Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
You truly don't get it do you. You may be an engineer and a wanna-be-writer, but you certainly don't understand business and that is what you are talking about here. Steve Jobs understood business, that's why Apple was so successful.
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Please don't lump engineers in there: spec-sheet design and gold-plating are cardinal sins to good design engineers.
A properly-designed product will meet actual consumers' actual needs, not *every* theoretical need of every *theoretical* consumer. No product will ever meet the needs of 100% of the market; trying to do so is the fastest road to disaster, especially in competitive markets.
Similarly, retailers need to be careful in identifying the needs of their actual customers; stocking products that *might* appeal to their customers only works if *enough* customers actually buy those products. Otherwise they're wasting resources better allocated to other uses.
B&N selling rugs online presupposes a large enough fraction of B&N's customer base is actually likely to buy rugs when they go to their website for books to make it worthwhile.
"Honey, I ordered you that new $9.99 David Weber book you were thinking of getting. And while I was there I saw this gorgeous $800 rug and I just *had* to have it."
It could happen, I suppose...