Why Being an Early Adopter Sucks, Dell Edition
Over the summer I invested in a 30-inch Dell LCD to complement my primary and only computer, my MacBook Pro, with money from having sold a little web app. While I wasn’t a true early adopter as the 3007WFP had been out for about a year at the time, my version didn’t really have any real feature updates. Then I read the Inquirer’s piece on the 3007WFP-HC’s replacement, the 3008WFP.
Up until recently, I have had no issues with my 3007WFP-HC. It has great color, great brightness, great resolution and everything. The problems came when I tried to use the display with other devices. It lacks an on-board image processor and can only accept 2 resolutions (2560×1600 and 1280×800 - neither of which are true HD) via 1 DVI connection, which is utterly paltry compared to the slew of inputs on the 24-inch Dell display. That’s pretty ridiculous for Dell’s most expensive display. It seems like they’ve come to their senses with the 3008WFP, which has a bevy of connections for those looking to use the large display with something other than a computer.
This is quite a painful realization for any early adopter, especially when those connections include HDMI and the rare DisplayPort. The 3008WFP is now the ultimate display for the person that only has room for one display; people living in a small SF studio and the like. It’ll deal with computer stuff, HD-DVD/Bluray player needs and so on.
What bad early adopter experiences have you had?
My MacBook Pro. I know I’ve bitched about it tons before so I’ll keep this short and to the point: my 1.83GHz MBP is a faulty piece of sh*t that has had nothing but problems.
I like the looks of the display, and I’d love to buy one in the future to compliment my MacBook Pro, but at the same time I’d really like to upgrade to a newer, less faulty machine. :p
Early adoption of the first MacBook revision resulted in a few discolored shell replacements. Picking up the Nokia N95 resulted in me lusting after an even faster, better US version with 3G.
That’s the thing with technology though.. No matter what device you pride over, a newer, better, [faster], more feature rich version is always around the corner.
I wasn’t really an early adopter either, although i purchased a 17″ iMac only to find the next day a brand new 20″ Aluminium iMac was released with better specs at a lower price!
Bought an iBook G4 and a month later the Macbooks were announced. Oh, and I got the PS2 for $500 then the price went down shortly after.
Well being an early adopter sucks also because your like some kind of “beta” tester. That’s why I never buy the first edition of a product (eg: the intel iMac or the MacBook Pro).
I currently have the 24 inch Dell monitor and I was thinking of upgrading to the 30 inch 3007WFP-HC monitor. I guess I should wait for the 3008WFP.
Didn’t realize the 3007WFP-HC had issues with non-native resolutions. *pats his 225BW* “It’s ok if you are only 22 inches, you utterly rock”
I was wondering whether the Dell was really good….Now I know ;)
Just reminds me that we should all go for tried and tested products….
Bleeding edge tech is probably just that - bleeding. Sure, if you’ve got cash to burn, it makes sense, but students don’t usually have that kind of money.
This guy’s an exception, though.
Similar to Christian, I bought an iMac G5 w/iSight in mid December just to find out that they were switching to Intel a few weeks later! At the time it didn’t bother me because I figured there would be several bugs to work out and time to get the developers switched, but now it boils my blood because there are so many Intel-only Mac apps.
I am a MOTO addict, or should I say RAZR addict. I’ve been the first to get the V3 razr as well as the V3i version as soon as it hit the market. A week later and the prices would hit rock bottom here in India. So, this time I’m waiting and trying hard to resist the RAZR 2 .
Ha, I beat you all. I was an early Windows Vista adopter.
Now I run Mac OS X Tiger and it seems that I’ll be waiting for 10.5.1 till I’ll upgrade. I’ve learned my lesson :)
I totally saw this yesterday and thought about you… Poor Stammy.
I was an earlier adopter of (even pre-ordered) my current alienware laptop, and the build quality is really poor.
Anyone remember Game.com? If I had waited a little longer, I would have realized it was doomed from the start. But I was just a dumb kid.
Well, to all of you early adopters … there’s always something better around the corner. Being the suckers that we are, we always buy the latest. But we also know more than most people when it comes to technology and technology trends. I know many people that never get around to buying a new computer because they’re waiting for the upgrade. Speaking of suckers … :S Anyway, that’s why people pay us for our knowledge, and we keep spending the money on the latest gadgets. And (hopefully) one day we can afford more than just buying the latests gadgets. :) Hehe!
iPhone. Although I love it, I know I’ll regret it as soon as Steve releases one with 3G and video capabilities.
My ex-wife. If only I had waited for a later version.
you can sell it now. Just like you did with he iMac and buy the new one when it comes out.
Oh and the iPhone and same early adopter issue when i bought the Dell 2005WFP panel.
I was an early adopter of the Macbook Pro too. I had heat and battery issues. Both times I had to argue with the kids at the “genius bar”. In the end I got a new logic board (fans weren’t coming on) and a battery. I had to ask the manager on duty to replace my battery that was like a month out of warranty.
It’s why I wasn’t an early adopter of the iPhone, let someone else deal with the headaches :)
A 250 GB drive for £500, the MiniDisk player, and MacFUSE… My my mini away- was probably my fault, and in the end I replaced it with an iMac so not all bad.
I always wait for the second version to come out. I’m not jumping on the iPhone bandwagon just yet, i’ll wait til it has 3G and/or a bigger hard drive. I think I might upgrade my MacBook for a MacBook Pro though…And I’m debating on pickin up the Dell 2407 for Xmas, we’ll see.
Well, like windows - then always wait until they have released SP 2 or 3 before start using it… :-)
My dell 30″ is rocking so far but now I’m going to be a little worried! I had early adopter issues with the iPhone…I got one for free from my job (which I’m no longer at anymore) and it was fun for a little while but as a phone I was very unsatisfied.
I have had a <a href="http://dewayneblogs.com/2007/11/17/msft-did-something-nearly-right/">love</a>-<a href="http://dewayneblogs.com/2007/12/02/why-microsoft/">hate</a> relationship with my Microsoft Zune (a product I've owned since April 2007).
I have had love-hate relationship with my Microsoft Zune (a product I’ve owned since April 2007).
I’m completely the opposite when it comes to early adoption - we (my family) always waits until absolutely necessary to upgrade. The only reason any of our computers that we bought have XP on them is because we waited until we needed new ones before buying. And when we bought them, Service Pack 2 had been out for a long time.
BTW, Microsoft has SP3 in the works. I think they have either a beta or a release candidate available for testing. Oh woops - betas are usually unstable!
Paul, I think you are alright. The display wasn’t that expensive and you have had six month use out of it. I’d wait a generation and then upgrade.
But version A Apple products are a nightmare from Yikes on up.
Anybody remember the Turbo-Grafx 16? No? Then you realize why I feel burned by it.