…. is great fun.
In very many ways I am an early adopter of technologies. Except for one vital way which can help marketeers. I very rarely buy them until their costs reduce. In that sense, I am the archytypal price sensitive Indian customer.
I once – and only once – got my fingers burnt buying high. It was the Mac LC -which i had coveted from afar as a student. I paid all of GBP 999 for 4 MB of RAM and 40 MB of hard disk (this was wayback in 1994). A few months later it was obsolete and the newer model cost less than what i spent. As a student, i had worked to save up to buy this – as opposed to getting it as a gift from my folks. And it pinched – it may not have pinched so much if i hadn’t paid for it. It taught me an important lesson,which stood me in good stead through almost 15 years of professional life and 3 years in business. Never get seduced by technology enough to pay more than what you perceive its value to be 🙂

While all my friends were busy 18 months ago splurging on DVD players with a price tag of 15 -18 k, i preferred watching my films and series on the PC – on a DIVX format. Today, i finally succumbed. We went to Alfa (Irla) and picked up a snazzy DVD DIVX combo player. It is the Phillips DVD 642k (whatever that means). It cost me Rs. 4.2k. Most of the documentaries, series and non English/Hindi/Tamil films that we possess are on DIVX format. And I was looking for something that would play it.

The beauty of waiting is not just the price. It is also the functionality provided. Less, in this particular case, is more.
Today we get fully loaded laptops under 50k. I know a number of people who neither needed one nor knew how to use one – acquiring laptops at 1.5 lacs 18 months earlier because they wanted to be up there as early adopters. And todays 50k laptop offers everything that the 1.5 lac laptop did. In fact they have a few added features – wifi enabled, combo DVD drive etal.
I wonder whether the kick gained from knowing that you are an early adopter compensates for the premium that one pays for the product.
Do people really have more money than sense, or are they seduced by the hype?