AS I sat at my desk this week opening up my review unit of the N97 Mini smartphone from Nokia, I could not help but feel sorry for the poor souls who, just a few months ago, had picked up the original N97.
The N97 is Nokia's flagship device, mixing a small computer with 32GB, 5MP camera with a 3.5 inch screen. It was launched in June for $1,028.
The Mini, as the name suggests, is a smaller device with a 3.2inch screen and 8GB capacity. The price, at $1,020, had not shrunk much when the gizmo launched this month.
Two phones, almost similar in specs, launched less than six months apart at about the same price. If you factor in telco subsidy, you can get either phone for about $500 on similar subscription plans right now.
Some might say that the extra memory in the original device makes it a better buy, but I'm looking at the N97 Mini as the more updated device, with extra time spent on improving it, and thus, the better product. Form wise, the metallic back cover of the new kid beats the plastic one of the big daddy any day.
But this blog is not just about phones, but more about companies releasing newer versions of their products at a faster rate, with cellphone companies the latest player in the catch-up game.
In the home movie industry, it is called "double dipping", where studios release a movie on DVD first, and a Special Edition with extra features and bonus disc a year later.
In the case of electronics, not too many consumers can afford to buy a second device for the additional features, but imagine spending a tidy sum on a new plasma TV, only to find out that five months later that the model you bought now has a thinner variant, with different colours and more bells and whistles too — and at about the same price.
I would be upset.
As a consumer, when I buy an expensive product, I hate knowing that there is a newer version just around the corner.
Some might argue that innovations give rise to these upgrades. So consumers get tinier gizmos yet with niftier tools.
I do not deny that soup-ups are great. There is the original iPhone, the much improved iPhone 3G and the current 3GS, all launched with significant upgrades about a year apart.
Take the new PlayStation 3 Slim. At 33 per cent smaller and 36 per cent lighter than its predecessor, it also comes with a 120GB hard drive against the 60GB of the original. And it’s priced the same as the original but with more to offer.
Unlike super fast handset roll-outs, the PS3 Slim – also trotted out in August this year – comes three years after the original made its debut in November 2006.
Of course, fans might take issue with the fact that after the roll-out of the $512 120GB version here last month, Sony announced this week the price of the 250GB version at $552. Again, I pity those who bought the 120GB version.
There is nothing wrong with gizmo makers trotting out newer models, but in a breathless span of a few months, or even week?
Surely, the respectable time distance should be a year, like cars, for which a new model is launched each year.
Such pacing – apart from discouraging over consumerism and clogging the earth with electronic junk – gives consumers the latitude of buying without feeling so cheated.
The least they can do is come out with the devices with new model numbers or names.
Alas, Nokia already has the N98 and N99 models lined up so it is stuck with calling the new N97 the Mini, but that is what happens when you launch and design things so close after the other.