That simple statement, and the corollary that North America is driven by cost, says a lot about marketing, culture, and the current state of crisis where marketing finds itself in North America. I don’t see that same crisis in Japan.
In the U.S., consumers tend to favor low-cost machines even if they are slightly heavier than other models, noted Douglas Krone, chief executive of Dynamism.com, a company that sells imported technology. Those in the U.S. are driven by business needs, he said, and tight budgets tend to favor inexpensive, but more weighty, laptops.
By contrast, Japanese buyers in both the consumer and enterprise realms do not mind spending more — sometimes thousands of dollars more — to get the most cutting-edge technology. And they tend to favor very lightweight machines.
“Japan is driven by consumer demand,” said Krone. “And they demand the lightest laptops and devices available. Even if they have to spend $3,000 or more, they’ll pay it to have the best innovation possible.
Source: Hardware – Sony Readies Debut of Lightest Vaio Laptop
To say that US consumers are driven by cost is not a “need” per se. Cost is a fact of affordability, or propensity to spend what you have.
What worries me, is that driving for cost, will bypass quality everytime, and the results are why we see North American cars being crap compared to Japanese or German. That’s why GM is financially in trouble. That’s why Toyota is number one in the world.
If you have been to Japan and seen the lowest cheapest phone which you can pick up in 7/11 or Lawson’s corner store, that phone is light years ahead of the bet phone in the US. Japanese would laugh at the Razr!
There is a fundamental issue here, and Japan as a culture has got it right. They understand quality.
Bankwatch 
Apple is one of the few exceptions to the U.S. trend, but it’s always interesting to see analysts/authors recommend they adopt a Microsoft/Dell/flavor-of-the-month model and get away from what they do well.
To build on that…
The US has always viewed itself as a single market. That means we viewed it as fixed in size, and with a growth rate limited by GDP of a developed nation.
By contrast, Japan always saw itself as an exporter, one with small market share and virtually unlimited growth potential.
So if you look at the auto industry, guess which country priced for margin, and which for volume? Which invented cheap “leader models” to trade up, and which built solid base-level models? Guess which invented planned obsolescence and which focused on innovation? Guess which one saw quality as a cost, and which saw it as positive product attribute?
It’s not that the Japanese were more brilliant, necessarily; but certainly their strategy has been proven more effective. They come up with sushi, and we with Walmart.
They are producing cars profitably in the US, and our industry execs–even Jack Welch, for crying out loud–are whining about high cost pensions and health contracts–hey, what fools negotiated them in the first place?
And who will take the hit for short-term management give-aways from the recent past? Will it be retired managers? Nope. Stockholders? Not really. I know, how about retired workers?
Charles … Excellent observations, and the sobering reality facing the US.