It requires
installation and the utilization of sophisticated hardware and
software. This is no user friendly push technology. It is
nerd-oriented. As a result, CD-ROMs are not an immediate
medium. There is a long time lapse between the moment they are
purchased and the moment the first data become accessible to
the user. Compare this to a book or a magazine. Data in these
oldest of media is instantly available to the user and allows
for easy and accurate "back" and "forward" functions.
Perhaps the biggest mistake of CD-ROM manufacturers has been
their inability to offer an integrated hardware and software
package. CD-ROMs are not compact. A Walkman is a compact
hardware-cum-software package. It is easily transportable, it
is thin, it contains numerous, user-friendly, sophisticated
functions, it provides immediate access to data. So does the
discman or the MP3-man. This cannot be said of the CD-ROM. By
tying its future to the obsolete concept of stand-alone,
expensive, inefficient and technologically unreliable personal
computers - CD-ROMs have sentenced themselves to oblivion
(with the possible exception of reference material).
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