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Makes me wonder, if people really cared the market should react to it and have products to cater to those needs. Maybe my interests and people with similar inte

Makes me wonder, if people really cared the market should react to it and have products to cater to those needs. Maybe my interests and people with similar interests are a very small minority, everything now is setup via an app - toasters to routers to vacuums. The sad truth is probably that vast majority of people like the convenience of an app and don't care about privacy or data collection and the products/market is heading there.

fatherzine 4y ago
Who wants to know the BOM of their microwave? The vast majority of people just want their products to "just work". Nobody ever reads the manual. Nobody wants to know whats inside their gadgets. Nobody has bandwidth to consider the tradeoffs of data collection. Life is short.
Silhouette 4y ago
The sad truth is probably that vast majority of people like the convenience of an app and don't care about privacy or data collection and the products/market is heading there. I don't really believe in this theory. Certainly the average HN commenter trends more privacy-aware than the average person in our societies but I know many "normal" people who don't like the intrusion but accept it because they don't see any viable alternative apart from giving up a normal life. The correct solution when competition in commercial markets doesn't solve a problem like this because it's just too profitable for everyone to carry on the abuse is for governments to regulate in the public interest. Of course that relies on elected representatives to do their jobs and not just pander to whichever industry gives its lobbyists the most funding so the success of the strategy is likely to vary wildly depending on which country you live in.
creakingstairs 4y ago
> if people really cared the market should react to it and have products to cater to those needs I think the current incentive has warped the market beyond repair for certain products. Take TV for example, non-smart TVs cost the same or more than smart TVs because manufacturers can subsidise smart TVs’ cost by selling or utilising data. Not to mention other “benefits” like locking consumers into their ecosystem: a lot of Korean newly weds buy all Samsung or all LG for electronics for this reason. With all these incentives, it makes sense for the companies to only make smart TVs. We need regulations to offset these incentives. There most be a real tangible cost to collecting data and appliances should be required to use open protocols. Then it will make more sense for manufacturers to make just normal TVs that can compete with smart TV. Will any of this happen? Probably not.
afiori 4y ago
The invisible hand moves the market toward profit maximization not customer satisfaction

fatherzine 4y ago

Who wants to know the BOM of their microwave? The vast majority of people just want their products to "just work". Nobody ever reads the manual. Nobody wants to know whats inside their gadgets. Nobody has bandwidth to consider the tradeoffs of data collection. Life is short.

Silhouette 4y ago

The sad truth is probably that vast majority of people like the convenience of an app and don't care about privacy or data collection and the products/market is heading there. I don't really believe in this theory. Certainly the average HN commenter trends more privacy-aware than the average person in our societies but I know many "normal" people who don't like the intrusion but accept it because they don't see any viable alternative apart from giving up a normal life. The correct solution when competition in commercial markets doesn't solve a problem like this because it's just too profitable for everyone to carry on the abuse is for governments to regulate in the public interest. Of course that relies on elected representatives to do their jobs and not just pander to whichever industry gives its lobbyists the most funding so the success of the strategy is likely to vary wildly depending on which country you live in.

creakingstairs 4y ago

> if people really cared the market should react to it and have products to cater to those needs I think the current incentive has warped the market beyond repair for certain products. Take TV for example, non-smart TVs cost the same or more than smart TVs because manufacturers can subsidise smart TVs’ cost by selling or utilising data. Not to mention other “benefits” like locking consumers into their ecosystem: a lot of Korean newly weds buy all Samsung or all LG for electronics for this reason. With all these incentives, it makes sense for the companies to only make smart TVs. We need regulations to offset these incentives. There most be a real tangible cost to collecting data and appliances should be required to use open protocols. Then it will make more sense for manufacturers to make just normal TVs that can compete with smart TV. Will any of this happen? Probably not.

afiori 4y ago

The invisible hand moves the market toward profit maximization not customer satisfaction