Transcripts

Commentary-Too Much Technology

SUSIE GHARIB: In tonight`s commentary, from cell phones to the latest in automobiles, a few thoughts on feature fatigue. Here`s Tom Stewart, editor of "The Harvard Business Review."

TOM STEWART, EDITOR, HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW: There actually exists a mouse pad for your computer that includes a calculator, a clock, a radio -- therefore, a clock-radio and a pair of headphones. There are some 700 features on the dashboard of a BMW 745. Your cell phone is also a camera and a PDA and an MP3 player. Don`t call me Andy Rooney, but did you ever wonder if the phenomenon called feature fatigue is getting out of hand. One out of 11 Americans has returned a home networking product because they couldn`t figure out how to make the darn thing work.

Here`s the paradox: according to Roland Rust, Debora Thompson and Rebecca Hamilton of the University of Maryland, those extra gadgets sell products. In a store, you`ll ignore the simple, functional appliance and you`ll pick up the dual-control, disco-ball/toaster/CD player/coffeemaker. But when you get it home, you`ll hate it. When shopping, people evaluate a gizmo on its capabilities. Back home, they care about how useable it is.

There`s a lesson here for business: think like users. Your customer`s not going to tell her friends it looked so hot on the shelf. She`s going to say, it was a waste of money. I never use that stuff. There`s a lesson here for consumers, too. Think Swiss army knife. If you`ve ever bought a Swiss army knife, you probably picked one that was somewhere in the middle -- it has some extra tools, but not a zillion -- and you were probably happy about it. I`m Tom Stewart.