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Entelligence: Close to the edge
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide. There's an interesting debate that I've had recently. Should product designers aim for the enthusiast or "edge" cases when designing products, or should they instead target mainstream users from day one? It's an interesting discussion, but I believe that those that say "aim for the edge" and the enthusiast aren't correct, at least in the long run. Now if you're reading this, chances are you're a bit of an edge case -- or at the very least a gadget enthusiast. That's cool, I'm one as well. In fact, over the last few years I've coined three rules that I've come to refer to as Gartenberg's Three Laws of Consumer Electronics. For those of you not familiar with them, they are: There's a world wide market of 50,000 for any device sold to enthusiasts and early adopters. If Gartenberg sees a product at a demo and doesn't offer his credit card for purchase immediately, the product is doomed. Even if Gartenberg does offer his credit card, the product may well still be doomed -- as Gartenberg is part of the 50,000 enthusiasts that will buy (almost) anything. (If you're in the NY area, come on over some time and I'll show you my collection)
Entelligence: Beware of geeks bearing gifts
Today we reintroduce Entelligence as a new column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide. Here's a riddle. Why was a $300 PC with a Pentium III CPU, an 8GB hard drive, 64MB of RAM, 10/100 Ethernet, a DVD player, and an NVIDIA graphics chip considered a killer PC system in late 2001? The answer is because it wasn't a PC -- it was the original Xbox. In recent years, Microsoft has evolved the Xbox quite a bit. No longer is it a PC system with N-1 technology -- it is now a targeted and focused piece of engineering that is state of the art and optimized for games -- but importantly, a lot more than games. It's the Xbox that will likely be Microsoft's beachfront into the digital home, and it will be the Xbox which furthers Microsoft's role in the digital home beyond the PC.
