SkyMall is all about the corner case
one thing i like to do when i fly, usually for the first 15 minutes in the air, is to put on some good tunes and flip through my favorite piece of humorous literature: the skymall catalog.
as i flew home this afternoon, it occurred to me, while looking at the ridiculous Pop-up Hot Dog Cooker: skymall is all about the corner case. in software we call something a corner case when we think that only a small (maybe even insignificant) percentage of users will hit that particular use case.
skymall is literally an entire business built around absurd corner cases. “can’t reach the back corner of the wheel well while washing your car? here’s a brush specially shaped for that hard-to-reach corner of your 1988 oldsmobile cutlass.”
does skymall really make money? it can’t possibly, right? designing for such crazy corner cases seems… crazy. my thought is that it doesn’t actually bring home any cash. instead, skymall exists purely to entertain folks like myself. it’s hilarious.
has anyone ever purchased something on skymall?
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almost bought the oil changer pump. Heres how it works:
-attach tube to dipstick hole
-create a vacuum by pumping
-watch oil get sucked into container
Its genius because I hate crawling around to get to the oil drain plug.
But at $50, I’ll just do a load of laundry.
the margarita machine always gets me excited. i might actually buy it… but how do you buy something from them? i want to buy it IN the plane!