4. Those Mostly Bogus New Models from Nearly All Manufacturers

It really bugs me when I see ads on TV, in the newspaper, in email and on the Internet for the latest and greatest laptop or notebook and the silly thing turns out to be the last model with a slightly different outer case, an insignificant CPU upgrade or some other change that adds little or no value to the computer.

This Month's Model

Portable computer manufacturers are worse even than car manufacturers with their 2006 and a-half models. From what I can tell most laptop and notebook manufacturers turn out "new" models about every two months. Some even turn out special models just for a particular brick and mortar or online store. In many cases the only difference between these models and those manufactured for the rest of us is the model number. Shades of mattress models where you simply can't compare one mattress with another, because every retailer has the same mattress with a different model number.

Let's get real. Except in rare circumstances, there's no way technology changes that much in a month or two. Yea, maybe a CPU with .2 GHz more speed comes down in price enough so it can be included in an existing model. But is that a valid reason for all the hoopla that surrounds most of these bi-monthly product releases?

Next Month's Model

I'd like to see new portable computer models hit the market when serious and significant new component technologies become available. That's been happening of late with the new Core 2 Duo based models. As for the computers with new outer cases or other cosmetic changes, why not just sell me an upgrade kit? Better yet design mobile computers so these sorts of things can be easily upgraded by the user, kind of like the color panels on kitchen appliances. Then just regularly upgrade the upgrade kits and sell them separately or give them away with the otherwise unchanged computer.

Conclusions

New mobile computer models come out far too regularly. A fairly small number of these are based on meaningful technological changes. It's not easy for buyers to get a fair shake in this situation, especially on those rare occasions when one new model is replaced by a really technically superior one in a very short period of time.

Holiday Model

What to do? We can keep trying to get through manufacturers thick hides and encourage them to be nice, but that is only going to get us so far. Buyers have to beware too. Read the news on and off line to keep up with what's coming. Not those mostly meaningless bi-monthly mobile computer upgrades, but the upgrades based on real technological change. TG Publishing's own TG Daily is a great place to go for information like this. Don't buy a new product immediately, especially from known super innovators like Sony. (Hear that Barry?) Wait a few months to see what's coming next. Look for upgradable portables from companies such as Gigabyte, Asus and MSI. Finally if you get caught in any of the traps I've discussed here, let me and anyone else, including the manufacturer, know about it.

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