It’s obviously easier to push consumer tech products if you claim that they have better specs.
Many small companies get seduced by this fact. They can sell very cheap products with false advertising. It’s like restaurants in a major airport. They don’t rely on reputation and don’t need repeat customers. Innocent consumers end up overpaying for garbage.
Most people, for example, don’t really know exactly what Mega Pixels mean. They know that more is better but they don’t know the precise meaning. Fly by night companies can claim that they are selling a 12 MP digital camera when in fact they are only selling a 5 MP camera. There is some sneaky way for them to do this by basically redefining what a mega pixel is through “interpolation”. Of course they won’t tell you this, they will just boast “12 MP” on the box.
As a consumer, it’s not at all necessary to understand what’s going on behind the scenes. It’s just important that you are aware this is happening and realize that not all mega pixels are created equal. You need to look into who is making the product and read some reviews. You need to see some products samples. As a rule of thumb, you can trust big companies like Apple, who rely on their brand and don’t want the bad publicity.
Companies that are launching several models of a product and have a professional looking website are probably safe bets too.
Beware of anything suspicious. If some “no name” company offers very low prices, great sounding specs and sells mostly from Ebay, Amazon, etc. Watch out. Check out their website and read about them. If the homepage looks nothing like that of a real brand, you can bet that you will have buyer’s remorse if you go that route.
It’s easy to write “720p HD” on a box but very hard and expensive to manufacture. This is true with pretty much all video specs.
July 16, 2011
Hands Free Video