Less features are often more

Our society is crazy for features.  When you want a device, you wan't the most features.  You tend to pay more for the devices with more features, since it costs more to make a device with that many features.  The truth is, we tend to not use those features.  By knowing what features you want, and what ones you don't care about, you can actually save a lot of money.  It can also cost you a lot of money if it is a really nice feature.

Once of the best examples of this is an e-book reader.  When the Kindle first came out, it had a black and white e-ink display.  This e-ink display used very little battery.  Therefore, your device ran a really long time on a single charge.  The problem was the device was back and white, though.  Enter the iPad, Kindle Fire and Nook Color.  These are not e-book readers.  They are tablets that can be used as an e-book reader.  They have far more features, are color and are far more powerful.  They tend to be "better" in every way, except for battery life.  Tablets screens require power to maintain their display, while e-ink does not.  If you take a minute to read a page, a tablet has been draining the battery for a whole minute while the e-book reader only drained the battery for the second it took to turn the page.

This is an example where less is more.  By having a black-and-white e-ink screen, the battery lasts a lot longer.  If you are reading a book, you don't care about color, or the slow refresh rate.  You also enjoy the fact that you can read your book outside!

By concentrating on the features you need (I should be able to read a book) and not on the features you don't need (I don't need to play games or watch a video), you can save yourself a lot of money.  How much money?  The Txtr Beagle is a new e-book reader that is coming out soon.  The expected price for it is $13.  That is not a typo.  Compare that with the $499 you would spend for the current top of the line iPad with retina display.  That is a 97.4% or $486 in savings.

How does a company get an e-book reader to cost that low?  By removing features.  First, one of the most expensive parts of an e-book reader is the battery.  Built in rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries are expensive.  You also have to ship a charger with the device for the end user to charge with.  With the Beagle, you just use AAA batteries.  No need to ship a usb or power cable.  The device can do that because it requires so little power, since it is a true e-book reader.  It uses e-ink and only allows you to read books.  When I told some people about this, they looked at me weird.  They look at it as being overly cheap, when I think it is genius.  It drastically lowers the cost.

The device does not contain WiFi or 3G.  You have to load books into it using a Bluetooth device.  The Beagle only contains 4GB of space for books.  For a true e-book reader, that is plenty of space.  E-books are small.  Its the music and videos that eat up space on a tablet.

This device does one thing and it does it well.  They innovated by removing features, not adding features.  The biggest feature of this device is the price.  While you get what you pay for, if you really are looking for a plain old e-book reader, then it is well worth the money.

Although this is a bit of an extreme example (I don't think I can find a 97% savings on anything else), you should figure out what features you want, and what features you don't need.  Less is more.