On Thu, 27 Jul 2006 17:29:22 -0700 Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote:
| Chuckle. Return rate is a problem but not for the obvious reason that
| it affects the bottom line. The return rate on commodity wireless is
| sufficiently small that at least one manufacturer just throws them
| away and only retests them if a major distributor returns them en
| masse. They also unload them with large rebates, which requires
| destroying the packaging to collect, which therefore reduces the
| return rate. Return rate is a killer only because it trashes brand
| name recognition, which is the major reason consumers buy any
| particular device. If you look carefully at the advertising in the
| consumer magazines (not the trade journals), you'll probably notice
| that much of starts by congratulating the consumer on having made an
| intelligent choice and goes on to assure the consumer that the company
| is behind its products 150%. In other words, they're going for the
| repeat business based on name recognition.
When I returned the two Netgear WGT624 routers to Staples, I tried
to go out of my way to explain to the clerk that was taking them that
they actually worked fine as designed. I did figure if I had said
that they were not working right, a scenario like you describe could
happen. Since they had been unpackaged, they couldn't sell them as
new very easily, but I was trying to give them as much of a chance to
be sold, maybe cheap, to someone as I could. So I told the clerk,
and this was literally true, too, that they were "access points" (they
truly are) and as such, they cannot talk to each other by design, and
that Netgear failed to disclose this on their web page, PDF file, or
even on the box ... which they did not ... nowhere did they state that
these are access points. So I didn't lie. I just emphasized the more
favorable truth.
| Sure. Perception is everything. Few can explain why two antennas are
| better, but intelligence and technology doesn't count with decisions
| based on perception.
Two light bulbs are brighter. Brighter light means the light can be
seen further away. Non-techies would probably think in ways similar
to that.
| There are other things that are amazingly important for retail sales.
| Color is one. Colors all have subliminal meanings. I walked in to a
| customer with a Watchguard SOHO router. It's in a bright red plastic
| box, apparently to capitalize on the firewall features. My customer
| asked if I had something in a different color? Huh? She said that it
| reminded her of blood, which made her feel awkward. I replaced it
| with an antiseptic white Netgear WG-614, which was deemed acceptable.
I tend to prefer devices with a metallic case, like Netgear USED TO make.
They seem to be migrating to the cheap plastic, now.
| Weight is also an important feature. Given two almost identical
| products, the average consumer will usually pick the heaviest product.
| There's a perception that you get more for your money if it's heavier.
| I learned this the hard way when designing marine radios. We
| literally put a lead brick inside the box and sales immediately
| improved.
|
| Criteria for commodity router selection (most important on top):
| 1. It's cheap.
| 2. A friend has one that works.
Is your friend a geek?
| 3. I've heard of the manufacturer from somewhere.
| 4. The box and color look cool.
Be sure to open it carefully so you can keep the cool box.
| 5. It weighs like something that should work.
| 6. The literature is incomprehensible, so it must be powerful.
The Chinese part? Or the Taiwanese part?
| 7. Larger numbers are always better.
| 108Mbits/sec instead of 54Mbits/sec.
| Is 802.11z later than 802.11b? 5.7GHz is bigger than 2.4Ghz.
Then they should advertize them as 54000kbits/sec and 2400 MHz.
| 8. The flashing lights sure look nice. What do they mean?
They stopped making lights actually show exactly when data is being sent
as that's so fast these days no one could tell unless they are flooding
it real fast. So the circuits have their own blinking rate and hold on
for a few seconds. Almost worthless to geeks. Cool to non-techies.
| 9. This box has more acronyms than the other box.
Oh. I'll have to try that on my brother. "Make sure it has SMTP in it".
"What's SMTP?" "It's how email is sent" "Oh, thanks, that's exactly what
I need it for". :-)
| 10. I read a review that said all I had to do is plug in the
| wireless router and it's ready to go.
Such a reviewer should be chastized for causing so much insecurity.
| Optional:
| 11. Jeff L said it sucked so I guess I'll try it.
Who?
--
|---------------------------------------/----------------------------------|
| Phil Howard KA9WGN (ka9wgn.ham.org) / Do not send to the address below |
| first name lower case at ipal.net /
spamtrap-2006-07-29-1135@ipal.net |
|------------------------------------/-------------------------------------|
Re: What are 2 antennas being used for? 
Linear Mode
