When you are thinking about embracing new technologies and upgrading to what appears to be the future and throwing out your current out dated models, it may be advisable not to rush out and buy straight away; unless of course you can afford to buy twice, or you can stand being slightly outdated in a fairly short period of time by more efficient and refined versions.
For instance when flat screen TV's came out they were set to be 'The Next Big Thing', and they really are taking over now. However if you rushed out and bought one straight away you might have paid a lot more than you would pay now, and what's more because of the relative newness of the technology, they are likely to have less picture quality especially on large models (30 inch plus) and missed the chance to be HD ready.
The main problems with the first flat screen TVs was not so much straight forward picture quality but more the picture quality from a slight angle or up close. In the real world where we don't have the luxury of perfectly shaped rooms and not all the chairs can be exactly in front of the TV, viewers watching from an arm chair at the side of the room would suffer from colour quality loss, and pixilation. Also a relatively short time after flat screen TVs came out, HD technology was released, almost all new flat models that come out now are HD ready, preparing you for the next generation.
Not to mention the financial aspect, for instance a 40inch flat screen TV just a year ago costs 25% more than it would now and are likely to posses some of the flaws mentioned above.
Another risk in embracing brand new technologies is that the technology won't catch on, ok so it was quite obvious that the general public would take to the flat screen TV as it is a natural progression, as was the DVD player.
But take 'mini discs' for example, they are already fading out and have not really taken over as the new medium for the commercial release of music as was previously predicted. For whatever reason the mini disc never really made an impact and took over from compact discs, and with the recent advent of digital compressed music formats such as the mp3 and mp4 and their download charts and portable players I wouldn't hedge my bets on that happening at all. Anyone who spent a lot of money on a mini disc system is likely to have not have gotten as much use out of their player as previously thought.
Other technologies that people may have recently spent on are DVD recorders. Pretty soon the HD DVD is going to become more main stream and anyone with a regular DVD player or recorder is going to be facing the prospect of buying a newer HD model if they want to keep up.
However as always it may be best to wait a short while before doing so to ensure that the bugs in the new technology have been well and truly ironed out. There is currently a dispute about 2 patented mediums of HD DVD: 'Blue Ray' from Sony and Microsoft's'HD DVD, but it is thought that players that can play both types of wavelength are likely to become available, so watch this space…
There are several new technologies currently released that it is still probably advisable to wait a while if you wish to catch them at an affordable price and not have to face the problems that new technologies are often plagued with.
For instance automatic vacuum cleaners, these are devices that automatically vacuum your home. They rely on sensors to navigate around the floor of your home avoiding obstacles and hovering around things. They are currently rather expensive ranging from £400 – £1000 are fast getting a growing reputation for being clumsy and ineffective at proper cleaning. But who knows in a year or so they may be problem free and be a mainstream household device, probably at a much cheaper price too.
Other items such as quad core PCs, SLI graphics and physics cards may also be worth a wait to obtain the best value and reliability.
So as a general rule of thumb if you want to save time, effort, and money it may be best to wait a short while before rushing out and embracing new technologies, or if you really cant wait you should do some research, read reviews of new products on the web and find out product specifications before you buy.