Television
Choices. We all have to make a choice these days when it comes to buying or acquireing a gadget or technological product or service. Namely, say a Laptop, mobile phone, a television or more mundane stuff like a pen drive.
Instead of using the word choice let me say compromise! Most of us more a compromise when it comes to buying a gadget. Whenever we go shopping for a cell phone, seldom do people research and zero in on a few models according to their needs. The main deciding factor is the price and the looks.
If the cellphone looks cool and is priced within the budget. Its SOLD
Same goes for most consumer products like Laptop and that’s how manufactureres have priced their models. When i bought my first laptop after 2 months of market research, reading numberous reviews on the internet, going through the various pros and cons. I was very sure of :
- What I was buying
- Why I was buying
- Worth of my purchase
Sadly enough most people I come across wont care for the above mentioned points. For them its :
- Looks
- Price
And hence, more often than not they end up making a COMPROMISE. Not that they want to but its again the ignorance. Almost every high end electronic product can be customised according to the consumer’s need. Specially, the laptops. Every manufacturer offers a Customise option while booking online and you get to choose every aspect of your system from RAM, Processor, Graphics, HDD, Finger Print Recognition etc
Still very few actually order it online, they’d rather SEE it in action first and buy a base version from retail than choose the one which suits their own needs. What do you call it? I call it ignorance. Knowing you can get a better bargain after customising the laptop, one still buys a jack-og-all-master-of-none kind of configuration.
This attitude doesnt stop at the computer and its allied products but extends itself to all other devices like Television. Most High Definition (HD) television sets available in our country proudly proclaim the HD label while those that are actually Full HD are considerably expensive.
The shame is that no matter what the TV says, neither can play Star Plus or ZEE TV at High Definition at present because the source is itself not available in HD in India and it may take some years more for the cable infrastructure be it DTH or normal cablewala operators to come out with HD quality channels.
So, what does a Full HD television do? It just sits pretty in your living room gathering appreciation of guests who themselves have no clue that it doesn’t play HD yet!
The Jaggo Grahak Jaggo campaign did create a positive response in the beginning but now its becomes more of a farce and a joke among people. Here I am not talking about my grand dad who still doesn’t use a ATM-cum-Debit card forget about using Internet Banking. I am more concerned about those large majority of individuals and families who in spite of knowing the alternatives dont’t bother to adjust to change.
<rant over!>
