New is Cool

Sholom Sandalow, Monday, September 17, 2007 @ 12:31 am

I passed by the Apple store this afternoon, and decided to check out the next generation of iPods.  I have an iPod mini.  It’s served me well for over two years now, although I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a power user.  In fact I use it regularly for only one purpose—to get me through my workout.  Every so often I’ll take a road trip, and it comes with me then too, but not with much success, since I don’t have the necessary accoutrements to have it play through the car stereo.

When I first got the iPod—it was a gift—I was entranced by it.  I literally thought it was the most beautiful piece of technology in the world.  It was mainly the simplicity.  Smooth surface, unbroken by obtrusive buttons, or sharp edges.  I spent way too much time keeping it from acquiring the wear and tear that inevitably overcomes any new product. 

I was consequently disturbed by my initial reaction to the latest wizardry from Apple.  All I could think of was that I wanted one—that the new iPod Nano put my Mini to shame in the coolness department.  Now having time to think about my first strong reaction, I don’t rationally think that the Mini is objectively less hip/cool/sleek/ than the new Nano is.  In fact I think that if Apple had released them in the reverse order, with the model I now have coming out more recently, I would have felt that the Mini is aesthetically superior to the Nano.  Why is that?  What properties does a new product exhibit that makes it more irresistible than an older one?  How has Apple become so successful at making new seem so much better than not-so-new?

Apple and a few other companies (notably Adobe) have been outstanding at generating mass interest in the same product over and over again through minimal enhancements, but mainly by convincing us that newer is better.  I don’t know their strategies because I don’t attend their board meetings, but I do interact with their results.  It’s a tremendous advantage for such a large audience to believe that a certain product is ‘in’ simply because it says so.

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user experience design

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