I have learnt over time that the price of a consumer electronic device is not the most important aspect of its value. Most consumer electronic devices (take mp3 players, DVRs,...) come with a series of configurable parameters that helps this device become your device. You set the time of the clock, you change a couple of settings and menus, look and feel....this is obvious with anything that has a hard disk. Meaning nearly everything today.
Take your computer or your iPod. You buy it X dollars (and X * 1.5 if you buy it in Israel). But soon over time you load it with data, personnal settings, movies, pictures...And suddenly there is an emotional value that comes up which materializes in the fact that if you lost your computer or consumer device you would be more worried about the data and personal environment than the device itself.
I find myself in that situation and many companies have built a business out of the fact they enable you to "secure" what's valuable to you in a device (call it back up). A consumer electronic that has no back up capability is a big break in my view. Blackberry offers for example a full back up. But the iPhone is really poor in that sense. iTunes is supposed to help but it does not really back up everything and if you sync your iPhone with another computer you will loose a lot of data. I have a digital picture frame but there is no way i can back up the pictures i have uploaded there.
The price of a consumer electronic over time becomes insignificant. My personal environment becomes really what matters. If the manufacturer does not help me in keeping this safe, there is a big chance i will not come back to it later. The problem is that you only realize and understand that once your machine crashes or when you switch to something new.
For me a great device is one which has backup and that enables me easily to port my settings to a new device. i don't know anything perfect in that sense. But anything getting close to that is a good driver to purchase for me.
update: i just had a brief exchange on Twitter with @tinythoughts and i think a good reference came to mind. The second value of a consumer device is the soul, meaning what matters to your heart. Like everything try to separate the body from the soul and you get nothing
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