Dream duo? Or a frivolous HP venture?
As Implied in my earlier post, RIM have had it. They really need to pull off something spectacular and I have to say, I don’t think they will.
The gauntlet of ‘third player’ is thrown down then, HP, you’re up. You have an immediate chance to compete with Android and iOS here, you just need to execute it correctly. Mainly, you need to be committed. You need a huge advertising push, a major differentiator. The initial push will be hard work, but if you don’t do this, you have no hope. Here’s what I can see happening:
HP try to advertise advertise the TouchPad and Pre3. Here’s the flaw, they don’t advertise them as ipad competitors, they advertise them as ipads. This is where everyone has fallen down before, it’s classic ‘let Apple win’ syndrome. It happened with the iPod, look who dominates. When people see a Xoom, a Transformer (well, presumably not that Transformer, then we’d all be in serious trouble), they say ‘is that an iPad’? Hell, when they see my kindle they say ‘is that an iPad?’ This is how Apple wins, their brand becomes synonomous with whatever they are selling, then everyone else immediately tries to equal they’re product, advertising theirs. They come off as inferior copies to the consumer, even if they’re not.
If HP don’t succumb to this syndrome, if they advertise WebOS as WebOS, get the devices into people’s hands, have lots of promotions, make some losses in the beginning, then they can beat down RIM before Windows Phone 7 does, which is a very real threat. Then they have a grip on the market, this grip is key. If they don’t get people talking about it, people won’t talk about it. Give away free ones, make some crazy ads. Come on HP, this is the only way. You need a grip on the market, all you’ll fall to the wayside. Forever.
then there’s the app problem. You don’t have any, so develop some quality in-house software, advertise it, bundle it. Come out with apps the iPad can’t inherently do, don’t think just having ‘Angry Birds’ is good enough. It’s not. Really, it really, really, isn’t. Have I hammered that point enough? No? ANGRY BIRDS WILL NOT SELL YOUR DEVICE!!!!!! FOR GOD’S SAKE PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER. Nice to have that sorted.
HP, there’s no knew iPhone, Ice Cream sandwich won’t be here for a while, Nokia is still burning away platforms with MaeGo for a while.
You have your window, go all out, you can do this.
Please, we don’t need another Microsoft monopoly.