Conventional wisdom is that there is no such thing as overhyping your product, particularly when you are competing against a marketing juggernaut like Apple. Palm definitely followed the CW with the launch of the Palm Pre. The Pre was positioned as the next killer mobile device in the run up to its launch at CES as it was Palm’s first big innovation in the market in years (which I know well as a formerly loyal user of the Treo dinosaur). The marketing hyperbole was almost iPhonian in its fervor and length. You had Roger NcNamee of Elevation Partners, one of the company’s investors, predicting the Pre would cause the death of the iPhone and columnists fawning over the device six months before they even got to try it. The overriding sentiment from this full court launch; it was going to turn around the fortunes of not just one company but two (Palm and its exclusive carrier Sprint).
A funny thing happened on the way to commercial success. The Pre launched, and it is a great device. However, it hasn’t quite been an incredible success or disaster. It has basically been like a typical Cal football season – not a wipeout like Washington (or Motorola) but not legendary like USC (Apple). Unfortunately, everyone expected a Rose Bowl appearance. The marketing machine built expectations so high that the actual results have been labeled a relative failure. With no information forthcoming from Palm on initial Pre sales, a number of analysts have created their own methodologies for measuring volume and claim they are disappointing.
Palm seems to have learned a lesson for their second act with last week’s launch of the Palm Pixi.
The Pixi is aimed at a younger more hip crown that doesn’t need all the bells and whistles of the Pre. Rather than rev up the full marketing machine like they did for the Pre, Palm relatively buried the Pixi announcement, putting it out the day before Apple announced to its usual fanfare the latest upgrade to the iPod line. Despite the toned down Pixi launch, it got almost the same tone of coverage as the Pre but the stories lacked a lot of the snarky undertones from the initial batch.
Hyperbole and hype don’t always constitute key cornerstones in a launch. Sometimes pragmatism works well too, even when constructing mobile device launches. Or healthcare reform.
Tags:
iphone,
mobile,
mobile marketing,
wireless
Posted by Merrill Freund on September 16, 2009 at 2:23 PM
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The mobile industry is in a conundrum. Companies from Apple to Blackberry to Nokia to Qualcomm are all pushing to make the mobile phone the ubiquitous computing device, wherever ever you are, whatever you are doing. With the growth of data-capable phones doubling since 2005 and now representing 88% of phones on the market in the US according to CTIA, they are succeeding. We are addicted to Crackberries and forbidden fruit.
But is it healthy? Recent Federal studies have demonstrated that driving while texting is bad for you and anyone near your car. It is even worse than drinking and driving; at least you are trying to concentrate when you are drunk. Excessive texting is even changing the political makeup of State legislatures. New York billionaire and wanna be Governor Tom Golisano threw a fit when New York State Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith spent a meeting with Golisano playing with his Blackberry. Golisano consequently convinced several Democratic representatives to switch to the Republican Party. And GigaOM just published a story that warns of the harms to relationships and overall health from being too connected.
Given this growing backlash, how can mobile companies market their products and services without perpetuating the problems of the 24 X 7 man? Do iPods and Blackberries now have to come with labels like cigarettes that warn that too much usage could cause harm? Should phone companies invest in medical and psychological research to convince the public that they understand that further evidence is needed to understand the issues? Are we far from a book called “Thanks for texting?”
In an ultracompetitive industry of huge gizmo launches and Tweets that chronicle the minutia of daily life, the marketing pros in the mobile industry have to figure out how to promote the value and cool factor of their devices. They can’t be seen as driving destructive behavior that is no longer funny or annoying but can kill. Otherwise the cute songs in the iPod ads could go the way of Joe Camel.
Tags:
iphone,
mobile,
mobile marketing
Posted by Merrill Freund on August 30, 2009 at 4:17 PM
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Trade shows have lost their mojo in the last few years to the point that very few matter. Being seen just to be seen no longer is worth the $20,000 minimum investment. The calendar used to include an almost weekly smorsgasbord of festivals, including Comdex (from the Mesozoic era) Internet World, etc. Now there are very few; companies can’t afford to have their executives and sales people but of the office schmoozing their competitors and partners, and with the rise of social media, the laborious meet and greet and lavish booth is going the way of the daily newspaper.
But some do still matter or else Las Vegas would cease to exist. One of the remaining ones that matter is CTIA Wireless, the annual gathering of all things hip and mobile in which began today in Vegas. With mobile technology about the only bright spot in the technology industry, meaningful news is expected this week.
Based on recent developments in the industry, CW predicts that the news from the show could include:
• Tier two mobile handset manufacturer launches device that has .003% more capabilities than the iPhone or enough to get positive reviews but no prediction of commercial success.
• The next killer mobile application, based on GPS, launches to an initial big buzz followed almost immediately by privacy concerns. Of course, everyone forgets that people walk around everyday with
their life’s information stored in their phone so privacy has ceased to be a big issue, no matter what Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes claims.
• The latest 4G network equipment and devices hit the market, despite the fact that most of us still are accessing 2G networks with our phones, meaning we can barely get the Yankee score on ESPN.com from two innings ago.
• Leading analyst firm reports that smart phone sales continue to out perform laptop and PC sales but are not accelerating as fast as previous quarters. Stock prices for cell phone manufacturers tank and rise at the same time.
As someone who has worked in the mobile industry for years, the hype always leads reality by three years or more; we are almost at the point where, as one client predicted in 2000, we will all be reading Forbes.com on our cell phones while bidding for a Chevy Chase Pez dispenser on eBay. It really is a Brave New World.
Tags:
mobile,
wireless
Posted by Merrill Freund on April 1, 2009 at 5:52 PM
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