USING TECHNOLOGY TO HOLD THE CONSUMER CAPTIVE

In the space of one week, two new pieces of technology have been unveiled. And both promise to revolutionise the digital media platform. 3D television and the iPad. But at what cost to the consumer?

There was great excitement across the UK, when Sky Television announced its plan to televise the Manchester United versus Arsenal football match live in 3D.

But like it was posed by the Mail Online, is the new 3D craze worth forking out £1,000, (Ksh 120,000), on a 3D enabled TV? Just think of the millions of people, who have just purchased High Definition sets.

And what does it mean for developing countries such as Kenya, with no channel broadcasting in HD yet? You do start to appreciate the Third World tag afresh.

That a technological advancement has started the process of becoming obsolete, even before it lands in the shores of developing countries.

The consolation though, is that the rich countries will eventually dump their now outdated but quite modern TV sets in African countries, for example, at a profit to them, of course.

New technology does not mean higher revenues for media industry

The introduction of the iPad has received a mixed reaction. Writing in the Online Journalism Review, Robert Niles cautions that the news industry should not blindly expect to make a killing from the latest Apple product and should instead find ways of reconnecting with a fleeing audience.

"When PhDs can write engaging blogs on the topics of their expertise, reaching an affluent worldwide audience, can you really afford to continue employing a general assignment reporter, who has no advanced degree or relevant industry experience, and may have finished somewhere in the middle half of his or her high-school graduating class, to cover the same stories? Can you afford to continue clinging to the myth that print narrative "writing ability" is somehow more important than research analysis skills, professional knowledge and a long memory for reporting in a complex, technological age?"

Pertinent questions indeed. To which I add, should we become slaves to the ever evolving technology designed to ensure consumers never make a purchase to last and serve them well in a significant portion of their lifetime?