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
Appliances are fairly expensive and large and heavy. Most people won’t change their appliance to get any of these features because the features are not that useful. Computers and cell phones were replaced often because the new features allowed extra features. More ram and faster processors let you get higher frame rates. Some games/programs couldn’t run on older computers. Better camera, finger print scanner, face recognition. These features became available as phones improved. I just got a new oven. It has WiFi. I can turn the light on from my phone. It will tell me when it’s preheated. I can change the temperature remotely. This is kind of handy for a roast. For most things I want to look at the food before changing anything. The new features are not super useful/important. If my 20 year old oven didn’t break I would probably not have upgraded.
Even today with computers and phones, improvements are becoming less important and people are settling into a cycle of only upgrading when their device dies. My desktop is 10 years old. Still runs windows 10 fine. My phone is 3 years old. No plans to upgrade.
Things settle in to designs that solve consumer needs pretty well. Once they solve those problems. After that there are smaller changes to fine tune designs, improve reliability, reduce costs. There have been changes over the years. Refrigerators are much more efficient. Washers are less noisy and use less water. Appliances are cheaper than they used to be and pretty reliable. There are improvements but these are more to get people to buy when their ma give breaks rather than to buy to get the better features.
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