Gadgets need to be simpler, readers agree

Then there were some readers — about 15 percent — who felt consumers had to take some responsibility as well:

Joe, Fort Worth, TX: I think people want too much from manufacturers. They want everything to magically be set up their way without manufacturers knowing what their way is. When you start messing with a new piece of technology, you have to do research, simple as that.

Dave Danielson, CT: I think the real problem is how lazy and complacent we've become as a society. You can find the answer to just about any question on the Internet. The only other significant factor is the electronics industry constantly convincing people they actually need half of this crap! The majority of us are sick of having to pay the ridiculous prices generated by a smaller group who will buy the latest trendy item just so they can say they own one. The only benefit to this ridiculous "tech race" is that when the industry launches the newest cutting-edge jewel, the old stuff gets a little more reasonable in price.

Joseph Sosville, Oxford, MI: The answer to consumer confusion was provided by an IBM logo of many years ago: THINK. Consumer confusion about electronics is no more than a fancy phrase for "consumer laziness". If the consumer would THINK first and then BUY later, they would be able to undo the complexity that is created by a multitude of choices.

Finally, several readers also brought up a related aspect of consumer confusion that’s likely to become a bigger issue: what media do you get free and what do you have to pay for

Kimberley, Enfield Connecticut: What I don't like is that nothing is ever "free" once you buy the actual product — there are more services to buy than ever before. No wonder everyone is in debt. When you have to buy a service to listen to radio, when are people going to say enough is enough?  Someone has got to come up with an easier alternative to all these services, like bundling them all together.

After confusion, the next two challenges for the converged entertainment business will be money and time. The pay-per-view model, or buy-and-own (as in iTunes), may end up with people staring at month-end credit card bills in shock. As a result I do think more consumers will look for combined media subscriptions that will cap their costs — but it’s going to take a long time for the industry to sort that out.

Even more pressing is the fact that consumers have a relatively fixed amount of media consumption time that’s not going to increase just because there are more choices. Until recently each medium’s share of time was somewhat dictated by where the consumer was — at home you can watch TV, on the bus or subway you read, at work or in the car there’s radio. In the new world, when you can consume any kind of media just about anywhere you are, there will doubtless be new winners and losers in the battle for the consumer’s time.

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