Less fluff, more function

If you're wondering what this photo is, it's the new HP Vivienne Tam mini laptop, being modelled on a catwalk. Thanks to its colour and the picture on its casing, it's become one of the most coveted gadgets of the year - Proving that gadgets nowadays are all about the looks. But an article on the great Women in Technology site explains that, what with the recession, everything's going to get more functional.

KPMG research says so. Tudor Aw (nice name), a technology partner at KPMG, said, "What will happen as a function of that is you'll get a lot clearer, far more focused companies that exist and can drive through technology that's useful, productive and relatively profitable for everyone concerned." Just how it should be.

People get a kind of wartime, make-do-and-mend mentality during recessions. Suddenly, when you're faced with budget constraints, you realise you don't need fluff after all. And there is a lot of fluff in the technology industry right now: Superfluous gadgets, design-led products, pundits, futurists, glossy marketing...

The supreme example of form over function recently has been the plethora of tiny new netbooks, which might be small enough to fit in your pocket, but are of little use on the go because their battery lives are often too short. My cheap, brickish mobile phone was built for function and hasn't let me down yet. I say, bring on the products that just do exactly what they say on the box.