Are Early Adopters Suckers?

“I loved my iPhone 3G for the first couple of days, but its 3G service, crashing, et cetera are growing increasingly annoying. Why can’t these ridiculous issues be solved?” —Brian

“I feel bad for the people who had to use the Storm for two weeks without the update because it was terrible.” —Justin

These quotes come from our readers online, who found themselves frustrated by two of the most eagerly anticipated gadgets of last year. Buyers have leveled serious criticisms against these products, not just because they were imperfect, but because—at least out of the box—they failed to deliver on key selling points.

If you think that the mobile tech industry has seen a glut of rocky product launches over the past year and a half, it isn’t just your imagination. “You’re not getting the same quality you would a few years ago,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for NPD Group, of first-generation gadgets.

Since launch, however, both of these devices have benefitted from software updates that addressed some of the above issues and added feature enhancements (even if several disgruntled owners still remain). And it’s not just phones that can improve with age. Devices ranging from MP3 players and GPS navigators to Wi-Fi routers all have the ability to be upgraded.

As gadgets become increasingly connected, and as their software stacks become even more important than the hardware, companies are relying on periodic upgrades to improve the user experience after the purchase. The good news is that leaving room for improvement means consumers are often getting innovative features they didn’t originally pay for. And certainly, if a device is buggy there’s a better chance that the problems can be resolved. But in the short term, early adopters (and a few curious mainstream shoppers) get saddled with unfinished products.

The Inherent Risk

Early adopters love two things: new toys and the thrill of being the first to own them. “Early adopters are self-selective,” said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates. “They recognize that there’s a higher degree of risk in their experiments. They’re more interested in the category than they are in this particular product.” In other words, if their new toys don’t work as advertised, they at least knew what they were getting into.

Consumers, of course, tell a different story. After prowling forums, following speculation, and ultimately reading reviews, it’s still possible to wind up feeling duped.

Crackberry.com overflows with disgruntled Storm owners— or ex-owners. More than one user said they gave up on the Storm after trying two or three units. “I didn’t expect perfection on the Storm, but I expected more, and after several units, I returned it,” wrote one commenter.

Early adopters aren’t as exclusive a group as they used to be; early buzz created by the Web and aggressive marketing campaigns for the hottest gadgets have swelled the ranks to include more than just tinkerers.

Tim Bajarin, president of research firm Creative Strategies, said that gadgets today aren’t just a hobby; they’re a way of life. “As people became more familiar with PCs and with technology in general, [technology] started getting a broader audience,” he said.

Archos, for better and worse, has earned a reputation for courting early adopters, as well as pushing out a steady stream of updates. Frederic Balay, the company’s vice president of marketing, has watched the market for Archos’ products expand. “Archos moved from releasing products only to tech-savvy users, to a better mix of early adopters and more mainstream users,” he said.

The blurring of the lines between early adopters and mainstream consumers hasn’t necessarily prompted Archos to enhance the usability of its first-generation products, however. Although our Archos 7 media player ran smoothly out of the box, LAPTOP had to delay publishing its Archos 5 review because the software repeatedly froze. It wasn’t until we downloaded a firmware upgrade that the player performed reasonably.