Cellular phones built by Minivarta have gone down in quality over the

Question

Cellular phones built by Minivarta have gone down in quality over the years. In a comparative study of cell phone models that were introduced ten years ago when the company had just ventured in to producing cell phones but that are still sold by the company and those only recently produced by the company, it was found that the former were sturdier, had more voice clarity and were easier to use than the latter.

which of the following, if true, most strengthens the above argument?

A.Over the past five years, Minivarta has not been able to successfully live up to customers’ expectations in terms of price and affordability of its cell phones

B.Industry parameters to gauge the quality of communication devices have changed only slightly over the past fifteen years.

C.Various trade analysts believe that in the next five years, Minivarta might just be able to recover its cost of production from most of its models and hence may not be driven out of business.

D.In the past two years, Minivarta’s ad campaigns have been more focused on highlighting the design and style aspects of its cell phone models rather than the usability of the models.

E.Minivarta has not made any key additions in the past ten years to its research and development team that looks after the quality aspect of its cell phone models.

nightblade354 · Accepted Answer

Wonderwoman31 ,

I will try to explain. You got the conclusion correct, so bravo! But you were misled by the premises. Keep your eye on the ball (the conclusion being the ball).

Cellular phones built by Minivarta have gone down in quality over the years. In a comparative study of cell phone models that were introduced ten years ago when the company had just ventured in to producing cell phones but that are still sold by the company and those only recently produced by the company, it was found that the former were sturdier, had more voice clarity and were easier to use than the latter.

Conclusion: Cellular phones built by Minivarta have gone down in quality over the years.  
 Premise: In a comparative study of cell phone models that were introduced ten years ago....... it was found that the former were sturdier, had more voice clarity and were easier to use than the latter.

Thoughts: Cellphones built today are of less quality because 10 years ago the cell phones were sturdier and had other features. OK. But what if the cellphones, like an Iphone, are faster, water-proof, and can solve cancer? Would this be better? According to our argument, no. So we want something, given the specifics in the premise, that enables the premise to hold true. We want to compare apples to apples. If we do not compare over the same parameters, how do we know which set of parameters is better? We can't, unless stated. In strengthen/weaken questions, we want to destroy or reinforce the premise so the conclusion holds or falls apart.

which of the following, if true, most strengthens the above argument?

A.Over the past five years, Minivarta has not been able to successfully live up to customers’ expectations in terms of price and affordability of its cell phones --  Who cares about affordability? Do we ever talk about this? NOPE. Further, since when does cost equate to quality? (looking at you, Land Rover).

B.Industry parameters to gauge the quality of communication devices have changed only slightly over the past fifteen years. --  Ah, so if parameters for measuring the phones haven't changed, then we can measure them on the same qualities because that is what the industry/society demands. This is our answer!

C.Various trade analysts believe that in the next five years, Minivarta might just be able to recover its cost of production from most of its models and hence may not be driven out of business. --  Who cares about cost of production and the affect on business? Way out of scope, as it doesn't help us. They could go out of business, it still wouldn't tell us about quality. 
 
D.In the past two years, Minivarta’s ad campaigns have been more focused on highlighting the design and style aspects of its cell phone models rather than the usability of the models. --  Who cares about marketing campaign? We want to know about the quality, the apples to apples comparison, and this says that the company wants to highlight other areas. This is just a ridiculous answer that cannot strengthen the idea that our phone is worse off.

E.Minivarta has not made any key additions in the past ten years to its research and development team that looks after the quality aspect of its cell phone models. --  This is a trap answer for those who got it wrong. This wants you to make the assumption that because there are no more engineers, the quality has gone down. We cannot make assumptions like this to strengthen an answer. Use what has been given to us. If you have to make an in-between assumption to bridge the answer, 99% of the time it is wrong. Who cares about the number of engineers? Maybe they have Edison, Einstein, and Tesla working in the backroom? Maybe they have 50,000 engineers already from the previous generation? Either way, we cannot say that the number of engineers strengthens the idea that the phone is of inferior quality.

Conclusion: phone bad
Premise: because 10 years ago it was sturdier and clearer 
Premise 2: because we have the same number of engineers
WHAT? Again, they want you to believe that either more phones are being made and thus that the quality of the phone will be reduced because of the limited number of people, or that the same number people aren't smart enough. Once more, completely irrelevant to our argument.

twister68 · Answer

B. If the standard of checking quality is more or less same, then the conclusion that author states gets stronger. That is the findings are correct and quality has degraded. 
I don’t think Its E, because if R&D dept has not made any key additions, then also atleast the same quality standard should have been maintained.

Sent from my iPhone using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

Wonderwoman31 · Answer

Hi  nightblade354

Could you please help me out in this question.

My reasoning for the above question is mentioned below:

Conclusion :cellular phones built by M. Have gone down in quality over the years.

And the author is drawing the above conclusion while comparing a phone that was introduced 10 years ago but is being sold now vs the phones that are recently being produced.

And the reasoning has been drawn from a study that was done sometimes in the past.

Option B talks about industry parameters haven't been changed.

I could not support this option as the author is comparing the phone that is being sold now vs the phones that are being produced newly. But any comparison would be made on the basis of existing parameters at a point in time. So why are we comparing parameters over period.

Posted from my mobile device

vanam52923 · Answer

So argument says:

Quality of phones has declined.
If we compare phones produced ten years ago by the same company to the phones the same company produces today,
we will find that 
the former were sturdier, had more voice clarity and were easier to use than the latter.
So old had all these qualities which new ones lack.
So think like this before going to options:
Author says old phones were of quality bcz they had x,y,z
So are these features (x,y,z) measure of quality.If they indeed are measure of quality, it strengthens.

A.Over the past five years, Minivarta has not been able to successfully live up to customers’ expectations in terms of price and affordability of its cell phones
So gives other reason given ,that is price not quality is responsible so cannot say quality has declined.

B.Industry parameters to gauge the quality of communication devices have changed only slightly over the past fifteen years. 
This is what we were thinking.
So if parameters of quality before and now are almost same and now the companies's phones have less of those features(bad voice reception etc) so means they have degraded in quality.
So it strengthens.

C.Various trade analysts believe that in the next five years, Minivarta might just be able to recover its cost of production from most of its models and hence may not be driven out of business.

Ok so sales decreasing or some thing wrong with business.But is quality only reason?what if price is high compared to newly launched(e.h xiomi in India)

D.In the past two years, Minivarta’s ad campaigns have been more focused on highlighting the design and style aspects of its cell phone models rather than the usability of the models.

Irrelevant.What ever sells is exhibited so design sells so they exhibit that in ad,doesnot mean quality is bad so they donot advertise it.

E.Minivarta has not made any key additions in the past ten years to its research and development team that looks after the quality aspect of its cell phone models.

Close one but tricky.
What if their quality is already high then why would they make addition or what if their current team is efficient enough to handle all changes required,so we cannot say quality has decreased.
Whatsapp has only 50 employees from beginning doesnot mean their quality has degraded,their voice call quality has improved rather(though smileys are pathetic now :P)

Wonderwoman31 · Answer

nightblade354

Thank you so much for such a prompt reply.

I like the clarity in your thought. I have never been able to achieve such clarity

Posted from my mobile device

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

What you have to always focus on with any CR question related to assumptions that strengthen (or weaken) the argument is the overall conclusion reached. In this case, it is that the quality of cellphones have gone down. Hence, we're looking for an assumption that, if true, helps lead to the conclusion that the quality of cell-phones have gone down.

A - Being able to live up to expectations is unrelated to the quality of the phone. It is just as viable that expectations have just increased faster than quality.

C - Costs, and the ability to stay in business are not correlated in any way with quality of the phones.

D - Who cares what the marketing focused on? Quality is not related.

E - Okay, this option is linked to quality in some aspect. However, it just says they have not made any key additions to their team. This indicates that the quality should have remained relatively constant, unless you make the  further  assumption that you have to keep running to stand still with respect to quality.

DivyanshuPant · Answer

nightblade354

Option B mentions parameter that gauge quality remained unchanged. What if the parameters are speed, water resistance and others for which new devices are better as compared to older devices. Then this options weakens the argument.

Can you please help me understand this puzzling piece?

Posted from my mobile device

nightblade354 · Answer

Simply put, you’re making an assumption not stated to make this answer choice work. This isn’t how the gmat works. When you play the “what if” game, you can only do it to show the answer doesn’t work.

Does this help?

VerbalBot · Answer

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.

Cellular phones built by Minivarta have gone down in quality over the

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Cellular phones built by Minivarta have gone down in quality over the

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards