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EDITOR'S NOTE: Beginning this month, longtime Intranet Journal contributor Paul Chin will be writing a new monthly op-ed column, in addition to his features, called "Chin Music." He will offer commentary and opinions on all matters related to technology and digital media. We hope that Chin's new column will provide entertainment, information, and promote discussion.

The recent unveiling of Apple's new iPhone -- an all-in-one phone, camera, media player, and PDA -- at the Macworld Conference and Expo got me to thinking about the term "over-engineering." Technology is rife with over-engineering. Something tells me that if Steve Jobs and his R&D crew could have found a way to squeeze an electric shaver into the handheld unit, they would have done so. Perhaps it wasn't technological limitations, but the thought of women shaving their legs in public or the safety hazards of doing likewise while driving that gave them pause.

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Don't get me wrong, I'd love to try one out, but I guarantee that within a week -- after the novelty wears out -- I'll only be using a fraction of what the iPhone offers. To tell you the truth, I'd settle for a phone that's just a phone that doesn't sound like I'm riding on a John Deere tractor. But let's face reality: Products are often made to be marketable first and usable second. Manufacturers are hoping that consumers and users pay more attention to that impressive list of features as opposed to what they truly need. The way I see it, the more something has, the more that can go wrong.

Software in particular -- whether for retail sale or in-house use -- is notoriously over-engineered. This is done for marketing purposes, to wow users, or to give vendors an excuse to bump up their prices. The problem with these types of Jack-of-all-trades software packages is that they do a whole lot of things adequately, but no one thing particularly well. There are some software makers who have succeeded in producing truly functional all-in-one solutions; however, for every one of them there are 10 who haven't.

It's time we take a step back and stop complicating software for the sake of marketability. It's probably too much to ask. How often do we hear about companies downsizing a product? No, it's not enough to perfect an existing product; software makers have to give users more extraneous bells-and-whistles so that they'll buy into it. Something needs to work the way it's supposed to first before they pile on more.

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