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CES 2008: Manufacturers criticized over design and marketing decisions

According to Allen Delattre, Global Managing Director of management consulting firm Accenture, consumer problems operating new devices costs retailers nearly $14 billion a year in the U.S. alone.

In an interview on Tuesday he said consumers often return the devices believing they don't work correctly even though in many cases it's simply a case of a difficulties figuring out how to operate new gadgets or misunderstand how they work.



While most companies at the Consumer Electronics Show are concentrating on individual products, Delattre is focused on the overal design, manufacture, and packaging process, which he believes nees a major overhaul. "The cost to return on one computer deletes the margin of two others they sell," he said.

The cost comes in the form of labor to test devices and get them back on store shelves for resale and the reduced margins for the returned goods.

Source: Reuters

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 9 Jan 2008 3:00

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• 5 comments

• ZippyDSM

  Looking at the 360 poor design and manufacturing is a huge issue its one thing to to build design for a good plant but these cheap ones can bring with them so many issues.
  
  The manufactures need to ease off the whole bottom line before quality bit.......

  9.1.2008 03:37 #1

• chaos_zzz

  i agree with ZippyDSM cuz companies should design products that last, that's why i never buy just released products and wait for some reviews to come out.
  
  
  Samsung screwed upa friend with a camera that uses 2 AA and lasts only half an hour .... he had to return it and i guess the retail store lost money on that model , the 360 also was a big failure and there are some premium packages around over some online retailers the first series .. be aware..

  9.1.2008 13:23 #2

• maryjayne

  What the manufacturers need to do is better educate their customer line. I can probably walk down the street and ask 10 random people about HDTVs and I bet only about 3 would be able to tell me all the details about resolution, hookups, LCD vs Plasma, etc.

  9.1.2008 15:31 #3

• ikari

  Originally posted by maryjayne: What the manufacturers need to do is better educate their customer line. I can probably walk down the street and ask 10 random people about HDTVs and I bet only about 3 would be able to tell me all the details about resolution, hookups, LCD vs Plasma, etc.maryjane, I agree 100% with you.
  
  However, on the flip side, technology is increasing so quickly, that it is hard for the standard person to keep up without going to a well informed forum/community, such as Afterdawn. Not to mention that every product now want to do everything.
  
  A good example is a MP3 player. While we more tech-savvy love the fact that MP3 players, play MP3, movies, display pictures, and play the radio (My Sansa is awesome), most nontech-savvy people just use it for a MP3 player. Most of the time it is because they other 1000 functions are useless to them or it is too hard for them to access, use, and/or understand those functions. The Sansa is great for drag and dropping music but if you want to put on video or pics you have to install an application to convert them.
  
  Honestly, how many actually use all of the functions in those multi-function devices? Heck, I sometimes even wonder if they know the functions exsist on the device to begin with.

  9.1.2008 17:28 #4

• borhan9

  Quote:In an interview on Tuesday he said consumers often return the devices believing they don't work correctly even though in many cases it's simply a case of a difficulties figuring out how to operate new gadgets or misunderstand how they work.This is the issue right here, if they learn how to simplyfy the product so the consumer can just know how to use it like a plug and play device i dont see the problem here.
  
  However they do not do this and leave it complicated and they make the instructions hard to follow therefore people have problems with it.
  
  Remember this Rule:
  
  KISS
  
  Keep
  It
  Simple
  Stupid :)

  10.1.2008 18:59 #5