I was recently shopping for a new Smart Phone, for a gift, on Amazon, and after reading customer reviews, I became to realize that no matter how much money one is willing to spend, the failures rates of these items are far beyond, so called, normal.
First, I looked at the lesser expensive models, and from a sample of 12 different items, the average failure rate was 20%, and the range was from 9% to 37%. I considered a single star rating a failure; many of these complaint that Amazon made no provision for zero, or no stars.
Next, I looked at models from Samsung, Apple, Microsoft, Motorola, etc., also on Amazon, and found the following failure rates, from small samples of six (6) each, for a total sample of 24. The average, apparent, failure rate was 21.9%, and the range was 0% to 33%. There was only one cell phone, in the sample, which had no one star rating.
As can be seen from the foregoing, price did not guaranty better performance. It appears, cell phone manufacturers rely on the fact, that too many of us are so addicted to these gadgets, that we buy them knowing that they may be bad on arrival, or soon thereafter, i.e., fully realizing that too many fail, well before their time, for a variety of reasons.
There were times when manufactures, of electronics, were stress testing each item, before it was offered for sale; they took care of the so called 'infant mortality rate', or early failures. Nowadays, it is the consumer who is expected to discover these early/premature failures, and what is astonishing, consumers apparently put up with this nonsense. Instead of enjoying their purchase, they now often have to beg to get their money back, or a replacement unit, but not before the defective unit is returned. To add insult to injury, some vendors expect the buyer to pay for the return postage. There is no compensation for the inconvenience experienced by the consumer; packing and mailing the defective item, and being without a phone for some time.
The reliability curve for electronic equipment resembles the cross-section of a bathtub, first the failure rate is high (infant mortality), and slowly decreases as time goes by. After some period this negative slope reaches a point where the constant failure rate begins. This would be the flat section of the bathtub, where time in use does not affect the operational utility. After that the curve meets with a point, where the failure rate increases again, mostly because of age and wear-out.
In an effort to increase their profit margins the new breed of manufacturers, and their managers, decided to dispense with the initial stress tests, and shift this burden to the willing consumer; no longer is the customer their 'King', but their fool. Similarly, when problems arise with a product, one can no longer talk to a manufacturer's technician, when seeking help; questions are now handled by consumer forums. These well-meaning people, for the most part, are less than qualified to provide answers to complex product issues, at least this has been my experience.
No sane store owner would keep a product on his/her shelves with a 20% or more failure rate; to handle so many customer complaints would not be economical, the stores reputation would adversely suffer as well. However, these modern giants of industry and retail, appear not to care, mainly because the consumer of today, who may be tech. savvy, no longer knows that when one buys a new product, it is supposed to work for a long time without aggravation. And, guess what, the cost of handling all these failures, is simply added to the cost of doing business, and is included in the price calculation, thus the consumer is subsidizing the sloppiness of the manufacturer. Is it not great to be a manufacturer these days? The same holds true for the giant retailers, who have priced in their extra handling of defective goods, and yes, the consumers pays for this as well.
Sadly, Amazon, apparently, does not use its considerable power to insist that manufacturers, and sellers refrain from knowingly continue to list inferior products, as evidenced by consumer reviews. It appears, Amazon is knowingly or unwittingly selling inferior products, which can only brand them as a supplier of junk products, should this trend continue.
As an aside, it appears, the consumer dependent complex managed nicely, with the help of others, to ensure that people instead of buying descent clothes, have money to purchase their latest unnecessary gadget, by convincing us that wearing mostly long lasting jeans is cool and fashionable. And, since even jeans eventually acquire holes from constant use, we are now shown that jeans with ugly holes and tears, are even more fashionable. We the consumers have become so dependent on these gadgets , it seems, that we would even run around in our underwear if necessary, to get our gadget fix.
It is said, our morals are in a steep decline, must our intellect follow this same negative slope?
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