Mannerisms

One in five electronic products bought in the shops are never used, according to research done by PC maintenance company Scooter Computer.

They aren't used because people are scared of them, or not prepared to make the effort to wrap their heads around them and get them to work.

Gifts of electronic products are left in their boxes with the recipients feeling bad about throwing them away but reluctant to go through the horrors of trying to understand the horribly unhelpful manuals

The average price of the unused gadgets was a hundred and twenty quid, with the Apple iPod top of the list. And the iPod prides itself on being simple to use.

In the US, the situation is just the same. "In the US, the return rate for wireless LAN products is 20 to 25 per cent yet, when they test the products, they are found to be fully working", says Colin Macnab, the CEO of Artimi, "so people are coming back to the stores and saying 'This is just too difficult to make work'."

Why don't companies make their products easier for ordinary consumers to use?

First, because they don't have to, once they've got their money, why should they care?

Second, because making things easy to use costs money and the manufacturers sell on features and price.

Thirdly, product designers don't believe that consumers have a problem. They assume that only a wussie can't get it to work. And why bother about wussies?

TOMORROW: THE ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY'S TEN BIGGEST COCK-UPS