaxation goals – is a valuable thing, sure, but the new product announcements appear to have jumped the shark. Every new i-toy is NOT a world-shattering announcement. Such over-the-top product launches are becoming tiresome, cliché even.
I realize I’m endangering my geek status and am being somewhat techno-heretical, but let’s face it: technology marketing has become about as obnoxious as, and as overdone as, paparazzi.
Instead of light shows and sound bites, I’d love to see techno-marketers start telling me stories, engaging and useful stories, about how their new gadget is going to help me achieve the goals in my life. Telling a story is one of the greatest human traditions. Storytelling relays history and sometimes even makes history. Tell me a good story and I’ll be be more inclined to plunk down my money for your new product than I’d ever be after all the flash powder and laser light shows in the world.
Dr. Gregg
Posted – January 7, 2014
