The Best Gadgets Are Your Gadgets

The best gadgets have a number of special qualities, but early adopters of innovation are aware of a certain subset of features that set them apart from your ordinary gadget lovers. Understanding the levels of gadget lovers is key to knowing about the best gadgets and deciding which gadgets are for you. First of all, there are early adopters of an innovation – which most gadgets are, something new on the market and in popular culture. Think about when the first GPS system became available. It may have been talked about on a specialty technology program on television, radio, or the Internet, but it was not widely known. Those who did find out about it and searched out a product to buy and use even though it was rare and hard to find are known as early adopters. The next level of consumers of gadgets are those who have heard a rumor or hint about a gadget, but wait to see what the early adopters say about it. Once they read a couple of reviews and find a source to purchase the gadget, they become the second wave of adopters. Finally, the last level of gadget users is the mass market – after a gadget becomes well-known in the media and in popular culture, its price has dropped to an affordable level and it becomes a best-selling gadget. But through this process it is the early adopters of a gadget that determine its ultimate fate. How do they determine what are the best gadgets?

Useful

The best gadgets are utilitarian – they are useful for some purpose. The Apple II computer was successful as a gadget because it was useful for bookkeeping with Lotus 123 – a spreadsheet program – and for word processing – typing without a typewriter – with early programs. Because it was useful, it was bought by early adopters even though they knew that the price would probably come down – they had to have it anyway. But without the quality of being useful for a real-world task, it would not have been adopted and ultimately successful.

Easy to use

The best gadgets are not only demonstrably useful to get a real job done, but they are easy to use to accomplish the actual task. Apple’s Macintosh computer was basically sold to early adopters – who paid a premium price to be on the front lines of users – on its user-friendly graphic interface. The combination of point and click operation with the mouse and on-screen representation of documents that the user could create – known as what you see is what you get (wysiwyg) – made the computer an instant icon, a social meme before the Internet was born, Just seeing a Mac in action was all it took for an early adopter to fork over the money for this gadget – it was SO easy to use it was a no-brainer.

Practical

The best gadgets are practical – they solve a problem that needs to be solved in an efficient and effective manner. Gadgets that solve a problem that nobody cares about solving come and go, without making much of a mark. The 8 track tape cartridge recorder is a good example of an unpractical gadget – it just didn’t work very well and was not very practical – no one wanted to make their own 8 tracks from records, they just wanted to buy players. A car phone – seen in movies from the early 80s – was a practical gadget. It solved the real-world problem of easy, reliable mobile communication. Without his practicality, it would not have evolved into the cell phone we all carry today.

Multipurpose

Without a doubt, the best gadgets are useful for more than one thing. Consider a pocket knife: it can cut, and that’s about it. But a Swiss army knife can open a bottle, pick your teeth, unscrew a a screw, cut fabric with scissor blades, file off a rough edge, and also cut. An adding machine can perform basic calculations, but a personal computer can do that and manipulate, store, and transform those calculations, and you can play games on it. It has more than one primary use, and the uses are limited only by the imagination of the user.

Sexy

The use of the adjective “sexy” as applied to consumer products is very much a 20th century invention. The Apple IIe personal computer was sexy, whereas the IBM PC was definitely not. The Sony Walkman was sexy, but the typical Radio Shack portable cassette player/recorder was not. The design of a gadget, the way it looks, feels, and the image it imparts to the user, has become a part of what makes the best gadgets the best.

High Quality

The best gadgets are perceived as being made with precision craftsmanship, from the best available components manufactured from the best possible raw materials, to the strictest standards and highest tolerance. Whether these qualities are actually real or not, its the perception of quality that matters. A real Rolex is worth far more than a knock-off because of quality. An analog to digital convertor made with the best components under the strictest quality control procedures simply sounds better than the street-corner A/D chip – everyone knows that. The best gadgets are made from the best raw materials by the best makers of gadgets, and that’s the truth.

Confidence

The best gadgets make the user feel confident, prepared, ahead of the curve, one in a a million, and so on. But confidence is a valuable commodity in a gadget, not easily dismissed. Back in the mid 80s when portable CD players were being introduced, it was Sony that made buyers and users feel confident – that they were getting the best product for the best price on the market. That feeling carried over to consumer confidence in general – an early adopter of a Sony CD Walkman was absolutely sure that he or she had made the right decision in buying the gadget, and the act of buying instilled confidence in the buyer’s ability to keep on doing the same great job at buying the right thing.

Inspirational

The best gadgets inspire and motivate the user to be creative, productive and efficient. Food processors were first seen as a redundant appliance, until savvy marketers started playing up the creativity and culinary inspiration the gadget could give to its owner. GPS buyers have been quoted as saying the gadgets literally changed their lives – they became confident about getting to destinations on time and without traumatic detours. If a gadget makes an owner feel confident, its a gadget that will be purchased again and again.

Environmentally friendly

Modern times have made the best gadgets environmentally sound, both on the manufacturing side and on the recycling side. Programs for disposing of cell phones and computers are described as a perk of the gadget – something you look for before deciding to buy. The idea is that when you are ready to trade up to a newer model, the company has made sure that the manufacture of your gadget facilitates the best possible path to the upgrade – and they’ll help you meet the goal of getting rid of the old one and getting a new one in an environmentally sound way.

It’s All Yours

Finally, the best gadgets are your gadgets, because they make you feel like a trendsetter, an innovator, a hip person, a socially-conscious person, and an intelligent consumer. Whatever gadget you currently own, from the latest espresso maker to the newest mp3 player, if you own it it, it’s the best gadget you could have. Until, of course, the newest models of the best gadgets come out.