The BBC has a story on how consumers find technology jargon baffling.
Nothing new there, except as new consumer-friendly technologies
hit the market, such as MP3 players, their uptake is stifled by confusion – even though they have fantastic potential for consumers everywhere.
The research points out that jargon that has been around since the birth of Personal Computing, such as megahertz, still mean nothing.
It’s up to communicators (as it has been for the past twenty years) to break down the barriers for consumers. With the jargon in place, these new technologies remain in the hands of the few. I wouldn’t like to explain to my mum how she needs a USB 2.0 port in her computer to use her MP3 player. I’ve tried similar experiments and it always ends in tears.
I am amazed a pioneer like Apple hasn’t taken a deeper look at these issues. After all they have a massive opportunity to reach beyond the innovators into the entire consumer market.
The BBC story was based on research commisioned by AMD and was released as planned!
Murphy's Law 