Quote:
Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze
|
That's a fairly old post, but still quite relevant. Some of the comments posted about the reviews are still valid in the face of this though (if somewhat exaggerated).
Reviewers are in a weird situation. There is a bit of positive spin in all reviews. Ars Technica did an interesting report on the reasons why this is. But it is also the case that if a product
was pure crap, the odds are good that you won't be able to get it reviewed in the first place for various reasons. Or you just wouldn't bother releasing it. So there's a bias of sorts that if a review is fairly low, you have to wonder what the hell happened. It isn't that hard to at least be average in the market.
So we get into these heated brand wars over what? The 20% of the product that makes it different from other products. Look at the eInk readers: the Nook, the Kobo, the Kindle, the Sony Reader, etc... these products by and large are pretty much all the same thing. They are made different by tweaks and changes that "differentiate" them. Sony's ease of accessing 3rd party book sources. Amazon's strong eco-system. Kobo's customizability. B&N's ergonomics. We fight over silly stuff like which one of these is "the best" when they are all pretty darn good for different reasons.
But as the devil is in the details, so are the debates and arguments. And we humans do love to dip our toes into the pool of hyperbole so often it becomes a joke.