Surprisingly Useful AI Article Enhancements
Punchlines such as, “The world’s thinnest” or, “The world’s first,” may sound great initially, but upon closer scrutiny, can often prove to be damaging. Frequently coined by marketing departments whose main aim is to send out quick, simplistic, and heroic messages, these statements are in fact product compromising. This can often demand that shortcuts be made in the way the products have to be designed, which can obviously affect their quality.
One such colossal example is Samsung’s #batterygate scandal, surrounding its Galaxy Note7, revealing that the original battery used, referred as ‘Battery A’ by Samsung, had some deflecting issue in its electrodes.
Now, this issue could be put down to many reasons, but in wanting so desperately to be, ‘First to market,’ a follow-up ‘Battery B’ was used as a quick replacement before they could rectify the issue. The result was, well, #batterygate. The entire scandal was the result of 700 engineers being rushed to get a product to market ASAP, in order to “save face” and to ensure that there was minimal disruption to customers.
With the announcement, which was the responsible thing to do, you would assume it would all be done and dusted. After all, this doesn’t affect anyone else other than Samsung and Samsung customers, right?
Wrong. Freight forwarders are, nowadays, scared to put any product with a lithium ion battery onto a plane, and processes are being scrutinized all for the greater good of air safety. While this is all great of course, the net result is that the entire supply chain has arguably grounded to a halt, or at least, experienced some speed bumps.
This is essentially because we are all so heavily connected, and every process is geared to be so efficient, that the slightest change in regulatory requirements in one area affects everything, everywhere else. I am all for ensuring air safety, but every reputable manufacturer needs to fulfill their corporate responsibility to not make product-compromising decisions. They need to realise that the flow-on effects surpass that of their company. As insurance premiums rise, warehousing costs increase because of delays, and carriers become hesitant to carry certain goods, the net impact is always going to be borne by the end user — higher prices.
Tech manufacturers have a responsibility to provide non-compromising products, not just because it affects their own share price, but primarily because it affects all of us. Taking ports out of a laptop to make it more “Pro” or “thinner” adds to landfills and hurts customer’s pockets because they are then forced to buy more cables, dongles and obsolete devices. It isn’t just about exploding batteries. At the end of the day, everyone feels the repercussions of making products just for the sake of one’s own share price because we are all connected.
Jaan Turon is Chief Designer and Director of Venom Computers.
Twitter/X: @JaanTuron | Instagram: jaanturon
Last Updated on October 21, 2024 by Jaan Turon
