More articles and commentary from Paul Boutin::
- Tesla CEO's trap for Valleywag leaker backfires
- Twitter finally plans to make money
- Slate to Facebook users: Stop whining about redesign
- Does Flip acquisition herald the rise of dumb tech?
- Video: The fastest PC you may ever see
- Yahoo corporate blog romanticizes the pre-layoff era
- TechCrunch chief comes back for more
Comments
I'm sure he cries himself to sleep every night in 800 thread count Egyptian cotton Frette linens. He's not stupid, which is why he's very well paid. Aside from the column our parents are "nodding right along" he's got the very lucrative "Missing Manual" series, which outsell all those "animal books" lining sysadmin bookshelves for O'Reilly Associates.
Dah, patience is always rewarded. Just one of those laws of nature. I suspect you don't hunt or fish so it is not part of your psych... nrk
Nice piece, Paul.
It's a shame that people would say nasty things about Pogue. Waiting to review results in a wiser, smarter and more interesting perspective -- it also captures problems others tends to miss (especially reliability) and a sense of the chatter that's formed around any given blinken-thing.
One thing I felt you skipped over, however, is that Pogue and us, us being the gadget bloggers, are writing for markets that don't intersect all that much. They buy (and want advice regarding) the same things, but the culture is so different that to find rivalry or resentment in it is pointless.
I can respect and admire David's review of a 4-month old netbook, for example, because 4 months ago, we were scribbling posts on how to get OSX running on it. He's santa, we're the elves.
Agree with Rob... good article about Mr. David Pogue. I definitely can't argue that it is a smart move to let time pass to see how technology and the public's reception to it materializes.
Truth is that, while it is important for many of us to communicate to the early adopters, the mainstream part of a customer base is the biggest base by far.
In my line of work, we put quite a bit of time into building our blogs, forums and wikis. The reality is that many mainstream customers don't know the difference between a blog, forum or wiki and they don't care to. They do care about some content that's relevant to them.
David does a good job explaining technology trends to mainstream customers in an approachable and likeable way. He fills a need and he does it in an unassuming way. I'm not surprised he's enjoyed the kind of success he has.
Thanks,
LionelatDell
www.direct2dell.com
I like David Pogue, but if the premise of this article is to be patient in your reviews, I'm afraid that only works for a select few journalists/ bloggers (those who've made it to celebrity status) and select few topics. The reason that David can write about Twitter 2 years later is because his platform/ position allows him to. I'm sure if Paul Boutin was the tech reviewer for the New York Times, people would read him just as much (and frankly, most of mainstream America wouldn't know 1 guy from the other). I think it's more a function of his position than the man himself that allows him to take his time with some topics and I don't think it would work if for example he was a blogger with his own website. And for some topics, like his iPhone review or the Missing Manual series, those have less value if released/ written later. So while it's great to have patience, I think David's success can be more attributed to his everyman nature & regular Joe take on technology than any extra patience that he has over you and me.
Assuming your analysis is correct, the brilliant move would be for this "I'm one of you" writers to begin to let his readers know early on why they should keep an eye on a new technology or trend. Pogue might assume that his readers will stay in a "late to the party" mode forever. Doubtful. The number of Facebook users over age 35 doubled in the past 60 days. Baby boomers are swarming Facebook, Twitter and other social web platforms, which means they're picking up information from early adopters on those platforms. If I were Pogue, I'd make sure I positioned myself as a leading edge scout for web and tech trends, albeit one with patience. You don't have to do an in-depth review of something, but you can certainly inform your readers that you're aware of it, using it, seeing what all the fuss is about. And then months later give an in-depth analysis.
http://Twitter.com/BrickandClick
Another example is the BlackBerry Storm. Walt Mossberg's favorable review for WSJ.com was so fast it broke the press embargo by two hours. Pogue waited a week, got to really know the gadget, and tore the crappy phone a new one. Mossberg's review had almost no impact. Pogue's had MASSIVE impact. Well played.
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