'Prosumer'

[Gareth Branwyn]

Prosumer has been in increasingly widespread use in the consumer
electronics industry, at least since 1997. There are entire lines of
products dubbed prosumer.


carljweber wrote:
>
> PROSUMER : new?
>
> Dear ADS,
>
> 'Prosumer' seems not to have come up for ADS listmembers. When I heard it
> recently, it sounded semantically murky and morphologically challenged.
> Years ago the word 'ebonics' wafted into the nation's socio/political
> establishment lexicon and briefly hung in the hallways. An Afro-American
> comedienne friend quipped acutely in her act that it sounded wrought by the
> Amos and Andy School of Linguisticians.
>
> The hook of 'prosumer' seems insufficiently barbed to take hold.
>
> (off a web page).
>
> TURNS OF PHRASE SECTION
>
> PROSUMER
>
> This word is becoming fairly common but can be confusing, as it has two
> meanings. It was coined in 1980 by the futurist Alvin Toffler - in his book
> The Third Wave - as a blend of producer and consumer. He used it to describe
> a possible future type of consumer who would become involved in the design
> and manufacture of products, so they could be made to individual
> specification. He argued that we would then no longer be a passive market...
>
> The second usage describes a purchaser of technical equipment who wants to
> obtain goods of a better quality than consumer items, but can't afford
> professional items (older terms for goods of this intermediate quality are
> semi-professional and industrial quality). Here, the word is a blend of
> professional and consumer. Prosumers of this sort are famed for their
> enthusiasm for new products and their tolerance of flaws and, from the
> marketing point of view, have much in common with early adopters.
>
> "DVDwiz represents the first truly professional-quality DVD authoring
> software available to the prosumer and consumer markets, offering the unique
> creativity level and compatibility so far only available to professionals.
> [Business Wire, Sep. 1999]"
>
> -------------------------
> Carl Jeffrey Weber,
> Chicago
> -------------------------