I mean, brands of electronics launch so many models of smartphones, tablets, computers and TVs with different RAM and storage capacities, inputs like HDMI and USB, screen sizes and so on that we can’t decide which one to buy.
But as I observed, domestic appliances like washing machines, dishwashers, ovens, fridges, irons, vacuum cleaners and so on nearly stay the same and not many of them are launched so often. Their main functions approximately have stayed the same, except detergent adjusting and less water consumption for washing machines, for example. And ovens adjusting time of cooking according to type of dish. And robot vacuum cleaners. [And appliances with Wifi connection](https://www.vestel.com.tr/akilli-urunler-c-1108)
Like the capacity of washing machine doesn’t bother us, for example, but we’re disappointed when buying a smartphone with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage but seeing another one with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.
Plus, we don’t change domestic appliances as often as smart devices, like I had a washing machine bought in 1997 working until 2022 but changed 9 mobile phones since 2006 to this day.
Why is there such a difference?
In: 597
The basic elements of the technology peaks and mature and every subsequent advance becomes incremental refining
a toaster is a toaster maybe we could toast the toasts in a different more advanced way but the humble toaster does its job simply enough and the changes to the design done through the many decades since its invention make the thing pretty optimal for its price point
an ice car explosion engine was designed a century ago, early on it started being optimized, many revolutionary designs through the drawing board, these days changes, optimization, efficiency increases, manufacturing cost reduction or whatever, may bring a few % here or there just enough to make any component redesign worthwhile
Early computers went through dramatic advances early on from use of electronic tubes, punch cards and magnetic memory cores of the 50s and 60s mainframes to the microcomputer revolution of the 70s 80 with CPUs, ram, …and CPUs from the early 8080s chip to the pentium 82586s and further till the 64bit designs of today but the jump in performance of the latter designs aren’t as impressive as the earlier jumps because the technology matures
the changes from early PDAs all the way to a more mature iphone/android smart phone of today were fairly impressive, the current generation changes from one generation to the next are small increments because they are a mature technology….
but then, if breakthroughs happen on a technology that those products depend on, such as a newer battery capable of a week charge then it will impact the end product
and then that new battery technology will undergo mostly fast changes early on until it becomes mature and then only small increments
Incidently there are also changes in products such as newer materials or manufacturing technics that may make those products more affordable or durable but are less notifiable functionality wise to the end user
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