There is a NYT blog post titled, “I Love It, It’s Perfect, Now It Changes” that has received over one thousand comments about great products that people love, but have been discontinued due to “feature creep.”
Feature creep is a “phenomenon generated by market forces, media hype and twitchy retailers [that] creates a cycle in which products are constantly improved even if they don’t need to be.”
After reading about 100 of the comments, it seems that what people really miss is simplicity, dependability, and familiarity. A lot of the commentators don’t like additional features, whether the feature actually adds value or is purely extraneous.
I have felt this way at times. For example, camera phones. Until the phones came with a camera that offered one megapixal capabilities, I saw no use for them. The pictures looked grainy, and although they were a novelty that surely sold more phones, they were more of an annoyance than anything.
This all reminds me of a book I bought, but have yet to read, titled, “The Paradox of Choice.” I saw the author speak and was intrigued by the concept that having more choices often makes out lives more difficult. Instead of choosing between three pairs of jeans, we have hundreds to choose from. One of the pairs will fit perfectly, but at what cost?