Viewfinder: May I Suggest a New Acronym, the VRC?

I am not a big fan of acronyms. Although these abbreviations may help us communicate complex concepts quickly and easily, frankly I think the world already has too many of them. The consumer electronics industry is littered with acronyms: TV, VCR, CD, DBS, DSS, DVD, VHS, PC and DV are just a few that we use every day. A recent study by industry analysis organization PolkVerity objectively measured levels of customer confusion within the consumer electronics industry. Among the findings, PolkVerity reported that for people to be more comfortable with the growing amount of technology they have to deal with in their homes, things must be simpler to understand and easier to communicate.

So why am I about to go ahead and suggest another acronym anyway? I wouldn't if I didn't think it was incredibly important. Acronyms allow us to articulate several descriptive words with little effort. If products had short, one word, names the description would be shallow. When products have longer, two or three word names, they are quite descriptive. I believe that the "video cassette recorder" could not be properly understood without using those three words to describe it. Once a person understands those words and what they mean, the acronym VCR is all they need to communicate the idea.

The VRC
There is a new product category that is becoming very important to people that watch TV or record video. This new product category is actually a category within another category, hence it is not easy to understand. The product is a "video recording computer." At this time there are many computers that record video. These computers are usually "built" by the customers who use them, typically for some type of video editing application. They install various additional hardware and software components that allow them to capture, record, store and edit video. In just the last few months, several companies have begun shipping computers with these components preinstalled and pre-configured. Even more recently, several companies have announced specialized computers that allow users to record television to a hard drive. Like a VCR, this provides viewers with more control over when and what they watch on t…