We Millennials like to take a snapshot of every slightly interesting moment of our lives. Actually more than one and by slightly interesting I mean pretty much every time we go to a party, art exhibit, random walk in the city, music concert, or pretty much anything fun. Our purpose is not to create art, but simply to create a record of the great moments in our lives and share it with the majority of the important people in our lives. If you check all the pictures we have on Facebook (including the private and the untagged ones), you can get a good idea what we like to do in our free time.
We grew up with digital cameras and that explains our habit. We don’t have to bother with a film, 36 frames, developing the film and hoping that at least half of the pictures turned out OK. A simple dinner in a Middle Eastern restaurant with belly dancers usually leads to 100 pictures and half of them go on Facebook the very next morning. Imagine how many we take during vacations! If you think this inclination is typical only for girls, I thought the same and we are both wrong. In the past few weeks I’ve seen guys take 10000000 pictures of themselves during basketball games, dinners, smoking hookah, parties, etc.
Years ago, when I got my first smart phone with a camera, I thought it would replace my digital camera. It would have been so convenient and easy to carry only one gadget. But it never happened, mostly because of the bad quality of the pictures. Now I have a 5.0 megapixel camera on my Nokia, but I still bring a real camera to every planned event. The phone does a good job of taking a snapshot of something unexpected, but for all the fun Thursday and Friday nights I still turn to my faithful camera because, let’s be honest, it takes much better pictures.
The smart phone vs. phone and camera issue is just one example of the consolidation of a few products into one. From electronic gadgets to simple daily items, companies are combining products in attempts to respond to our hectic and busy lives. I, just like other Millennials, appreciate their effort to make our lives easier, but in most cases their attempts are unsuccessful. Most smart phones have cameras that can’t even compete with medium class digital cameras. The same is true for most other items that are products of this trend.
Of course, Nokia, HTC and Sony Eriksson provide cell phones with great cameras but how many Millennials can afford them? Not to mention that we change phones every year, but most of us buy a new camera only when we need it. One can find great consolidated products that perform on every level, but they are out of Millennials’ budgets.
It is a tough choice between convenience, price and quality. If you haven’t noticed, we are busy and we would take anything that would make our lives easier, but we will not sacrifice quality, especially when it comes to items we need and use often. Items like our favorite cameras that we bring to any and every event we attend. The companies that will turn into rock stars among Gen Y consumers will be the ones that provide quality and convenience on affordable prices.
What do you think Millennials, how much quality are you willing to sacrifice for convenience? How much are you willing to pay for the perfect mix of quality and convenience?
Photo Credit: andrewbain
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[...] Price, Convenience, Quality οr аƖƖ three? | Tһе Next Grеаt Gene… [...]
[...] Price, Convenience, Quality or all three? | The Next Great Generation [...]
[...] Price, Convenience, Quality or all three? | The Next Great Generation [...]
[...] Price, Convenience, Quality οr аƖƖ three? | Tһе Next Grеаt Gene… [...]
[...] Price, Convenience, Quality οr аƖƖ three? | Tһе Next Grеаt Gene… [...]
Completely agree with your post!
I usually have my thin Sony camera ready in my bag. The quality is much better and my camera phone photos are pixelated with poor quality lighting… although Apple iPhone does a good job with their cameras…
Anyway, my cousin keeps suggesting that I get a Blackberry. My preference is that I'd rather keep things simple. While everything is bundled together, I just want to take it easy and access certain things one at a time using different outlets, not have it all on my phone. Don't get me wrong, technology is great and it's impressive how much it's growing, but sometimes it gets me distracted.
Wonderful post!
Susan
Addy:
Great stuff. This is a topic that all brands should pay attention to as it redefines quality in a lot of ways. Today, it's about convenience, accessibility, portability and affordability. Polish, finish, high-end still has a role, but it's not what people value most when it comes to content. More often it's about the other characteristics. MP3 is perfect example. Long way from the stereo systems of my day, but the trade offs make it more desirable.
I have a blackberry, but I still always carry my digital camera. Despite being slightly older and definitely in need of a replacement, I prefer it to the camera on my blackberry because the quality is better, and I can save more photos than the 10 or so my phone will hold.
Weird as it may be, and annoying as it may be to lug all the items around, I prefer having a separate phone, camera, iPod, etc. to just one device that does it all.
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I feel if the picture is something I want to share immediately I would use my phone. I've just gotten an android phone and it's my life since I live by Google. Plus it even has a Twitter feature as a standard application. So if I see something cool/awful I just click and it shares it straight from my Twitter account. That sort of integration is great. At times I still want that quality and feel I need a super duper camera in order to achieve it. People need to think outside the box: great pictures can be taken with a point-and-shoot and a whole movie could be conceivably be made on a cell phone. There's pros and cons to both sides of the debate!
Great job!
Is this another example of lowering our standards to suit the technology of convenience? I hate the photos from my iphone. I went a year without a real camera and it's a whole piece of my life missing from the beautiful slideshow that runs on my computer. Finally got the camera fixed (didn't even buy a fancy new one) and now I have photos of my dog romping in the snow on our hike the other day, with resolution that catches him in mid-flight with snow kicked up around him and the beautiful light falling down through the trees. It makes me grin, it makes me catch my breath, it is so lovely and memorable. I can have that moment in my life in crystalline perfection.
Well worth hauling the camera along. Same with a dedicated video camera, that could handle the extreme shadow/light contrast in the arena at the horse show today, so I have an excellent record of my horse's winning performance (can't take credit, my trainer rode him this time). If I'd tried to video with a phone, it would have come out like a black bouncing blob against a sheet of white. Instead I was astonished that the vid camera showed more detail than I could see squinting in real time.
Though I do listen to audiobooks on the iPhone when we hike. Why insist that the same piece of plastic do everything, when it does some things so well?
Susan, thanks for the kind words.
Simplicity is another trend we see among Gen Y together with mobility, accessibility and affordability. I definitely like keeping my life and gadgets as simple as possible. However, what is simple for us is not so simple for our parents. My parents can never understand HootSuite and how it works.
I honestly have seen only a few pictures taken with a cell phone that looked like they could have been taken with a camera and they were all from the Nokia N series phones.
The only thing I would add to your list is simplicity.
Our problem might be that we expect too much from every product and our demands sometimes are contradictory. That is where we have to make compromises and decide what is more important for us as individuals.
Both of them have use for different occasions.
I think we will definitely go for more and more consolidated products, but they can replace the camera and the iPod only when they provide equal quality. Until then, I and Angela will bring a camera and an iPod together with our cell phones
In the past few weeks I've had to use my cell phone to listen to music because my regular ear phones broke and the only ones I have I can use for my cell phone only. Sad story especially because I've haven't had time to buy new ones. It doesn't matter how much I love my phone, the experience sucks! Now I am limited to only 200 or so songs and to upload more on my phone I have to delete pictures or something else. The whole convenience factor goes out of the window when quality and variety is an issue.
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