Who's Got The Power?

Opening my shiny new Zen Vision:M, touching its sleek black keys with their beautiful blue back-light, I loaded it up with EVERYTHING. I use it to back up all my photo's, videos as well as a music player. And I love it. I've had it for ages and I've never had one hitch, it works like a dream. Does exactly what I want it to do and is tough enough to take on the rest of my handbag's contents.

My only complaint? I couldn't charge it unless I connected it to my PC. That makes it useless for travelling unless I take my laptop. Quite an oversight when selling a portable device like that. My phone managed it well, not only did it have a power adaptor in the box...it was a travel adaptor. Blimey...someone was thinking when they boxed that product. Anyway, I ended up forking out for a separate power adaptor kit because, guess what, the power adaptor of my husbands old Zen Micro wasn't compatible.

So why not sell a product with the whole kit and kaboodle? And why not make power adaptor's compatible from one device from the next?

To make a product appealing, manufacturers will do everything they can to get it to a certain price point - the under £100, under £200 and under £300 marks are extremely significant, even if the difference is only a penny.

But why strip out essential cables and connectors? It seems mad to me. I guess my experience with my Zen is no different from opening my old Nintendo Game & Watch one Christmas morning only to realise batteries were not included.

So we accept it as the norm, deal with our moment of disappointment before finding the compatible cable we want online and ordering it.

Personally, I'd be happier to pay a few extra quid in the first place to get everything I need all in one go.

Who made that call to take out the power plug? Who decided that most people who buy that product will be happy to recharge via USB only? I'm wondering if it's that focus group again, with Jim from marketing and Jean in accounts?

Although I'm surprised at Jean - she ruined Christmas once when she forgot to get a pack of AAA batteries to go in her son's new Light Sabre...she should know better.