The Death of the Specification

Re:The Death of the Specification by kstenerud on Monday November 14, 2011 @06:33PM (#3236189)

News flash: Consumer Reports is not a cheerleader for the top selling products. They are an organization concerned over what you get in actual fact for your money.

Consumer Reports is read by people who want to know all of the quality issues and hard facts about a product before making a purchasing decision. Such consumers always have, and always will be, a small market segment.

This "credibility rant" reads like a sycophant lamenting those who don't heap lavish praise upon the popular kids.

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Re:The Death of the Specification by j_baker on Monday November 14, 2011 @07:01PM (#3236262)

I don't think the author ever said that Consumer Reports should be a cheerleader for top-selling products. Rather, the author says that Consumer Reports doesn't seem to have much influence over what sells. It sounds to me like you agree with the author.

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Re:The Death of the Specification by kstenerud on Monday November 14, 2011 @08:18PM (#3236478)

CR has plenty of influence over what sells to its target market. If this weren't so, it would be impossible for them to turn a profit. The author is claiming that CR is irrelevant and out of touch, and "demonstrates" his point using a market that CR doesn't even cater to.

You might as well argue that Techcrunch is irrelevant because it doesn't cover the latest in housing and furniture.

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Re:The Death of the Specification by bryanlarsen on Monday November 14, 2011 @08:59PM (#3236609)

I love Consumer Reports. I won't choose my phone based on their reviews, but they did save me over $500 on a vacuum cleaner.

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Re:The Death of the Specification by jseliger on Monday November 14, 2011 @11:02PM (#3236957)

they did save me over $500 on a vacuum cleaner

So what did you get? Sorry to threadjack, but I don't have one and may need to buy one shortly.

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Re:The Death of the Specification by bryanlarsen on Tuesday November 15, 2011 @10:16AM (#3238449)

Hoover Windtunnel. Am very happy with it.

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Re:The Death of the Specification by jseliger on Tuesday November 15, 2011 @11:30PM (#3241777)

Looks great, and it's much cheaper than Dyson et al. Thanks for the tip.

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Re:The Death of the Specification by dubya on Tuesday November 15, 2011 @08:42AM (#3238139)

CR definitely does have an affect on the market for some things, but maybe not such a large effect for phones and computers. Try ordering their top-pick refrigerator or washing machine about a month after the review comes out to see.

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Re:The Death of the Specification by PotatoEngineer on Tuesday November 15, 2011 @03:53PM (#3240161)

Until I saw this article, I never realized that CR reviewed computers. It makes sense (they review everything else), but I turn to CR for appliances and cars, not computers and smartphones. There are plenty of other sites that are better for reviewing computers and computer-like entities.

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