A new study by Mindset Media and Nielsen Online has created a better profile of gadget lovers who tend to buy new technology early and often—and it’s no longer believed that they’re just “wealthy young males.” Instead, the early adopter type tends to score high in leadership and assertiveness, but low in modesty.
Avid tech consumers were also likely to be low in modesty and may be perceived as conceited or arrogant by others.
Low levels of modesty also correlate with what Welch calls “badge-buying”, or a tendency to buy luxury brands. “So there’s an element of pride in being able to have the latest and greatest, not just in the realm of technology, but in all other areas.”
The researcher behind the study said it could have implications for technology companies looking to attract new consumers. Coming soon: a gadget with the tagline, “You’re better than everyone else. Now prove it.”
“Gadget buyers more assertive, even arrogant” [Reuters via ZDNet]
(Photo: Getty)
They also tend to have more money than brains. If you buy something as soon as it comes out, you end up with a obsolescent relic within a year or two, one that you spent way too much money on. Today’s Sony Betamax, bag phone, or Intel 8088-based PC will show up in garage sales and thrift stores fast enough to really piss you off.
@induscreed:
In my opinion, (and many other war vets like myself) the Hummer got a bad rap from the jump not because of lousy gas mileage, but because it’s a pretty rich boy wannabe version of a true military vehicle. I busted alot of knuckles and shed alot of blood working on those things in Iraq.
And then some mama’s boy comes along with his silver spoon and decides he needs to have one, but with spinners, a yellow paintjob and 50 Cent blaring out of it. Retarded indeed.
By the way, for those that didn’t know…. “Hummer” was what we called them in the military. It’s slang for it’s real name which is HMMV. Or “Hum Vee”.
It stands for: High Mobility Military Vehicle.
Yes, yes, early adopters, I think I saw some of them showing their true colors in the news and on TeeVee acting like crybabies after the original iPhone dropped in price
@Bladefist: iSheep
@RodAox:
Vanilla envelope? Om nom nom nom!
@Lambasted: I completely agree, I’m glad someone out there is willing to field test high price gadgets for me so in a few months I can decide if I really want it and all the bugs are worked out. I hold no ill will towards early adopters, once I’m through grad school and have more disposable income I’ll probably be one myself. However, for now I’m content to be a fashionably-late adopter to see all the kinks worked out before I plunk down my cash.
@DjDynasty:
YES.
Wow, such resentment towards people that like being first. Bitter, much?
“In chess,the pawns go first.” –Magneto, X-Men The Last Stand
Pawns = Early Adopters
I love how so many people here seem to be equating buying things with sexual prowess and frequency. I’m no psychologist but that really does scream “feelings of inadequacy” to me, regardless or if they’re valid feelings or not.
I have nothing against early adopters who get new things to see how they work or compare them hands-on to older models or anything like that. I’d be a hypocrite in that case, since if I can buy a brand-new whatever that I really really want and can easily afford, I do it. I have nothing against early adopters who just like having new things. However, I do have a thing against people that are obnoxious assholes who use buying the shiny new toy as a way of getting attention the percieved admiration of their peers. It’s nothing to do with jealousy over their new toy because most of the time I really don’t care about whatever they bought. It’s the fact that they’re being an obnoxious asshole about the fact that they went to a store and spent money.
Chances are, if they weren’t being an asshole about new tech, they’d be an asshole about something else. Someone who’s going to go on and on about how they’re “better than you” will find a way to do it regardless of income, property, beliefs, physical attributes, etc. Assholes are assholes.
@The Rude Bellman: “Alpha males will always be first. … How many times have you asked yourself, “Why do women always end up with these jerks?” You ask yourself but you never ask the women they’re with. The reason you don’t is because you don’t want to know. If you know one of these “jackasses” just hope he has his sights set on your sister and not your girlfriend as his next plaything. “
Oh please. Hot chicks prefer nerds. These “alpha males” of whom you speak make excellent sugar daddies, but rotten husbands, and intelligent, talented women with just as much going for them as these self-consciously alpha “alpha males” can do SO MUCH BETTER than that kind of asshole.
Money, toys, and a flashy asshole personality gets you needy, gold-digging, social-climbing partners. Intelligent, attractive, talented people who are secure in themselves a) have their own money and b) don’t need to flash it around to compensate for personality flaws. They can afford to wait for someone with some substance to them instead of glomming on to the first asshole with money who comes down the pike.
@RodAox: “Vanilla envelope” hahahahahaha! Though for all intensive purposes, I understood that you meant a whole nother thing by that. Irregardless, you could of just been suffering from oldtimer’s disease, so I can’t hardly make fun.
@PHX602: THE BUNK!
Booo…
Being an ‘early adopter’ of one or two things is acceptable if they are things you use and gain from, but if you have the latest and greatest of everything, even crap you don’t need, then you are probably a major dick.
@Eyebrows McGee:
Yeah, go on, thats if you want to get married. Im sure you will find someone like that, and Im sure the alpha male will too eventually. But while both do, the alpha male will have more fun along the way.:)
Also, who the hell other than assholes actually describes themselves as “alpha males?”
Other than Brucie, of course. GENETICALLY DIFFERENT!
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned as a side benefit of the early adopters: cheap refurbs. OK, that’s not just a result of early adopters, but they contribute significantly to the supply of refurbed geek toys that I then buy 6-9 months after it comes out at a deep discount. In general I like to be one iteration behind the cutting edge for computers and related items, outside of that I don’t care how far behind I am as long as it works for what I want it to do.
I don’t see how these characteristics don’t describe “wealthy young males.”
Early Adopters, BMW drivers and blog commenters…
@mthrndr:
Thank you! Perhaps one of the greatest lines in television history. A close runner-up is Bunk talking about his cologne…pussy!