The small on gadget import restrictions
Less is better in the electronics world, and for the weight-conscious traveller, there’s nothing more gratifying than packing the cutting edge in laptops. But while there has been an increase in the demand for smaller, lighter, and certainly pricier gadgets in the U.S., local computer stores are just as noticeable in their slow reaction to the growing trend.
Money talks
The important factor big business has to ask is if it’ll sell – innovation doesn’t always equal profit, and companies aren’t too keen on products they know won’t earn, hence the focus on affordable laptops. There’s also the problem of telecom. European and Japanese electronics are geared for their corresponding lines, and can’t be expected to work in American connections without a hitch, which is why some drool-inducing goodies fail to make it here.
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Less is better in the electronics world, and for the weight-conscious traveller, there’s nothing more gratifying than packing the cutting edge in laptops. But while there has been an increase in the demand for smaller, lighter, and certainly pricier gadgets in the U.S., local computer stores are just as noticeable in their slow reaction to the growing trend.
Money talks
The important factor big business has to ask is if it’ll sell – innovation doesn’t always equal profit, and companies aren’t too keen on products they know won’t earn, hence the focus on affordable laptops. There’s also the problem of telecom. European and Japanese electronics are geared for their corresponding lines, and can’t be expected to work in American connections without a hitch, which is why some drool-inducing goodies fail to make it here.
Size Matters
“They want everything in there, as much storage as they can get, as fast as it can go, as big as possible,” Yuni Sucippo, I-Cube website VP says, and no, he wasn’t talking about SUV’s. Much like our taste for cars, the electronics market is chockful of consumers wanting the most powerful units available, with the most features and the highest memory caps they can get their hands on – if lugging around 10 pounds of laptop is still considered “light”. It’s the same cultural factor that explains the Japanese market’s preferences. Their consumers have a taste for laptops that, while aren’t nearly as powerful as their bigger, bulkier kin in our retails stores, are much lighter and easier to stow.
Licensing
Another hurdle faced by the lightweights lies in copyrighting. U.S. patent laws are written differently from their European and Japanese counterparts, making it difficult and expensive for most companies in these latter countries to patent any of their products shipped to the U.S. – products without proper patents are open game for piracy, especially small companies that lack legal clout. Enter the the Patent Reform Act of 2005. Introduced last year by Rep. Lamar S. Smith. This bill, when enacted, will restructure current U.S. patent laws, easing up the processing for prospective foreign companies.
Alternatives
While a market for such products is still as small, it’s been gaining momentum, and buyers need only go online. Online dealerships like Dynamism.Com, I-Cube and Kurns & Patrick provide this niche market with the means for purchasing these goods overseas, with sites like Dynamism.com doubling as customer/technical support for the products on their site. Kurns & Patrick in particular also deals in used units, though some of the units’ keyboards and OS will still be sporting their original Japanese characters (english stickers provided by K & P), and some warranties state that the unit has to be sent back to Japan, or the site it was bought from.
As said before, it’s a growing niche market that’s catching attention, and with the growing orientation for lighter, easier to carry units for the jet-setting businessman/woman, it may only be a matter of time before it’ll carve out its own place in the US mainstream market, and grow like the proverbial mustard seed.