Samsung Tic Toc

What were they thinking about? What can possibly have got into the Samsung engineers’ minds, let alone the marketing guys, to make them think that the Tic Toc was a good idea?

Announced at CES, the Tic Toc is an incredibly small MP3 player which has but one button. You control it by turning this way or that, or shaking it quickly or slowly. As the power says: “Easily shift through a choice of four play modes with a simple shake of the wrist”…”through the force of gravity”.

You can just imagine the thought process:

1. We could make an MP3 player much smaller if it did not have to have buttons or a screen on it (a bit like saying a car could be much more efficient if only it did not have to carry passengers).
2. I know, we play the Wii by shaking the controller, we could do the same with our MP3 player.
3. Oh, wow, now we’d need to watsit, a thingy and a 9v power supply…

Meanwhile in the marketing department… “an MP3 player with no buttons, no one has ever done that before, we’ve got to show it at CES”.

But wait! How do most people use an MP3 player? That’s right; on the move. You just plug in your ‘phones, bit play, stuff it in your pocket, and go jogging, cleaning the house, dancing, bounce on the trampoline, do some gymnastics, and enjoy your music uninterrupted. Or not, because the Samsung Tic Toc (and I bet they have a patent for it) will probably have had an apoplectic fit by then.

Guys, just because you can see that something is possible, does not mean you should go and do it.

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