I happened to come across a news article out of the Consumer Electronics Show (“CES”) this week. The article from CNN was entitled “What is a tablet, anyway?” and discussed the introduction of several new computers from different manufacturers. The focus of the article was not on the new hardware itself, but the “labeling” of the hardware -
For all the buzz about "tablet computers" in recent weeks, one fundamental question about this supposedly break-through computer category remains unanswered:
What exactly is a tablet?
Computer industry representatives here at the massive and hype-heavy Consumer Electronics Show can't seem to agree.
Some say a computer just needs a touch-sensitive screen to be a tablet. Others say a person should be able to write on it with a pen. Still others say it's screen size that's important -- tablets must fit somewhere between phones and laptops. For Philip McKinney, vice president and chief technology officer at Hewlett-Packard, it's partly the keyboard -- a tablet should have one of those.
Break off the keyboard, leaving only a touch-screen device, he said, and the gadget falls into another buzz-worthy category: the slate.
Others say the terms slate and tablet are synonymous.
The sad part of this is that the creation of buzzwords in the technology industry is nothing new and only seems to get worse as time marches on. Even sadder is the fact that the industry amazingly considers being the first to label an existing technology with a new term outweighs the confusion this causes to consumers.
Another example of this industry fetish with attempting to make something new by labeling occurred when Google announced their new phone, the Nexus One. As someone who has been immersed in the mobile phone space and makes his living off of it, I can tell you the following -
- The Nexus One is a very nice phone with advanced capabilities for messaging and application support. Nice hardware and nice “bells and whistles”.
- The Nexus One may be better than other similar devices, but it is not a new category of device. Based upon what the industry has come to understand and accept, it is a smartphone; a phone with powerful computing capabilities.
- In spite of #’s 1 and 2, Google proudly proclaimed the Nexus One to be a new category of phone – the superphone.
Now, if Google were to only make a passing reference to this label, as in “This is really a great smartphone; in fact, it’s a superphone” and left it at that, things would be OK. However, much like the computer industry that throws out terms like “tablet” and “slate” and all with differing definitions, the average consumer is usually left with the deep thought “Huh?”. By creating brand confusion (with a type of technology being the “brand”), consumers are left to sift through the deeper technical aspects of each company’s offerings in order to make any sense. This is something the average consumer doesn’t want to be bothered with. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to spend time with friends and customers who, after several minutes of explanation, say things like “I just want a phone” or “Why should I have to figure out what type of tablet computer fits my needs”.
I can’t say for certain if the technology industry has become so focused on trying to differentiate via buzzword rather than value. If you’ve been around the computer industry long enough, you know we get a huge endorphin rush from creating acronyms and buzzwords. But they are usually attached to more abstract concepts. For some reason, this need to create new words to describe things has now reached a fevered pitch, and the hubris associated with such branding has killed off the last brain cells associated with good marketing sense. Hasn’t the industry learned from past mistakes of this type? The “Notebook/laptop/portable” naming craze? More recently, the “notebook/netbook” debate? Heck – even this branding confusion around tablet computers is a new and even more confusing version of the “tablet vs. slate” marketing confusion just a few years back. And please – do NOT get me going on the PDA/phone/smartphone confusion that surrounded the mobile industry in the last decade.
While the creation of new terms for existing technologies may please self-indulgent marketing executives and a small segment of the consumer population obsessed with having the “latest and greatest” (even if it is not), all of this naming simply leads to the perception of fragmentation of what is logically a single segment of the industry in the eyes of the consumer. Fragmentation leads to confusion, and confusion leads to a lack of sales to the very audience that is often the target.
I would suggest that the technology sector take a moment to step back and remember why they exist – to make money. When you are trying to sell a product in a competitive market space, clarity is key. Telling people why your product is good and how it benefits them is what makes the sale. Re-segmenting existing and accepted categories of products does not provide clarity unless everyone agrees to the new segmentation and communicates in the same way. Yes you differentiate yourself, but only by alienating potential customers who look at you and your competitors providing mixed messages. In the end, they will likely not trust either of you. By the way – if your goal with this strategy is to confuse or distract the consumer, I suggest a career with a much greater chance of overall success. Political bodies are always looking for “fresh blood” :-)
I’d like to think that this trend in creating new technology segments and confusion will end, but history shows that just the opposite will happen. For you, the consumer, all I can say is caveat emptor. Don’t take the labeling of a technology to something new as automatically equating to something better. Stick with the tried and true methods of purchasing – determine what you need, what you want and then find the product that meets those needs regardless of the marketing category. Tablet or slate, smartphone or superphone – in the end, they are just products with features and capabilities. When you do make your choice, let your salesperson know that you made your choice by thinking and not by catchphrases and buzzwords. Maybe someday the message will make it back to the appropriate people. Wait – they’re all locked in a room trying to come up with the new hot buzzword ;-)