June 15, 2011
Products change on a daily basis and there is always a “new and improved” model being pitched, from toothpaste to electronics.
They change the color, the size, or add another cool feature to it and we wait in line for days to be one of the first to have it. Then, a few months later, the cycle repeats itself.
Apple released the first version of its new iPad in April 2010, then released version two this past March. There will likely be a version three before the end of the year.
There are a couple misquoted sayings out there, such as Charles Duell, the commissioner of the U.S. Patent office in 1899, saying, “Everything that can be invented has been invented,” and Microsoft’s Bill Gates saying “Nobody could possibly ever need more than 640K of memory.”
The point is that technology has advanced so much and products have gotten smaller, faster, and some cases even less expensive. Remember when a plasma TV was $10,000 and weighed 200lbs? Or a cell phone was the size of a brick and weighed almost as much?
Products will continue to evolve and there will always be a better mouse trap being thought up and built somewhere.
Yacht owners and captains are aware of these new and improved products through their own research or possibly from another owner or captain telling them how cool their greatest and latest addition is. Sometimes, it’s not even a question of cost, availability or even practical application; it’s a matter of “got to have it”.
So how do you keep up and always have the latest and greatest products without having to replace all your audio/video and computer equipment on a regular basis?
There are a couple things you can do to make good decisions about when to upgrade and replace things and when to simply wait.
If something breaks, is failing or quits working, you should evaluate some basic things before making a decision: Did the product work well, or did it rarely work at all?
Was it easy to use, or was it cumbersome and difficult to operate?
Will it require new programming, or can the same program be used?
Will a new product integrate into my system, or will I have to make changes?
How often did the product fail before it broke, or was it always reliable?
When is the next model scheduled to be released?
What will the cost be to upgrade and how long will it take?
What are the feature differences in the current product and the benefits of the new upgraded product?
Do I really need to replace it, or does it work and do the job?
I hear horror stories every day about how the current equipment on a vessel, which cost thousands of dollars, never worked properly or failed completely. I spoke with a mate the other day who indicated the yacht had an audio request on board and it had failed.
He contacted the company about upgrading or replacing the unit and were basically told the current piece was now an anchor and had no value.
I also spoke with a captain who has a Media PC on board and has had nothing but trouble with the unit from day one. He spoke with the company that sold the unit to the yacht and after several minutes of frustrating conversation with the technician, the call ended abruptly. I cannot repeat what the captain said to end the call.
Upgrading and replacing products is expensive, time consuming, can come with a learning curve, and doesn’t always live up to the hype. The old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies in a lot of circumstances.
The tricky part is determining when to upgrade and when to keep what you’ve got.
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