Technology allows designers to cram features into products -- whether software programs or hardware products. This is the natural outcome of silicon-based thinking. As a British computer magazine of the 1980s explained, "It costs the same to produce one chip or a million chips." Similarly, once software is written, it costs the same to distribute it, whether it contains one feature or a million features.
It's this economics of abundance that is now hindering technology. It costs little or nothing to overwhelm consumers. (You can search Google for "economics of abundance" to see a overwhelming list of Web pages that discuss this concept -- this itself being an example of the economics of abundance.)
For example, my MP3 player -- the delightful Zen Micro from Creative -- plays MP3 music. But also:
* Plays the now-abandoned PlayForSure format devised by Microsoft.
* Tunes into FM radio stations.
* Records from FM stations.
* Makes recordings through its condenser microphone.
* Displays the current date, time, and calendars of months.
* Shows names, address, phone numbers, and the like -- or it would, if I used Outlook by Microsoft, which I do not.
* Lists appointments -- also tied to Microsoft's Outlook.
* Sorts songs by artist, album, genre, song name, most played, least played, randomly selected, etc.
* Stores data, and acts like an external hard drive.
And perhaps some more. All in a package not much larger than a matchbox. Talk about abundance.
After owning the Zen Micro for nearly two years, I find I use three of its features: (1) play back MP3 songs, and (2, 3) the last two items listed above. The economics of abundance prevents me from using the other features, because (a) I forget they exist, and (b) I forget they exist because of the "zen" nature of the Zen Micro.
Software is free, but hardware costs. So the Zen, in its "simplicity," lacks the hardware to access the non-music related features. Ideally, it would have a long slider switch that (1) switches between MP3 playback, FM radio, FM recording, mic recording, date mode, and hard disk mode; and (2) reminds me that those functions exits. Instead, they are accessed through the less convenient and mildly annoying menu system that's only half-customizable.
As an experiment, I put the Date and FM features at the top of the Zen's menu, so I would always see them first. Still never used them, because my watch is more convenient for telling me the time and date, and I rarely listen to FM radio anymore (AM radio is more interesting; the irrelevance of FM could become the theme of another thesis).
The Future is Simple
This is a long, roundabout manner of getting to the point that Steven Jobs is right when he minimizes the functions of consumer electronics. The economics of abundance is a trap; at least it is for us humans can cannot mentally grasp more than three items at once.
Eliminate all that is unnecessary. This was brilliantly exposed through the recent expose comparing the number of ways that Windows Vista can be shut down (too many) vs. that of the Mac (a couple).
Abundance is not just created by today's economy, but also by committees. In that way, Steve Jobs dictatorial nature is correct. "What less does this product need in order to make it easy to use? What can it do without?" These questions asked by Jobs serve his company a double purpose:
* The product is more popular, because the future customer more easily grasps how it works when shown by their enthusiast friends.
* The product is more profitable, because the software costs less to debug, and the hardware costs less to assemble.
The future lies in simple consumer products.
Humanity is tired of complexity.
Contact
The book and the movie "Contact" take as their thesis this mantra, one that is stated three times by characters in the movie: "If we are alone in the Universe, it sure seems like an awful waste of space" -- borrowed from Thomas Carlyle, who 200 years ago moaned that "If they [other solar systems] be not inhabited, what a waste of space." The assumption is that we are not alone; for something as large as the universe, there must be other races of intelligent life with which we can hope to make contact.
Shortly after seeing the video a few weeks ago, I came across the Economics of Abundance at The Long Tail. While now-dead atheist Carl Sagan may have thought the universe is wasted on just us, the economics of the Internet suggest he was wrong -- that when something is very cheap to construct, it's not a waste to construct a lot of it.
And what did it cost to construct the universe?
Having one inhabited planet keeps things simple.
Have a good 2007. Happy New Year!
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