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There's one example I've used repeatedly

... to illustrate to many the difference in design philosophy and user's mentality between US and the rest of the world.

It's a walkman I bought ~15 yrs ago in Asia.

The walkman was made by Awia. It was thin and small (not much bigger than a cassette tape). It was black in color, with rounded corners, and most of its casing (except the back) was made with anodized aluminum. It has a glass faceplate with a digital display, which was a clock when the walkman was off, a counter when the tape was running, and the display for the AM/FM digital tuner when listening to the radio.

The walkman uses 2 AAA batteries for maybe >6 hrs of playtime. It also came with a thin (~3/4 diameter of AAA) rectangular shaped rechargable lead-acid battery that can add another 2 hrs to the machine. The housing of the rechargable battery can be completely detached from the housing of the 2 AAA batteries without affecting the playback. The rechargable battery can also be used alone without the housing for the 2 AAA batteries. The walkman itself functions as the charger, and came with a universal converter much like those that came with cellphones these days.

The walkman was also a tape recorder, and came with a detachable stereo microphone that can clip onto the collar of a shirt. It has a Dolby filter for tape playback, a slider to control the spatial separation effect, a bass-boost switch, a hold switch, and 5 FM and 5 AM channels memory.

The unit lasted 12 yrs. It died because I accidentally plugged my cellphone's converter into the unit and didn't realized it until it smells.

Now compare that walkman to the walkmans that were sold in the US around the same period. Those in the US were bulky, heavy, mostly with sharp corners, came with only mechanical tuners, and designed to be as simple as it could be. They were much cheaper, but they were also easier to break.

Do you see the difference? While the rest of the world opt for options, styles, and complete control, the US products opt for big buttons with extreme simplicity. I'm not judging which product has higher margins, and my point has nothing to do with which product line is superior, but rather has everything to do with the market demand. Even the Awia walkmans that were sold in the US during that time were big and bulky and simplistic.

It's the same with MS and Linux. Without a global view, many people believes it's piracy that's hurting MS. It's NOT. Consumers outside US actually LIKE to have extreme control over their OS. They like to be able to customize it with lots and lots of options, regardless of whether those options are truly useful. When Linux comes along, it and its apps just fit effortlessly into the world market.

The fact that Linux is free only help speed up the conversion. Even if Linux cost as much as MS Windows, Linux will still slowly eats away MS's market share in a global sense.

Posted by: toomuchgreeatea@...   Posted on: 05/12/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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