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Bob Russell · 09-13-2005, 12:31 PM

Good stuff.

Sammy recently talked about how Palm may also want to take a page or two out of Apple's playbook in terms of a better product release with more media coverage and an event with some developers and other guests. Sure, it wouldn't attract as much attention, but they certainly have a product that is far past what the awareness level demonstrates.

Almost anyone who is a Palm fanatic can come up with ways to inexpensively market Palm. So why don't we see it? I think there are two main reasons for this...
1) Palm is lean and small and people feel like they don't have time. They have to stay focused on the basics and they think some of this marketing business is "extraneous". Especially when it comes to the hobbyist market. What they don't realize is that the online presence of hobbyists and sites like PA and MobileRead are influencers of the community and the press and the analysts. It does matter, and sets the thinking relative to the devices to a large degree. But the difference is that analysts are harder to influence with information. The online community will spread the message and becomes part of Palm's marketing machine. If they choose to get connected, that is.
2) The focus for their efforts is going to be where they see revenue sources. They see carriers and corporate sales as much more important and the message is very different to those sorts of customers than to the hobbyists. But, if you think about it, you also need to influence the opinions of those corporate users, not just the corporate buyers. Again, I think the support network includes online sites. Why not do some blogs to talk about what the Palm devices can do? Why not come up with a simple message that let's people know that they can use a Palm to make all their desires come true. Well, at least with regard to video, mp3s, audiobooks, ebooks, email, etc etc. Those things are driving sales. Why not drive the sales toward pdas? Find out what people want, and make it clear that you can do it, and even partner with developers to make sure that it can be done easily. Right now it's still too technical to make some of it work. Unfortunately, to a great degree the ball is in the Access' court now. They have the PalmOS platform. Let's see what they make of it.

So, yes, I think their missing a bit in Marketing. But not as much as it seems because they are after a different market. To their shame, they don't seem to consider the user base and hobbyists and online community to be very important. I'm sure Microsoft doesn't mind.

09-13-2005, 12:31 PM	#2
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Good stuff. Sammy recently talked about how Palm may also want to take a page or two out of Apple's playbook in terms of a better product release with more media coverage and an event with some developers and other guests. Sure, it wouldn't attract as much attention, but they certainly have a product that is far past what the awareness level demonstrates. Almost anyone who is a Palm fanatic can come up with ways to inexpensively market Palm. So why don't we see it? I think there are two main reasons for this... 1) Palm is lean and small and people feel like they don't have time. They have to stay focused on the basics and they think some of this marketing business is "extraneous". Especially when it comes to the hobbyist market. What they don't realize is that the online presence of hobbyists and sites like PA and MobileRead are influencers of the community and the press and the analysts. It does matter, and sets the thinking relative to the devices to a large degree. But the difference is that analysts are harder to influence with information. The online community will spread the message and becomes part of Palm's marketing machine. If they choose to get connected, that is. 2) The focus for their efforts is going to be where they see revenue sources. They see carriers and corporate sales as much more important and the message is very different to those sorts of customers than to the hobbyists. But, if you think about it, you also need to influence the opinions of those corporate users, not just the corporate buyers. Again, I think the support network includes online sites. Why not do some blogs to talk about what the Palm devices can do? Why not come up with a simple message that let's people know that they can use a Palm to make all their desires come true. Well, at least with regard to video, mp3s, audiobooks, ebooks, email, etc etc. Those things are driving sales. Why not drive the sales toward pdas? Find out what people want, and make it clear that you can do it, and even partner with developers to make sure that it can be done easily. Right now it's still too technical to make some of it work. Unfortunately, to a great degree the ball is in the Access' court now. They have the PalmOS platform. Let's see what they make of it. So, yes, I think their missing a bit in Marketing. But not as much as it seems because they are after a different market. To their shame, they don't seem to consider the user base and hobbyists and online community to be very important. I'm sure Microsoft doesn't mind.