Hello all,
From a guy who makes a living "working on computers" this is a fairly bold statement, no? However, let me make it clear that I sincerely LOVE what I do. And, if you read on, the statement will become abundantly clear.
I come across many people, young and old, who make statements such as, "I'd love to do what you do. I love working on computers" or "Your job seems so easy, I wish I could just sit in an office all day and 'play' on computers." Let me share with those people a few things about the industry.
There is a huge difference between using technology and making technology work. It is my perception that many times these two ideas are considered one in the same, and they really aren't. For example, there are many people around me who are very proficient with applications. One application in particular that we use is Smart Board. This application is very cool and in the hands of a pro, they can do some wonderful things with it. I know very little on how to work the application! However, through the years, I have become proficient on how the application acts and reacts with other applications, how to install it on 32 and 64 bit operating systems, how to customize the MSI installs for all 4 different products that make up our standard Smart Board install, and how to quickly distribute the application to over 800 computers. There is a major different in being able to use an application and being able to manage it.
But this is not the main idea I wish to share. This is about fixing computers.
There is no future in fixing computer! Here is my story.
Many years ago, computers were very expensive. My very first computers, Apple II, back in 1983(ish) was $2500. My first IBM clone in 1992 was a Gateway SX25 that was nearly $3000. I thought not much of spending $400 for the 300mb Hard Drive and another few hundred dollars for 16mb of RAM.
In the early 90's people would bring me their computers to fix. Back then, computers were very simple, didn't do a lot of things, and most people who had them REALLY knew how to work them. But there was still a mystery in exactly HOW the computers worked. So when a computer was brought to me, many times there really was a hardware problem that needed to be fixed. And it wasn't uncommon that a repair would cost $200-$300 plus parts.
Fast forward to 2010.....
A few days ago someone called me and shared that their 3 year old computer has some major problems. They think they have a virus as it takes a long time to load. Very common so I stopped by to take a look.
Well, there was more of a problem...... Yes, there were viri, however, it still was terrible! I brought it back and set it on the bench with a system device checker. After about 4 hours on the bench I discovered that the hard drive has bad sectors. Another 2 hours to rebuild the OS (ish) and about another hour for more stuff. So, after 7 hours of labor at $45 per hour, a hard drive for about $100, this customer will have a bill of $415 for a 3 year old computer. Hum...
So, they are going to spend $415 on a 3 year old computer. Many computers have a MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) of 1-3 years (depending on what you buy). And, you can buy a fairly "cheap" computer for $299 that is brand new.
My point is, why would anyone want to afford to fix an old computer? The only reason that I ever see for someone to recover from a failed computer is to retrieve documents, photos, or some sort of legal evidence.
We have entered the disposable personal technology era. A remote fails, buy a new one. A phone fails, buy a new one, a computer fails, buy a new one, and so on.
There is no joy, or money, in fixing personal technology. There is one important thing that has changed since the 1990. MANY people have some sort of personal technology and have little knowledge on how to really make it work. So if you want to really make money, fix people, not computers. :D (Or advance your knowledge beyond end user computing)
What do you think?
Tom
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