David Pogue is a tastemaker. His reviews in The New York Times—and now on Yahoo—are widely followed. He has 1.5 million Twitter followers. And he’s always on the lookout for new trends.
So, what is he intrigued by right now? And what does he think is overhyped? I put it to Pogue.
[The following interview has been edited and condensed. To hear the full interview, visit www.innovationhub.org.]
Kara Miller: What do you think people are increasingly desiring right now?
David Pogue: There are certain trends that you can look at, and one of them is instant gratification. It started with the iTunes music store—I want this song right now. And then movies on Netflix and TV shows on Hulu. Amazon is working hard at bringing us same-day delivery of anything we want to buy, whether it’s by drones or just efficiency in big cities. There are now at least 20 companies that let you see a doctor over video on the spot, without having to make an appointment and drive and sit in a germ-filled waiting room.
KM: What do we buy now that, in a few years, we won’t be very interested in anymore?
DP: Well, smartwatches come to mind. They’re very hot. And the idea is sound—you can get text messages and e-mails on your wrist. But we’re really in the Commodore 64 age. There’s a Samsung one where you can actually make phone calls into your wrist—you look a little bit deranged when you do that. I just don’t get it.
KM: You’ve done some work with Kickstarter—the website that crowdfunds projects and gadgets. Do you think that these sorts of websites take power from the big corporations—the Sonys, the Apples?
DP: Yes, over and over again, we see that, in all realms of society and the economy. And more often than not, these projects are more successful from a consumer perspective than the corporate projects. Because it’s a very pure vision of one man, one woman, one pair of buddies from grad school. It’s not diluted by lawyers and marketing considerations. It remains true to its vision from the moment it’s conceived.