Toby
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Registered: Jul 2000
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Posts: 3034 |
quote:
Originally posted by Madkins007
One of Handsprings problems is and has been the problem they have had getting their market niche to know they are even around.
Huh? They've not been going for a market niche. They've been going for the mainstream market. I could have sworn that you said you read 'Piloting Palm'.  quote:
Where can the average non-Internet buyer go to get a Handspring PDA and some sales support that can talk about it?
Same place as Palms and other consumer PDAs. OTOH, those places generally don't have much in the way of sales support for _any_ PDAs (unless the sales person owns one, then they tend to push what they own).quote:
How would the average potential customer even KNOW Handspring exists adn is an option?
By walking into the average Best Buy, Office Max, CompUSA, etc. and looking at the shelf where the other PDAs are. As a matter of fact, Handspring is the only one to have an ad on the door when one walks into the front door of the local Office Max. Best Buy routinely has the Visors in their Sunday fliers. Sorry, but brand recognition is not the reason for Handspring's troubles.quote:
They do almost no general advertising (although their ad on Ask Jeeves banner is where I learned about them!), yet they aim their stuff at the general public.
They don't _need_ to advertise. Their _retailers_ handle advertising. Besides, they really don't have much of anything to advertise anymore. What differentiates Visors at this point?quote:
Palm has a HUGE advantage by being sold at Target and other places,
Handspring used to be sold at Target also. I'd bet they didn't sell well enough there.quote:
and in their very name- most people call these things 'Palms' whether they are made by them or not.
So what are you suggesting?quote:
A customer who walks into Best Buy and says they want a Palm will usually be shown mostly Palms.
And you think they're too stupid to ask about the Visors or Clies sitting right next to them? Nah...more likely that the Visors pale in comparison lately.quote:
If they walk into Office Depot (a logical place for this sort of purchase), they might not learn anything about Handspring.
That's correct, because OfficeMax across the street is selling Visors much better than Office Depot was. quote:
Palm also usually enjoys the 'soup can' advantage. Grocery stores KNOW that 90% of their customers buy only a few types of soup, yet soup makers keep making new varieties in order to take over as much shelf space as possible- their goal is a solid 'wall' of their own label.
Again, what are you thinking would 'solve' this 'problem'?quote:
In almost any store that sells a selection of PDA's, Palms fill most of the display spaces. The average customer has been trained to think that this sort of selection is a good thing and represents a healthier company. This is rarely really true, but it is how most customers think.
So, you think that Handspring should start a slew of new models? quote:
IF Handspring goes down, it will be for a variety of problems that sort of snowball on you. Low profits make it harder to be innovative and spend money for advertising and marketing. No new products to announce reduce your sales figures. Poor customer service results in bad PR and abandonement, and as sales decline, customer support is hit as well. Big companies, like Sony, move into the territory slowly- letting other companies take the risk, then they pull out their big guns and make a big splash- people buy them because they recognise and trust the name (whether they should or not). A certain degree of market saturation occurs and sales overall slump- especially with cell phones, laptops, etc. crowding the market.
If Handspring goes down, it will be because they didn't have a product that people really wanted to buy, at a price at which they were really willing to buy it, and at a cost where Handspring could really make a profit on it. It doesn't take a 'product line' to make a company successful.quote:
Vaporware, premature announcements, missteps, rumor mills, and that sort of thing also affect a smaller company.
Bad management affects it much worse.
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04-27-2002 03:27 PM
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