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When you say "Firstly, the stark popularity of those services would seem to suggest that for most people, they have done the cost/benefits analysis, and figured

When you say "Firstly, the stark popularity of those services would seem to suggest that for most people, they have done the cost/benefits analysis, and figured out it doesn't make sense. The effort involve simply doesn't make sense for them." do you understand that for many people, decisions are not carefully considered after collecting and reviewing all the pros and cons before arriving at a scientifically rigorous conclusion? It is far more likely that users just choose what their friends or work colleagues use, based on word of mouth recommendations. The 'network effect' is what this is called. There isn't much 'miscalculation' happening in these scenarios, there may be little to no calculation at all.

victorhooi 11y ago
I don't think you give people enough credit. Sure, it might not be as explicit as "here is a spreadsheet, with quantitative values assigned to each pro/con". However, there is certainly intuition and a decision making process involved - it may just not be the same way you or I might have done it. At the end of the day - if a person notices negative impacts from using a product, then they will stop using that product. There are tech companies that have lost trust - and they lose users as a result. Sony of course is a classic example - and they've had to work pretty hard to regain that trust. Another example - Samsung has a poor reputation for software quality and lots of jank - sure, a non-technical person may not be able to verbalise it in those terms, but they may simply describe the iPhone as "smoother". This was reflected in their numbers - they were bleeding money for a while, and still are. It's like people complaining about the walled garden that is Apple - I loathe Apple, and the walled garden approach, but I can't argue that it's not popular. For many people, they can deal with all the cons, because of the product/services that Apple provides. I might not choose to use an iOS device - and I will actively steer my family away from it (just converted my father to a Nexus 5X), but I'm not going to automatically assume that people who use iOS devices are ignorant - they may just have different costs/benefits analyses to me. Until you can provide a reason that actually affects them (which is why I have asked for numerous times what the actual concrete issues are), they will continue to use those products, in order to garner the benefits.

victorhooi 11y ago

I don't think you give people enough credit. Sure, it might not be as explicit as "here is a spreadsheet, with quantitative values assigned to each pro/con". However, there is certainly intuition and a decision making process involved - it may just not be the same way you or I might have done it. At the end of the day - if a person notices negative impacts from using a product, then they will stop using that product. There are tech companies that have lost trust - and they lose users as a result. Sony of course is a classic example - and they've had to work pretty hard to regain that trust. Another example - Samsung has a poor reputation for software quality and lots of jank - sure, a non-technical person may not be able to verbalise it in those terms, but they may simply describe the iPhone as "smoother". This was reflected in their numbers - they were bleeding money for a while, and still are. It's like people complaining about the walled garden that is Apple - I loathe Apple, and the walled garden approach, but I can't argue that it's not popular. For many people, they can deal with all the cons, because of the product/services that Apple provides. I might not choose to use an iOS device - and I will actively steer my family away from it (just converted my father to a Nexus 5X), but I'm not going to automatically assume that people who use iOS devices are ignorant - they may just have different costs/benefits analyses to me. Until you can provide a reason that actually affects them (which is why I have asked for numerous times what the actual concrete issues are), they will continue to use those products, in order to garner the benefits.