When shopping for technology I appreciate the ability to “try before I buy”. Having an in-store demo unit on display (and not a password protected / or dummy unit) is really important to most consumers looking to make in-store comparisons.

Last weekend was a great example of this. I was shopping for a 7″ tablet for my daughter in a local branch of Currys. As an iPad family, I wanted to compare the experience on a few cheaper Android tablets. In particular, I wanted to know that my 7 year old daughter was comfortable with an Android device and could easily navigate the device /accomplish everything she needed to (which is largely searching for Ballet or Barbie videos on Youtube). However, two minutes later and after some harsh words with the sales assistant I walked out of the store fuming. And here’s the rub with in-store demo device:
I’d handed the tablet to my daughter to see how instinctively she could navigate it. She swiped to the Youtube app (so far so good) and them to the search bar (even better). Then, when she tapped the search bar to enter some text it scrolled open a list of previous searches. Top of the list was An%l C$nt (use your imagination) followed by a host of other poorly constructed porn search terms. Luckily I caught it out of the corner of my eye and grabbed the device from my daughter before  she could read it and ask in front of a busy store what an An%l C$nt was (I mean c’mon how [anatomically speaking] are you even able to answer that?) .

You see, in-store devices are great but you can’t be selective with who uses them. One minute a teenager with an inability to construct a useful search string, the next a 7 year old girl.Ok, so Curry’s isn’t responsible, but it is accountable. When I asked the sales assistant what the store policy was for wiping the search history I got a blank look. I’d love to know the answer.

NB – ended up buying a Nexus 7 16gb wifi from Google directly.