Keurig vs. Tassimo
OK. Here is an odd one. But, amusingly, I think it actually ties in quite well to a lot of my tech topics. I'll get to that at the end though. This really is about coffee makers. Why? Because, while I may be a software developer, in other ways I'm just an average consumer/person/etc... and the fact that I drink coffee daily probably makes me fairly average on that front.
Anyhow, a few years ago we bought our first single cup coffee maker. What was (at Best Buy on that particular date at least) the only Tassimo machine available. I chose Tassimo originally for a number of reasons. It seemed to have the better options for specialty drinks, the pods were smaller, it heated up quicker than comparable Keurig models, had a filter... and I think that there were probably even a few more reasons beyond that.
We bought that, and we were happy. For a time. Then envy kicked in. All of my friends and family bought Keurig machines. We never really made all that many specialty drinks, and everyone else always seemed to have a much wider array of choice for their coffee. By this time, we were basically buying the same 2-3 pods all of the time. I also liked the notion of being able to use my own coffee grounds.
Parents won a Keurig in some contest and sent it our way. For a while we were happy again. Envy was gone. We spent a few months sampling a wide array of coffees. And then... a few years later and we've still never used our own coffee grounds (or even bought the pod that would enable it). We buy the same coffee over and over again, just in bulk now.
Not sure if it is just us getting used to the coffee or something, but it never seems good any more. Pods explode regularly. Grounds are in every cup. It takes longer. Sure, I have the option variety, but variety is costly, so we don't use it.
Can't remember why now, but we decided to buy some T-Discs and I plugged it in beside the Keurig. The first thought in my mind after making my first cup; "Why did we ever bother with that piece of crap."
I know Keurig is more of a brand than an actual product with individual implementations varying wildly. But that is as much a part of the problem as anything. I've seem promising looking Keurig's, but they generally cost $200+. And I've seen those same models break just outside of warranty. And, even at those higher prices, they still don't necessarily beat my Tassimo across the board.
My Tassimo is now probably 3-4 years old (if not more). I plugged it in, and it worked exactly as well as it had on day 1. My Keurig is less than 2 years old and everything about it is getting progressively worse and it wasn't intrinsically better even on it's day 1.
But Keurig is the by and far the market leader. Many people's favorite brands aren't coming, won't come or have come and gone from Tassimo. So, people stick with Keurig. And many believe it is the better brand/product/whatever. And yet, my experience is the exact opposite.
I promised a tie-in back to tech. And you may have picked up on it from the last paragraph. What makes Android and iOS better than BlackBerry or Windows Phone? Adoption. There isn't anything intrinsically better about these platforms. In fact, there are a lot of problems with both. But, if you're an app or a games person, you're only options are Android or iOS. And since that is where the customers are, the developers aren't leaving any time soon.
Anyhow, a few years ago we bought our first single cup coffee maker. What was (at Best Buy on that particular date at least) the only Tassimo machine available. I chose Tassimo originally for a number of reasons. It seemed to have the better options for specialty drinks, the pods were smaller, it heated up quicker than comparable Keurig models, had a filter... and I think that there were probably even a few more reasons beyond that.
We bought that, and we were happy. For a time. Then envy kicked in. All of my friends and family bought Keurig machines. We never really made all that many specialty drinks, and everyone else always seemed to have a much wider array of choice for their coffee. By this time, we were basically buying the same 2-3 pods all of the time. I also liked the notion of being able to use my own coffee grounds.
Parents won a Keurig in some contest and sent it our way. For a while we were happy again. Envy was gone. We spent a few months sampling a wide array of coffees. And then... a few years later and we've still never used our own coffee grounds (or even bought the pod that would enable it). We buy the same coffee over and over again, just in bulk now.
Not sure if it is just us getting used to the coffee or something, but it never seems good any more. Pods explode regularly. Grounds are in every cup. It takes longer. Sure, I have the option variety, but variety is costly, so we don't use it.
Can't remember why now, but we decided to buy some T-Discs and I plugged it in beside the Keurig. The first thought in my mind after making my first cup; "Why did we ever bother with that piece of crap."
I know Keurig is more of a brand than an actual product with individual implementations varying wildly. But that is as much a part of the problem as anything. I've seem promising looking Keurig's, but they generally cost $200+. And I've seen those same models break just outside of warranty. And, even at those higher prices, they still don't necessarily beat my Tassimo across the board.
My Tassimo is now probably 3-4 years old (if not more). I plugged it in, and it worked exactly as well as it had on day 1. My Keurig is less than 2 years old and everything about it is getting progressively worse and it wasn't intrinsically better even on it's day 1.
But Keurig is the by and far the market leader. Many people's favorite brands aren't coming, won't come or have come and gone from Tassimo. So, people stick with Keurig. And many believe it is the better brand/product/whatever. And yet, my experience is the exact opposite.
I promised a tie-in back to tech. And you may have picked up on it from the last paragraph. What makes Android and iOS better than BlackBerry or Windows Phone? Adoption. There isn't anything intrinsically better about these platforms. In fact, there are a lot of problems with both. But, if you're an app or a games person, you're only options are Android or iOS. And since that is where the customers are, the developers aren't leaving any time soon.
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