Performancing Metrics

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Problems with Perfection

     I've just been reading a blog posting talking about how the top computer systems, Google, Windows, Facebook, and the iPhone, are too big to topple.  I'm not for or against any of these technologies(with the exception being Facebook, because of its general lack of concern for its customers, and in my opinion, its worthless point in existing), but there is one problem with perfection: Price.
     The writer of the blog post makes a comment at the end relating all of these technologies to sliced bread, saying that if something isn't broke, don't fix it.  But the problem stemming from that is that people aren't willing to pay for it either.  Once someone has gotten their hands on something that is perfect, they will never need another one, or if they do, they will feel cheated for having to pay as much as they did originally.  That's the problem Microsoft faced with XP, no one really wanted a change, and many still don't.  So the only way to get  people away from that system and get them to start paying for things again was to simple quit making innovations to it.
     So, with a need for imperfection essential to the business model of all the major companies, I would beg to differ on the idea that, like sliced bread, the major technologies of our time won't be toppled.  Some one is eventually going to be bold or stupid enough to knowingly create something better, that won't need constant repair and replacement, and they will put it at a price point that will have it flying off the shelf. (Or in the case of Google and Facebook, redirect all of their traffic.)
     Human beings naturally seek to become better, its how we've gotten to where we are.  So with that mindset, these giants will either need to put themselves out of business, or one day they will have to graciously accept defeat from a superior product, which will then in turn be replaced thereafter by something else, until we somehow reach a point at which there can be no improvement.

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