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Who is E-wear Man?
Panasonic is pushing its new do-it-all gadget with a small and stealthy ad personality called E-wear Man. But will it sell consumers on Swiss Army-like tech gizmos? |
By David Carnoy
Executive editor, CNET Electronics
(5/15/02)
| The biggest knock against these all-in-one type devices is that, while they may do a lot of things, they don't do any of them particularly well. |  |
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The concept of devices that handle digital video, audio, and still images has been percolating for a few years. A handful of products have been released; think digital cameras combined with handhelds that integrate music and digital photography. More than four years ago, Hitachi came out with the well-built but ultraexpensive MPEG-1 video camera that also did stills. A year later, Sharp launched an MPEG-4 video camera that bombed. More recently, PoGo released an MPEG-4 viewer/MP3 player/voice recorder. Several MP3 player manufacturers, such as Bantam Interactive, plan to offer MPEG-4 video playback in upcoming devices. Also, Casio will begin selling a tiny and sleek digital camera that has an integrated MP3 player in July. The biggest knock against these all-in-one type devices is that, while they may do a lot of things, they don't do any of them particularly well. To a large degree, that's true, and I noticed that the folks at Panasonic peppered their presentation about the SV-AV10 with such adjectives as fun and easy-to-use and avoided such nouns as resolution and frame rates. Call me Mr. Fun
In its press release, Panasonic says the SV-AV10 is "primed to party," so I took it on over to a B-list Vanilla Coke launch party in downtown New York (and by B-list, I mean that the only celebrity I saw was the Britney of the 80s, Debbie Gibson). I must say the device was an immediate hit, earning such compliments as "Dude, that's tight" as I shot video clips of various party goers.
| I must say the device was an immediate hit, earning such compliments as "Dude, that's tight" as I shot video clips of various party goers. | |
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Once their prices dip a bit, say, to less than $250, devices such as the SV-AV10 will catch on in the United States. We're a little slower than gadget-mad Japan, where many cell phones already have built-in cameras and tiny four-in-one-devices are practically part of the culture. However, Americans are quite willing to spend $400 on a cool gadget such as the iPod. But the thing has to look and feel pretty slick, like a serious piece of equipment rather than a throwaway, for us to open our wallets and reach for the plastic. The audio part of these devices is easy because when you are listening to music through portable headphones in an environment with lots of ambient noise, such as walking around town, most untrained ears won't miss the details and high and low frequencies eliminated through MP3 compression. But video is trickier because your eyes can see better than your ears can hear in those conditions. I'd being willing to spend more, maybe as much as $650, if the all-in-one product met certain criteria. The device I'm waiting for (can you hear Gibson's "Only in My Dreams" playing in the background?) is something akin in style to Sony's new pocket-friendly MicroMV camcorder, provided Sony adds MP3 playback and drops its list price by $700. You see, the key for me is to have the flexibility of shooting high-quality video and stills for posterity, or low-quality video and stills for e-mailing. In other words, I want to have some serious fun.
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David Carnoy is the executive editor for electronics coverage at CNET. Have a question for him? Let us know!
