Patience has never been one of my best virtues. I tend to want things now, or sooner if possible.
So, when any new tech comes out, be it a new video game console, iPhone model, or whatever, I鈥檝e usually been one of those deranged geeks who line up outside a store for hours, just to be one of the first few people to unbox the latest hyped tech product.聽
I had the very first iPod, iPod Touch and iPhone when they came out. I was one of the first to have my greedy little hands on a PlayStation Portable (PSP) system, the latest iteration of GoPro camera, and I can鈥檛 even count how many video games I鈥檝e pre-ordered over the years, just so I could be one of the first to explore a particular game world. But, not anymore.
Despite my penchant for the latest gadgets, gizmos and games, it has become just too much of a risk nowadays to invest in something that hasn鈥檛 been amply tested out by the masses for a while. Take the latest Samsung Galaxy smartphones, for example. Pretty soon after the newest versions of the phones blew into retail stores, they began blowing up in people鈥檚 faces. Apparently there were some problems with the phone鈥檚 lithium ion batteries, necessitating a massive recall that has been estimated to cost the company about a billion dollars, not to mention the hit they鈥檒l take with consumers.聽
But it isn鈥檛 just gadgets that are being put out on the market without being amply tested first. Most video games are released today with a fair amount of bugs or broken content, and gamers have to wait for the developers to patch and fix those issues on the fly well after the game is installed on everyone鈥檚 computers. Now, it may seem weird to buy an unfinished piece of software, but most game companies and even gamers themselves just chalk it all up to 鈥渉ow it鈥檚 done today鈥� unfortunately.
Pretty much every game I play has some hot-fix or emergency patch every week to address some game balance issue or newly discovered bug. The game developers do try to do some quality assurance testing before release, however the limited number of game testers they employ can never do as thorough a job as when millions of people are playing and trying to beat a particular title out in the wild. So, now I usually wait a week or two before buying a game, forgoing any pre-order bonuses that are usually offered to convince gamers to cough up some dough even before playing a game, and hope the most egregious bugs are fixed before I start playing.
Then there is the planned obsolescence of products, and the speed with which newer iterations come out to replace the thing you just bought. I mean, they seem to come out with a new iPhone every other day, so it is hard to always have the latest thing, unless you鈥檝e got some sort of unlimited bankroll. I totally want to get into the virtual reality tech that鈥檚 out right now. There are a number of headsets out there, however my research says the HTC Vive is the better of the VR gear on the market. However, I was pretty hesitant to lay down $1,200 for a headset, knowing that it was only the first iteration of the gadget. And boy, was I right! It seems that less than a year later, HTC is planning to come out with the next, improved version of its VR tech, leaving early adopters feeling pretty frustrated once again.
I鈥檓 hoping that eventually, like me, other consumers will use their buying power to urge companies to do things differently, maybe spend a bit more time on testing their products, and even more time in between iterations. But I鈥檓 not going to hold my breath. The almighty dollar more often outweighs a company鈥檚 desire to do right by its customers. So, until being an early adopter of tech isn鈥檛 such a risk anymore, I guess we鈥檒l all have to work on being patient.
