My wife got me a very nice Christmas gift – a high-end Plantronics Bluetooth headset for my cell phone. When she told me where she bought it (Radio Shack), I checked the price, which was $100. I then went on the Web and “shopped around,� finding the same headset for as low at $60.
My next task was reviewing the headset’s features on-line (I still had not opened the box). Lo and behold – it had a lot of nice capabilities, including many that I would never need or use (think Microsoft Office and how many of the capabilities in Word, Excel and PowerPoint you really make use of). Over the next couple of days I looked around for a headset with the features I did need, at a more reasonable price, finally buying an $80 Jabra unit that, with rebates, was only $30 at Fry’s. Finally, I returned the Plantronics headset to Radio Shack.
The purpose of this story is not to show what a great shopper I am (that point is debatable), but to impress upon you the importance of buying only what you need in a product, not what someone else (spouse, friend, salesman) thinks you need. Unless, of course, you like to waste your money. This philosophy applies to virtually any purchased item, but is particularly relevant to electronics products and their rapidly growing feature sets. Whether in the market for a new computer, flat screen TV, cell phone or music player – determine what you really “need� and then add on your most important “wants.� This should guide your purchase decision, not the bells and whistles you’ll never ring or blow.
Oh, by the way, when I discussed my headset ideas with my wife, she agreed with the decision to buy the far less expensive unit. More money for us to spend on other things was probably in the back of her mind. Smart woman!