Monday, May 19, 1997
I Want My, ummm,
TV?
by
[email protected]
A friend recently proclaimed that everyone will refuse to buy a new digital TV when their old ones are obsolete. They'll simply learn to do without TV. Huh? Beg your pardon? From what planet are you visiting us?
Oh, sure, we've all heard the urban legend of the few tweedy sorts who don't even own a television, bless their souls. But for the general populace to do without the NBA playoffs is incomprehensible. People are simply not going to give up TV. Repeat after me: people will not give up TV. They will buy new digital TVs at comfortable price points and place them in prominent positions in their homes. And then they will tune it in to Beverly Hillbillies re-runs. Digital, of course. You can really see the glaze in Jethro's eyes.
What's going to happen to all those non-digital TVs? I don't know. People bowl with frozen turkeys, don't they?. Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe we can make an island off the coast of Southern California.
It's said we'll have five to ten years until the old TVs are landfill. I wouldn't be surprised if they last much longer, though. Why? Because a new technology seldom completely obliterates an old one. People still swap 8-track tapes, still buy vinyl records, and still use buggy whips. The buggier people, that is.
Old technology has a tendency to hang around for some time when a new one shows up. Often the two co-exist indefinitely. That's something to remember when people speculate about what new technology will supplant the last, whether the 1.4meg floppy will be replaced by the 100meg Zip drive or some future interstellar storage technology. Heck, I expect even humans will be around for some time. At least until the weekend. So, in all the speculation over what new technology will become the current standard, remember some people still wear double knits.
Foolishly yours,
Tom Pedersen
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