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One lesson I took away from my university economics class is that in a large enough market all competitive products are virtually identical. One may offer X bet

by TheCapn 15y ago

One lesson I took away from my university economics class is that in a large enough market all competitive products are virtually identical. One may offer X better than the other while that 2nd one may offer Y better than the first but for the most part that is all smoke & mirrors to the consumer. The point is that people cannot tell the difference without marketing to try and exaggerate one thing over another. Its why people buy inferior products at inflated rates and don't get upset. It is also why marketing is so very important in a saturated marketplace. This is exactly what happened in your scenario. The well thinking mothers were lead to believe that any `laptop` can be just as good as another because someone told them it can be. They believed it without understanding it was all a ploy to gain a customer.

HeyLaughingBoy 15y ago
Either that or they fully understood its limitations and were satisfied with them. I'll happily get my 2 year-old a Leapfrog/LeapPad type device and he'll be happy with it and learn from it. Even if I could get a laptop at the same price point, I wouldn't. Why? The LeapFrog type devices are made to be handled by toddlers. That means they can take being thrown across the room, tossed out a window, and used as a hammer and still come up smiling. Try that with a laptop! Not to mention that with the specialized device I don't need to be concerned about loading DVDs, CDs, etc: the media is similarly rugged. Don't be too quick to discount what those parents were doing: they may have a better idea than you what type of environment the device operates in.
- saryant 15y ago
  Exactly. My first exposure to programming was on one of those cheap toy computers. My parents bought me one of those when I was in elementary school and after getting bored with its built-in games I noticed a button labeled ”BASIC.” Around the same time I noticed a book in the school library on BASIC and put the two together. That cheap Christmas gift turned me on to computers and programming and though I’m now writing a thesis in Scala rather than hangman in BASIC, I’m glad I had that toy to get me started.

by TheCapn 15y ago

HeyLaughingBoy 15y ago

Either that or they fully understood its limitations and were satisfied with them. I'll happily get my 2 year-old a Leapfrog/LeapPad type device and he'll be happy with it and learn from it. Even if I could get a laptop at the same price point, I wouldn't. Why? The LeapFrog type devices are made to be handled by toddlers. That means they can take being thrown across the room, tossed out a window, and used as a hammer and still come up smiling. Try that with a laptop! Not to mention that with the specialized device I don't need to be concerned about loading DVDs, CDs, etc: the media is similarly rugged. Don't be too quick to discount what those parents were doing: they may have a better idea than you what type of environment the device operates in.

saryant 15y ago
Exactly. My first exposure to programming was on one of those cheap toy computers. My parents bought me one of those when I was in elementary school and after getting bored with its built-in games I noticed a button labeled ”BASIC.” Around the same time I noticed a book in the school library on BASIC and put the two together. That cheap Christmas gift turned me on to computers and programming and though I’m now writing a thesis in Scala rather than hangman in BASIC, I’m glad I had that toy to get me started.