The Pain of the Early Adopter

Filed in archive General on August 2, 2007

I've written in the past about my leeriness of jumping on the newest technology, even if that technology seems on the service to save me time and/or money. While it can be fun to be an early adopter and know about the latest thing, it can also be expensive and frustrating.

I'm reminded of this when reading this article about the Internet phone company SunRocket, which just went out of business, stranding its customers and taking a lot of their money, including the $199 the people in the article had just paid upfront for the next year's service.

Granted, it's not hard to get new phone service, although it's unclear if these people got to keep their previous phone numbers. But what a hassle to have to go through the process and of course you take your lumps with any money you paid that won't be refunded.

I'm not trying to pick on Internet phone services, or Voice-Over-IP (VOIP) as it's known. It's just another reminder that jumping on the latest technology and buying into all the great promises a new company makes of the Utopian world you're buying into is not always the smartest thing to do. Give these things some time to shake out, to see that the service is reliable, the companies are stable, etc., then jump in.

A public service announcement from your dinosaur friend Justin.