Not criticizing, curious: How can you have buyer's remorse on behalf of someone else (your wife) for a product you didn't buy? Buyer's remorse usually means regretting something you did buy and it usually would be held by the person who wanted the item.
Also as a more general question, I sometimes see people say on the forums that they're thinking of buying an Apple product for their wife or children, but they never include information about their wife or children wanting that product. And I am always curious whether it's sort of a thing where the person buys it for them and it's a "use this, you'll like it" type situation. Do people buy for others because they know best what others should use?
Actually, I do remember a recent conversation where a woman told me her husband bought her an iPad for Christmas and she didn't like it and got a Kindle Fire instead. And she said something about her Apple fanatical husband trying to force it on her. While I don't get preferring a Kindle Fire over an iPad, I also wasn't aware until recently that people might be buying big ticket items for spouses or children without knowing whether they want the product or not. In my family, big ticket items are always self-purchases, but beyond that even when buying gifts for birthdays or Christmas we check with each other if an item is more than say $70, as in, "I was thinking of getting you this, would you like that, or if not, what do you want?"
Not judging, just curious.
Buyer's remorse as you said is "usually" used in the context you have stated. The context in which I used the term is still linguistically correct ... I am a buyer of the product and at the same time I am remorseful that I did NOT at the same time order another. I think your tongue-in-cheek meter needs re-calibrating since you obviously didn't get the smiley
And let's cut the "Not criticizing, curious: not judging, just curious" crap. You are both criticising and judging me by way of anecdotal heresay. You are using your own limited knowledge of my circumstances and then posting two paragraphs full of your own limited experiences to pose the quite ridiculous question, "Do people buy for others because they know best what others should use"?
Any damn fool can tell you the answer to that is "YES". I'm sure your parents bought many things for you using the above criteria.
But hey, I can humour you and perhaps even dispel your "curiosity".
My daughter is 9 and last year asked for an iPod Touch. My wife is of indeterminate age (ouch !) and wanted an iPad. I weighed up the pros and cons and bought my wife a MacBook Pro instead of an iPad last August as her Dell laptop was on its last legs. That kept her happy, particularly as at the time I felt the iPad would be an even better product at it's next iteration. I'm not convinced the iPod Touch represented good value for a pre-teen so I bought my daughter an iPod Nano for Christmas just gone. My daughter loves music and this way the music stays on the nano and the iPad can be used for everything else the Touch could do, but with the bigger screen is far better suited to educational as well as recreational activities. The cost of an iPod Touch that can hold enough songs, games and apps is only a little less than the cost of iPad. Whilst being overall more expensive, a nano and and iPad have much greater potential within my family than a Touch on it's own. But that's just my point of view. My wife will now have to negotiate with our daughter to use the iPad.
I'm sorry to disappoint you but I don't fall into any of the "negative" scenarios you describe in your last two paragraphs. I make purchases based on a perceived need and on the potential uses of the purchase, not simply because there is a new (Apple) gadget available.
To humour you a little more I'll even explain why I'm buying an iPad for a 9 year old. She has been diabetic since the age of 2 and is Type I insulin dependant. That means that she is unable to do any activity or go anywhere unless the people she is with know how food and/or activity affects her condition and how they need to deal with it. That cuts down on school trips she can attend, friends she can sleep-over with etc. and in reality she is unlikely to reach the age of 30 without severe health complications. Most children diagnosed as she was so early in life do not reach the age of 20. They get lax and/or resentful of the continuous limitations and just give up treating the disease. If she ever gets drunk in later life she runs the real risk of death.
Despite all of this she is a constant bundle of joy and rarely feels hard done by. She gets good grades and is a loving person. She has had a laptop since the age of five and is quite proficient in its use from web-surfing to creating and editing stop-motion videos. So I have bought her an iPad without her asking for one and now she can hone her negotiating skills with her mum
In my family, big ticket purchases are always made with prior knowledge. We live together and we talk together. Assuming anything else is well, assuming.
