3 ms·
Tech's march towards vertical integration-powered cross-selling and turning everything into a digital-only product or perpetual subscription is sending a lot of
by rchaud 9mo ago
Tech's march towards vertical integration-powered cross-selling and turning everything into a digital-only product or perpetual subscription is sending a lot of people searching for alternatives. Just off the top of my head, I'm aware of growing interest in communities related to single purpose devices like:
- Retro gaming handhelds, which these days are capable of handling every console before the PS3, and their popularity is a clear rebuff to the Nintendo Switch's game pricing, not to mention the horrific microtransaction-riddled landscape of "mobile gaming".
- Standalone MP3 players, which are selling very well thanks to notification hell on our phones and dissatisfaction with music streaming giants.
- Portable DVD players, which can be bought online or thrifted cheaply, as frustration builds with constant licensing changes causing Netflix and the like to remove shows without warning. DVDs can be bought extremely cheaply, and a lot of users are not cinephiles who won't touch anything that's not at least 1080P.