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| Shopping the sweet spot |
September 11, 2005 |
By Peter Wolchak
BACKBONE LOOKS AT THE FOUR HOTTEST DEVICES TODAY — MP3 PLAYERS, NOTEBOOKS, DIGITAL CAMERAS AND CELLPHONES — AND DELIVERS ADVICE ON WHAT TO LOOK FOR AND HOW MUCH TO PAY
Megapixels. Megahertz. Megabytes. MP3s. If you’ve been shopping for a new tech gizmo these are words you’ve had tossed at you, and it’s just possible you didn’t fully grasp the details of each.
To help out, Backbone interviewed industry experts for advice on selecting MP3 players, notebooks, digital cameras and cellphones. We asked what features most people actually need and what they should expect to pay for their new purchase. In other words, we’ll help direct you to that sweet spot where functionality meets the best price.
And then, just for fun, we also asked what the next couple of years will deliver in terms of innovation and new functionality.
MP3 PLAYERS
Expect To Pay: $250
What You Get: a 5GB hard drive-based player
The Lowdown: MP3 is the de facto standard file type for storing music digitally, and MP3 portable music players range in price from less than $100 on the low end to $520 for a cream-of-the-crop Apple iPod.
Why the price difference? While additional features, like a built-in FM radio or a microphone for recording, will jack up prices, essentially storage capacity determines price. Cheaper players use flash memory and typically top out at about 1GB of storage, while units which store music on miniature hard drives typically start at about 2.5GB.
The point is, more room gives you more music. A 5GB player delivers about 2,500 songs.
But as IDC Canada analyst Eddie Chan points out, how and when you use the player may actually trump space considerations; flash memory is physically tougher and unlikely to be damaged when bumped, while hard drives store a lot of data but are more fragile. “That means if you are a hardcore music lover, a hard drive-based player is the way to go, but for portability and jogging consider a flash-based solution,” Chan said.
In Two Years: According to Lisa O’Malley, brand manager, portable audio for Creative Labs, the market for MP3 players is dividing into consumers who want a device that stores everything — photos, video, music, contacts and appointments — and those who just want a few tunes to accompany their kick boxing practice.
“In the future, expect to see portable video players ship with larger hard drives, larger and better displays and with improved battery life — all in a smaller form factor. But there will always be a need for flash- or microdrive-based music-only players, because people need a player for just exercising, without all the bells and whistles.”
NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS
Expect To Pay: at least $1,200
What You Get: a 100GB hard drive, a 14-inch monitor and wireless networking
The Lowdown: Most notebooks today already do what most people need: word and number crunching, CD burning, e-mail and eBay. The differentiating factors, according to Toshiba Canada product manager Jason Laxamana, are the overall size and weight of the notebook and how much it costs.
Laxamana said the notebook sweet spot right now is units with a 14-inch screen. The next size up, 15.4-inch, is actually the most popular in terms of units sold, but 14-inch is the fastest growing segment because it delivers better portability and battery life.
“People are now realizing that the actual performance is the same, regardless of screen size, and also that they don’t necessarily need a larger screen. And that’s because they are carrying notebooks around more, and once you start doing that you see the advantage of the smaller size. Also, when you are working mobile, battery life is very important, and a smaller screen draws less battery power.
“What’s important is to step back from the specs — ‘My processor is a 2GHz with a gig of memory and a 256MB video chipset’ — and simply say ‘I am a student and I need something that will do word processing, e-mail and the Internet, and I need it to be portable and have good battery life, all on a budget.’
“And that statement also applies to the majority of business consumers.”
IDC’s Chan agrees (“Everybody is on the go, and mobility is the driver in the marketplace right now”) although he believes wide aspect ratio screens are becoming increasingly popular. “DVDs look better, and if you’re working on a spreadsheet you can see a lot more columns.”
And one more note on price: while Laxamana said $1,200 will get you a good notebook, consider spending $1,500 or even a little more. That gets you an onboard DVD burner and slightly better graphics. “That will give you a notebook that you’ll be happy with for a while.”
In Two Years: Current notebooks already deliver most of the features people want, so Laxamana said the future will be all about extending battery life. Research is underway to create components — optical drives, hard drives, screens — that draw less power.
Everyone wants “eight hours of true performance — not having to lower the brightness on your screen, not having to throttle back your CPU. You want to see eight hours at blazing performance levels. That is probably not coming in the next two years, but we will see [some battery life] improvement in the near future.”
DIGITAL CAMERAS
Expect To Pay: $500
What You Get: five megapixel camera with add-on storage capacity.
The Lowdown: The digital camera market has been dominated by the rush to give buyers more megapixels at a lower price, but now that consumer units are at four or five megapixels, the spec race is cooling off. The reason: few people need more than five megapixels.
“It is easy to get caught in the megapixel race, but you have to ask: what do you want your digital camera to do? For example, is this a family camera, are you just replacing a film-based point-and-shoot? If so, the sweet spot will probably be between $400 and $500, which will get you four or five megapixels, and that will give you true photographic-quality 4x6 and 8x10 prints,” said Neil Stephenson, manager of the technical marketing group, consumer imaging group, at Canon Canada. “You get a great image from a five megapixel camera, and are you going to get a much better image from an eight? Maybe, but maybe not.”
Stephenson noted, though, that the cost of memory cards has to be factored into the purchase price, and he suggested buying fairly sizeable cards. “It is false economy right now to buy anything less than 512MB, because that will cost you only $50 or $60 but will give you hundreds of photos, even when shooting with a five megapixel camera. Most people will not run out of storage with a 512MB card.
“Also, instead of going with one big card, like a 1GB, I recommend buying two smaller cards. That way if one gets lost you haven’t lost everything. Also, you can often get a better price on two 512MB cards than on one 1GB.”
In Two Years: Stephenson said innovations are coming in the digital camera space, such as the ability to transmit pictures wirelessly from a camera to a computer or printer, but that the real market moves will be in making cameras and photo printers even easier to use. “The real future is in the usability of the cameras. The issue is it has to be fun, easy to use and reliable.”
CELLPHONES
Expect To Pay: $100, but varies depending on wireless plan
What You Get: a basic multimedia phone
The Lowdown: The thing about the cellphone market is that most people still just want to make calls, according to John Chier, the director of communications at Kyocera Wireless. That means entry-level phones are still hot. “The killer application is still voice, so those lower-tier phones are very popular. And the features you get today on a low-end phone are what you would have got a couple of years ago on a pricier model: colour displays, good contact directories and access to the Internet. These low-end models are still the majority of the business that’s done with wireless phones.”
However, Chier said the sweet spot today is in mid-market phones. “These are bought by people who have had their first phones, the free ones or the ones that cost a nominal fee, and then when they go to their next phone they will want to upgrade.
So they are looking for a camera, for music or for a more stylish design. Because of that the mid-tier is the fastest growing sector.
“In terms of a sweet spot, for multimedia it’s what we call ‘metaphoring.’
That is the ability of a phone to operate as well as the device it replaces. So for example, that means a phone that works as a phone, but with a built-in camera that has a lens cover and a shutter button and emulates the digital camera experience.”
IDC’s Chan said he wouldn't recommend phones with a camera of less than one megapixel and buyers should ensure the phone is compatible with their messaging system of choice: SMS, integration with Yahoo! or Hotmail e-mail, Instant Messaging clients, etc.
In Two Years: The focus, Chier said, will be on the content and services enabled by faster networks such as Edge and EVDO.
“You will be able to actually play multimedia files over the network, download content, and enterprise users will be able to emulate their desktop experiences.
“So for the next two years the watchword will really be data.”
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