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> Does anyone make anything like this anymore, a tradesman’s machine? One of the perplexing things about modernity is the way that capitalism, a system whose b

> Does anyone make anything like this anymore, a tradesman’s machine? One of the perplexing things about modernity is the way that capitalism, a system whose big strength is supposed to be the way it provides choices, in practice keeps producing markets where the available choices are only skin deep. There's a market-leading product, and there's a million minor variations on that market-leading product, but if you want something fundamentally different from that market-leading product, you're out of luck. If you want a smartphone, you're going to be buying a flat, featureless slab of glass with a soldered-on battery. Want a replaceable battery? Want a different form factor or a physical keyboard? Sorry, you're out of luck. If you want a TV, you're going to be buying a "smart" TV with a bunch of poorly written software that will be obsolete a year from now. Just want the display without the software? Sorry, you're out of luck. You can see this happening in non-tech markets too, like the car market, which is increasingly converging on the "crossover" layout as the One True Passenger Car. You can still buy other layouts, but the number of carmakers who offer those other layouts are dwindling fast. (Ford has famously already given up on them completely.) So we end up with these weird markets where there seems to be no end of choices available, but that's only true if your desires line up exactly with those of the average consumer. The farther they diverge from that golden mean, the quicker you find you really have no choices at all.

MadWombat 7y ago
> keeps producing markets where the available choices are only skin deep Because it turns out that catering to minority demands only works for some markets, but not others (i.e. all cell phones look and function the same, but there are dozens of different flavors and textures of peanut butter). And also, because it turns out that convincing the customer base that what you offer is what they want is easier than making the things they actually want (mostly because people rarely know what they want in the first place). Also, all three examples you mentioned have fairly straight forward reasons. There are no physical keyboards on phones because most people prefer more screen space and a keyboard takes space. There are no "dumb" TVs because people prefer their appliances to work out of the box and that is exactly what the "smart" TVs provide, you don't have to plug them into any other device to get them to show you content. And cars have been pretty standard for a while now, there might be some demand for a car with a dildo shaped joystick instead of a steering wheel, but maybe not enough to warrant actually making one.
- juped 7y ago
  I can't believe you think glib "people prefer" explanations somehow answer or explain away his critique. And "dildo shaped joystick"? Really? "Crossover" is a form factor (smallish SUV), by the way.
juped 7y ago
Maybe the root cause of this is related to manufacturing bases moving overseas from consumer bases, reducing the ability of manufacturers to be flexible and agile? It really is perplexing. At least sedans aren't as extinct as keyboard phones.
vbezhenar 7y ago
There are phones with keyboard and with replaceable batteries. I'm not sure about smart TV, but why does it matter? Those TVs have HDMI input and they are perfectly happy to be dumb. Their chips have extremely low performance and I'm sure that their costs are nothing compared to display itself. May be you don't have enough choice when you're going to niche markets. I'd agree with you on that.
sokoloff 7y ago
There are soldered batteries in smartphones? I’ve changed several iPhone batteries and all had connectors. I’ve not worked on any Android, but the couple I had opened seemed to also have connectors or spring-connected tabs.
- efreak 7y ago
  While I haven't looked at how well embedded batteries are these days, I doubt most of them are soldered into phones--but it certainly wouldn't surprise me. They're certainly not serviceable or easy to remove, and replacing parts can mean a large amount of disassembly and hoping you don't break something. Compare this to my Pandigital novel 7, the first Android device I owned: the top half of the back slid up, and you could then unsnap the rest. The battery, internal storage, and other parts were immediately accessible and easy to replace. Admittedly, internal storage was easy because it was just a microsd card, but it made quadrupling the internal storage very easy. I played around with the insides multiple times until I killed it by breaking the socket for a ribbon connector. There was no need to remove glue, and iirc the adhesive was only sticky enough to stop things from sliding.

MadWombat 7y ago

> keeps producing markets where the available choices are only skin deep Because it turns out that catering to minority demands only works for some markets, but not others (i.e. all cell phones look and function the same, but there are dozens of different flavors and textures of peanut butter). And also, because it turns out that convincing the customer base that what you offer is what they want is easier than making the things they actually want (mostly because people rarely know what they want in the first place). Also, all three examples you mentioned have fairly straight forward reasons. There are no physical keyboards on phones because most people prefer more screen space and a keyboard takes space. There are no "dumb" TVs because people prefer their appliances to work out of the box and that is exactly what the "smart" TVs provide, you don't have to plug them into any other device to get them to show you content. And cars have been pretty standard for a while now, there might be some demand for a car with a dildo shaped joystick instead of a steering wheel, but maybe not enough to warrant actually making one.

juped 7y ago
I can't believe you think glib "people prefer" explanations somehow answer or explain away his critique. And "dildo shaped joystick"? Really? "Crossover" is a form factor (smallish SUV), by the way.

juped 7y ago

Maybe the root cause of this is related to manufacturing bases moving overseas from consumer bases, reducing the ability of manufacturers to be flexible and agile? It really is perplexing. At least sedans aren't as extinct as keyboard phones.

vbezhenar 7y ago

There are phones with keyboard and with replaceable batteries. I'm not sure about smart TV, but why does it matter? Those TVs have HDMI input and they are perfectly happy to be dumb. Their chips have extremely low performance and I'm sure that their costs are nothing compared to display itself. May be you don't have enough choice when you're going to niche markets. I'd agree with you on that.

sokoloff 7y ago

There are soldered batteries in smartphones? I’ve changed several iPhone batteries and all had connectors. I’ve not worked on any Android, but the couple I had opened seemed to also have connectors or spring-connected tabs.

efreak 7y ago
While I haven't looked at how well embedded batteries are these days, I doubt most of them are soldered into phones--but it certainly wouldn't surprise me. They're certainly not serviceable or easy to remove, and replacing parts can mean a large amount of disassembly and hoping you don't break something. Compare this to my Pandigital novel 7, the first Android device I owned: the top half of the back slid up, and you could then unsnap the rest. The battery, internal storage, and other parts were immediately accessible and easy to replace. Admittedly, internal storage was easy because it was just a microsd card, but it made quadrupling the internal storage very easy. I played around with the insides multiple times until I killed it by breaking the socket for a ribbon connector. There was no need to remove glue, and iirc the adhesive was only sticky enough to stop things from sliding.