N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

The biggest issue I've noticed when trying to "sell" the n900 to people is they immediately compare it to the iphone, and then, usually at this point, their critical thinking abilities totally shut down and they go into rabid fanboy mode.

I have found this is the case even with non-techie people, as most people don't like the idea that what they've learned from the media could be wrong, or out of date.

It sucks, but we will never be able to persuade anyone to think positively about the n900 as soon as they've entered this pattern of thought.

Therefore, I suggest we take a leaf out of apple's book and go in a slightly different direction, and market the n900 a little more.. surreptitiously.

Repeat after me:

• "It's not an iPhone"
• "It's a whole different ballgame to the iPhone"
• "It's not competing with the iPhone"

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

I've always dealt with iphonistas with an expression of mild disgust and a mutter of "Good God! I wouldn't stoop to an iphone!" If you have even half a reputation as geek, nerd or even geek-lite people will look at you in amazement and whisper "why not?" which gives you the chance to talk about how apple have created a seriously wizzy interface and patched it over an extremely ordinary piece of kit.

That's when, ideally, I'd like to be able to say "I use this because..." Except I'm still trying to find out why I should be using an n900 rather than, say, symbian. Apart from the Open Source ethos, which isn't actually a selling point to most people.

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

why are YOU trying to 'sell' the phone? Do you work for nokia? If you don't then, frankly, I don't think they want or need your help.

It should be good enough for you that you know YOU want it. Forget everybody else. Enough of us will reach this conclusion to make it worth it for nokia to keep on with their R&D and sales.

Not trying to be mean, but if YOU want this device, then get it and enjoy it and don't worry about what other people think.

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

It's not an iPhone - agree
It's a whole different ballgame to the iPhone - maybe
It's not competing with the iPhone - disagree


It's a whole different ballgame to the iPhone-
give me a few whys and hows... opensource, you have mystical root access, 1gb ram, 32g rom, hotswappable memory, sure, all good points. but why is it a different ballgame.

It's not competing with the iPhone
Im not sure how you can say this.... maybe for the uber-techy id doesnt compete, but for the other 96% of the world.... Unless you are saying its not competing bucasue the ecosystem is nascent so you might have 10's of apps and games rather than thousands.

sorry to be the one to say it, but all phones compete with the iphones, android phones, winmo phones, n900 and future maemo 5,6,7 devices will compete with the the existing players as well as future ones. The n900 is different, and will be different, it will offer a different value proposition than the iphone but it doesn't mean that they don't compete. The frustrating thing is people are having difficulty articulating what it is / can be etc. This gets more frustrating when everyone jumps to compare it to the device that currently holds the most attention, which happens to be the iphone in many markets.

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

Think about what the following things have in common and get back to me:

• Firefox
• iPhone
• Blackberry
• Craigslist

Here's a hint: "I really like _x_. You should try it too".

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

I'm not saying it isn't competing with the iPhone. What i'm saying is, the moment you allow average joe to think that perhaps the n900 is competition for the iphone, cognitive functions are going to shut down.

Avoid this altogether by outrightly saying that it's not competing with the iphone. If it helps your conscience, you can remind yourself that it's not competing because it's so vastly superior to the iphone ;)

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

• Firefox - I use it to get to craigslist
• iPhone - I use it to get to craigslist
• Blackberry - I use it to get to craigslist
• Craigslist - I use it to get laid

did i win? ;) :rolleyes:

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

Using craiglist to get laid automatically disqualifies you from winning :D

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

Firefox - Craigslist can be accessed via it
iPhone - I sell them on Craigslist
Blackberry - I also sell these on Craigslist
Craigslist - Based on my android app for it has ZERO regard for html standards and QA.

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

but this does not work in reality. If we cannot articulate what it can do in comparison to the competition iphone android or winmo we are in trouble. Our goal is to get to the point where THEY are compared to the maemo devices, but that won't happen till maemo has greater presence (and better tech) in the mobile world.

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

In other words, it's about knocking the leader off the pedestal.

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

don't knock them off, just surpass them by building a taller pedestal. no need to do the "im a mac and he is a PC" bull. just be better.

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

I'm going to backtrack a bit and start again, because I've been having a pretty off day I'm being grumpy and petty, so let's start this again.

Matthewcc you are absolutely correct and I'm glad you responded.

This is what got me agitated:

I'd like to understand what makes you think Nokia wouldn't want fan-based marketing. If you were on my marketing or PR team I would fire you based on that belief alone. Also if you capitalize 'you' in a comment to someone they are likely to take it personally.

The single most bothersome thing about this forum is something I've seen mainly on linux and development forums, which is a pervading secret (and sometimes not so secret) desire for The Product in question to not be a roaring success, because of the belief being one of the few people with The Product makes them special and unique. This is usually hung under a banner of "no selling out", but fortunately that doesn't apply here.

This way of thinking is fine if it's personally, but not when it involves trying to shoot down ideas that would bring larger success to the organisation or company that owns The Product.

So knock that **** off.





ok i'm done. :)

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

So you're in agreement then with the others, that the N900 is competing with the iPhone. Because even though you're creating a different pedestal you're still trying to compete with them since you said you wanted to surpass them. And if they weren't competition you wouldn't even be referring to them.

The N900 has been marketed as a mobile computer/tablet first and a phone second. But in the end it's going to be in the class of smartphones. Both the iPhone and N900 have different means to the same end.

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

I don't think I've ever seen a successful fan-based marketing that tries to follow a commercial advertising\marketing campaign template. Most of them seems to be word-of-mouth campaign, ad hoc, natural and spontaneous..

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

Well said...

My only comment is that the different means to the same end.

I want them to be divergent, the i-phone became a toy first and tool second. I would prefer the opposite. I think that the iphone will be in crises in the future because of this and will need to re-invent itself in-to a world without i-phart apps and the like. I think that nokia has the experience to keep this from happening in the first place and to allow a maemo device to come in flavors.

It is my stupid little dream, but at unboxing I would like to choose a flavor -Mameo Business/Social/Games etc. that would preload in all the tools I want for my needs and let me know that I can always add or remove things. I want to be able to give one to my 68 yo mom and i can make it meet her needs with large font, news feeds of the obits, and big buttons to dial. imo this is the grail. to be able to use all the functionality and help distribute it by bundling it and empowering users to change it.

Now many of you will say YES, thats the beauty of ROOT. but i swear to Christ my mom and much of the market is far more interested in a pill reminder than root access.

This is not just a fan community but also a developer community and I expect that developers are listening to our ideas and implementing them if you want help, im sure some of the average joes would love to help you come up with cool tools, and i include myself in there as I cannot even manage to ssh in to amazon-aws without help.

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

Right, my response including the different means to the same end was mostly pointed at showing that most of these devices are in the same competition. But you brought up a really interesting idea which reminded me of the Malcolm Gladwell TED talk where he refers to how people do know what they want you just need to give them options and that taste or preferences for a certain thing sometimes isn't always a vertical scale.

To me all these devices will continue being updated to satisfy the majority. Sometimes it will be a hit and sometimes it will be a miss. In the end if we are cheering for Nokia to be successful then it boils down to informing the public of misinformation and letting them make a decision because it is theirs to make or we can apply for a position at Nokia and make one kick *** device that re-brands the company in a much more favorable light to the public.

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

Two things:

First, don't assume the opinions of a (sometimes vocal) minority necessarily represent the majority. ;)

Second, at least a part of the "desire for The Product . . . not to be a roaring success" is based in people not wanting the platform that suits their needs now to stop doing so in the future. Nokia's moves toward mass market have been slowly eroding away all of the features that make the devices appeal to the people who currently own them. Dual SDHC slots, a useful number of buttons, real d-pads, larger screen size, more usable hardware keyboard layouts, etc. These are all things that we've lost as Nokia has tried to take this platform the mass market.

It's tough to watch a product that started out nearly perfectly suiting your needs slowly become yet-another-generic-plastic-slab, but this "opposition to success" doesn't have anything to do with the punk rock before-they-got-popular attitude—it's about the unfortunate compromises that have been made to try to make a product succeed with the average consumer.

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

While I am sorely tempted by everything about the N900 (except the unsubsidized price that we are seeing in the States), the statements above are a problem.

We now know what it's not. Of course the same three statements could be made about a loaf of sliced bread.

The N900's problem, as I see it, is a lack of definition as to what it is. Even on these forums, different people see it differently. What do people think it offers a non-developer that cannot be gotten with something like the Samsung Moment (to pick the latest announcement: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/07/s...ing-to-sprint/ )? While it may work in politics, defining yourself by what you are not tends to be a losing proposition in product marketing.

And please note that any use of the word Linux will immediately condemn the phone to failure. There's a reason that Windows netbooks advertise the fact that they run Windows but Linux netbooks do not advertise Linux. Linux is scary to the average user. Remember that a heck of a lot of people (most importantly, schools) were willing to pay extra for Apple over Windows solely because it was simpler. Apple's mouse had one button and Windows mouse needed two.

P.S. The Linux mouse has 13.5 buttons all of which are user configurable with jumper cables which can easily be made using the instructions available on HacksRUs.com ;)

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

Who is trying to sell the N900 to anyone? Certainly not Nokia, it has no footprint in the mainstream media (I don't mean MSM in the political sense, but media that a non-Linux-techie would be exposed to).

Re: N900 Marketing - going in a different direction
 

Gotta love this: "It's a true mobile powerhouse in every sense of this word, wrapped in a very eye-candy and functional UI at that."
Eldar Murtazin, Mobile Review

See Eldar loves it....:D
so it must be good....;)


http://conversations.nokia.com/almanac/nokia-n900/