The nerd market has been saturated -- you all have computers -- but what about the
"home market"? I'm no expert on this, but now that I've taken on the persona of home
user myself, I feel better qualified to say why normal people would rather use
calculators and play board games. I recently upgraded to a Power Mac 8500 so that I
could work at home and also to be able to enjoy some fun software like the newly
released electronic version of my favorite board game. Rather than just download
software from an Apple server to use for work, I was going to buy something to play
with to help justify my new expensive hardware purchase -- just like any Mom, Pop,
or kid might do.
I took a trip -- several, actually -- to a barn-like emporium that is Nerd Central in
my neighborhood but a singularly unpleasant place for non-geeks. (The clerks seem to
know that if you have to ask for what you need, you don't belong there, so they ignore
you.) The first few times, I was dismayed to find that the game I wanted had been
released only for Windows and not yet for Macintosh. Finally, when I looked more
closely at the product in the Windows software section, I saw the small print on it that
said "Windows and Mac." Then all I had to do was wait a half hour in line to buy it.
Remember the big furor over wasteful packaging when CDs started replacing record
albums in audio stores? Before long the shelves were redesigned and the extra
packaging eliminated. What did I find in this big box containing a software product for
which I had shelled out 50-plus dollars? Nothing but a CD in its case and a huge piece
of molded black plastic cleverly designed to take up all the rest of the space in the box.
I wondered how much that extra packaging had cost me, but decided to get on with it and
chill out over a good game.
I'll run out of space before I can get through all the other problems I encountered.
Suffice it to say I was dissatisfied with the product, to the point where I would not have
purchased it had I known of its shortcomings ahead of time. It paled in comparison to a
similar shareware game I'd been using (for which, needless to say, I didn't have to
drive to a store, search for the product, wait in line, spend a lot of money, and throw
away most of the package).
The home market won't really take off until the experience of purchasing software
becomes more pleasurable and foolproof. This could mean something more like buying
audio CDs, where you go to a cool store organized by content type and not hardware
type, where you can easily return the product within a short time for any reason, and
where you can even try out the disc before buying it. Or it may mean waiting till the
practice of buying software off the Web has taken hold -- especially inexpensive
shareware, so that satisfaction is guaranteed in advance. Only solutions like these will
roust the home market. Otherwise it's just too much of a pain.
Caroline Rose Editor
CAROLINE ROSE (crose@apple.com) isn't a typical home user, since she was one of
the first people to use a Macintosh and she cut her teeth before that on a timesharing
system. But that was all in the line of duty, whereas at leisure she uses computers as
little as possible. She's even been known to handwrite letters to friends. Speaking of
which, Caroline has received so little mail from develop readers lately that this issue
is missing a Letters section and she's missing hearing from you. What's on your mind
about develop? Please take a moment to let Caroline know.*