Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette photos
Clockwise from left are Panasonic's HDC-SD1 video camera, the RCA Small Wonder video camera, the Casion Exilm digital camera, and the Kodak Easyshare V803
Click photo for larger image.Clockwise from top left are The Tornado USB file transfer tool; Tom Tom GPS; Sony eReader; OQO ultra-compact computer; Sprint Danyo M1 phone with camera and music player; and the Hitch USB file transfer tool.
Click photo for larger image.

When it comes to tech gadgets in the Thomas household, it's not exactly like father like son.

Bill Thomas, a father of two, salesman and self-described "replacer, not fixer," tends to buy new gadgets when something breaks -- and tries to "figure out how to use it afterwards."

The Media, Delaware County, man is not always successful.

"That's why it's good to have sons, so they can help translate what I can't figure out," he said. That task that typically falls to his eldest, gadget-smart Adam, a third-year law student at the University of Pittsburgh who lives in Oakland.

The Thomases will contribute to the $150 billion Americans will spend on gadgets this year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

They also fit the bill of those whom industry watchers say may just as quickly chuck their new toys because they don't have the time or patience to figure out how to use them.

Consumers are fed up with gadgets that act like the technological age's version of a Swiss Army knife -- full of features and functions, a study published by a trio of researchers in the Harvard Business Review suggested.

Another study by a Philips Electronics scientist earlier this year found that 50 percent of the consumer electronics that are returned to stores aren't broken, just frustrating -- consumers who spend up to 20 minutes fiddling with a product to get it to work often just give up.

If they aren't returned, they probably meet the fate of the six CD-changer music player, Polaroid HDTV and digital voice recorder -- all recent additions to the Thomas household -- that are hanging out in the corner collecting dust or have been passed along to a youngster who knows what to do with them.

It happens, according to Adam Thomas, because most consumers such as he and his dad "don't read the instructions and get frustrated if the device isn't perfectly intuitive."

Gadget guru Jim Barry of the Consumer Electronics Association doesn't buy that argument. It's price -- not trickiness -- that's more likely to turn consumers off, he said. Indeed, it was the pricier items that failed to pass Mr. Thomas' muster when he browsed the list of what Mr. Barry suggested could be some of this year's hottest sellers.

Panasonic's $1,300 High-Def camcorder, a $1,500 OQO Ultra Compact Computer that has all the features of regular laptop crunched down to the size of a woman's billfold, and a $250 device resembling a "Star Trek" visor that when attached to a video iPod simulates a 40-inch TV-screen all might have been keepers "if I had a million dollars," Adam Thomas said.

Still, Mr. Barry said he expected consumers to flock to simpler, sleeker and colorful gadgets.

Some of them, such as RCA's $129 "Small Wonder" camcorder, look eerily similar to the iPod.

But don't expect consumers to stop buying those complicated gadgets they can't figure out, Mr. Barry added. They'll just use the features they can figure out.

Bill Thomas is doing just that with his latest purchase, a new sliver-sized Motorola Moto Q "smartphone" that boasts easy access to e-mail, the Internet and doubles as a camcorder.

But those and a range of other bells and whistles will probably remain idle, Mr. Thomas said, because, "Right now I've got it down to where I can call people."

First Published: June 2, 2007, 1:00 a.m.