December 4, 2010 9 Comments

Never About the Pencils

I’m going to CES this January in Las Vegas. This is the big consumer electronics event of the year, where you get to see the future. Talk is going to be about tablet computing.

I’ll tell you this: it’s never about the pencils.

I have the new Macbook Air (the 13″). It’s pretty darned good. It’s an improvement over the last Air. Know why they made this? To compete with the iPad, I’m told, and to give a premium version of a netbook (Because Apple is never inexpensive).

Still don’t care. The only reason I bought it was to lose some weight on my backpack (hey, if it’s slow going on my belly, I’ll trim the fat in my backpack, right?).

It will still never be about the tools as much as it’s about what we do with them.

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  • http://www.coopersbarnyard.com Frankie Cooper

    Technology is awesome and I love it.

  • http://www.kherize5.com Suzanne Vara

    Chris

    Yeah! Love to hear that. If you trimmed some weight on the backpack coming here for the show don’t you fill it up again with new gadgets from the show?

  • http://www.slymarketing.com Jens P. Berget

    True, it’s never about the tools, but it’s getting harder and harder to prove the point :)

    I can’t imagine myself without an iPhone, and I bet in a few weeks, I can’t imagine what I was doing before the iPad.

  • commoncenst

    Hi Chris, My first thought is… it’s always about the tools. Don’t know if this metaphor is correct.

    I buy a Lexus, for example. It looks good, it’s reputation is OK, and I can afford the price tag.
    This is how I buy a car. Price first. Then looks. I EXPECT it to have a good engine, brakes, and be safe cause that is what a car is…. an engine and four wheels, with metal protection all around. It’s foremost and sole job is transportation. I DEMAND that it works to get me from right here to over there, because that is what I am buying. ( the tool)

    I cruise around in it smiling and looking good. Then it rains and the wipers don’t work. What is the most important thing about that Lexus right then? (the pencil?)

    Does this make sense to anyone?

  • commoncenst

    Hi Chris, My first thought is… it’s always about the tools. Don’t know if this metaphor is correct.

    I buy a Lexus, for example. It looks good, it’s reputation is OK, and I can afford the price tag.
    This is how I buy a car. Price first. Then looks. I EXPECT it to have a good engine, brakes, and be safe cause that is what a car is…. an engine and four wheels, with metal protection all around. It’s foremost and sole job is transportation. I DEMAND that it works to get me from right here to over there, because that is what I am buying. ( the tool)

    I cruise around in it smiling and looking good. Then it rains and the wipers don’t work. What is the most important thing about that Lexus right then? (the pencil?)

    Does this make sense to anyone?

  • http://mazakaro.com Rahul

    mac is always expensive and exclusive also. apple’s technology is outstanding. thanks for sharing.

  • http://www.thewritedesignco.com/ BillionDollarBlogger

    Hey Chris, be sure to share details from the CES. I’m purple with envy!

  • http://www.brianhamlett.com Brian Hamlett

    Nicely put! The smart developers and designers of these products should realize that key point: that it is not about the tools, but how you use them. (and some do) But the really smart ones realize that you NEED the tools to create yourt true goal – whatever it is – and that they need to create/design a tool that makes it easy to use in any and all use situations.

    Easy to use, wait… rephrase… easy to understand how to use for a beginner OR advanced enough to be valuable for an expert.

    Easy to carry or transport with you if you’re highly mobile OR ideally suited to sit in a defined position on your desk, table, workbench, etc.

    Has the functionality and capabilities to complete the job at hand OR … wait… no, that’s a necessity.

    So on and so forth.

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