The hyped or not – the market decides in the end

Successful without any hype: the netbook

Late 2007 Asus introduced the first netbook to the market without any hype under the motto: “Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play” or EEE pc.
It received little interest from the press and bloggers as it was considered as not important and not more than a toy instead of a computer due to some limitations: screen size, keyboard, upgradeability, …

However consumers started to buy the netbook for different reasons: convenience, sufficient features to be useful, lightweight for travel.
Apparently there was a clear market demand from different market segments for different reasons.

Now 3 years later all vendors have at least one netbook in their product line.

The hyped: tablets

Today we are experiencing the hype about tablets: especially the iPad from the master of hype: Apple.
The concept of tablets has been around for almost 10 years now without any significant market success.

How much hyped tablets have been, still it is not clear what will be the market segment or type of customers will be buying it and using it.
Some say mums, others say students and others think businessmen on the road (every time the road warriors are being mentioned, products seem fail).

The tablets are being aimed at those people who:
- Don’t want to read, as this market segment is covered by the special purpose eBook readers or eReaders with long lasting batteries an integral part of a content distribution system (Kindle – Amazon).
- Don’t need a keyboard as content creation is not a requirement, just content consumption.
- Want visual and Internet entertainment and information.
If a market research had been done for tablets, the 16:9 format would have been a requirement for viewing movies and video’s. Still the tablets come with a 4:3 screen. Strange !

Moreover netbooks come with similar features, include a keyboard at lower prices. Hence these tablets seem to be expensive toys for a vaguely defined market.

The customer decides apart from the buzz

As much as one can hype a product, in the end it is the customer who decides, when:
- Visiting the store
- Becoming eager to get one when seeing someone else using it
- Advertising persuades enough

The question remains if, even with all the hype and buzz, the consumer is going to buy it?
Any hype or buzz cannot force the consumer to pay for something he sees, expects or has no benefit from.

Check out the 8 reasons why nobody is talking about your product.