The TabletThe Tablet

How should Microsoft position the Tablet PC?

Who should be the initial target market?

How about Bert Keely’s philosophy of a truly personal computer?

– There will be adoption barriers. What do you think the biggest obstacles will be?

– How do you plan to overcome these?

Why do you think Bill Gates is so excited about the prospects of the Tablet PC?

The Tablet PC is not a single technology. It pulls together a number of innovations—cleartype, richink, handwriting and voice recognition, ebook, wireless, and so on.

– How important are these various inventions? – Does the first generation have to be perfect or will consumers

accept less than perfect?

Vicious Cycle of Bad Word of Vicious Cycle of Bad Word of MouthMouth

A company aggressively markets…

but the product FAILS to meet expectations…

“tainting” the product and killing momentum.

turning early adopters into early rejecters…

to consumers with critical needs…

…an imperfect, first-gen technology…

who spread negative word-of-mouth…

Who should we sell to?

Who should we sell to?

1. How do we define a perfect customer for the Tablet?

Market size (are customers available to us?)

Ease of support (technical support in place or not?)

Early users of technology (gadget lovers?)

2. So, who is the perfect customer for launch?

3. And who is the perfect customer for primary expansion?

Who should we sell to?

Who is the buyer?

1) Individual

2) Company

3) Other?

Must Have

Performance/Requirements- +

Satisfaction/Expectations

High

Low

More isbetter

Compels

Implementation

The Power of the FrameThe Power of the FrameRadical Innovation Incremental

A redundant technology if consumers already have Internet access via PC.

A service that is completely unrelated to typical PC-based usage.

A utilitarian technology for serious power users looking to enhance their productivity.

A delightful and casual device for people who want to be current, trendy, up-to-date.

A technically-sophisticated technology that is complicated to use.

A simple product that is easy to use.

Threatening to consumers who are not comfortable adopting new technologies.

Non-threatening, because almost everyone is already comfortable with the idea/category.

Intimidating to anyone who does not understand what a (portable) computer is.

Unintimidating because everyone understands what ‘reading a book’ is.

A thoughtful purchase for customers with specific needs.

An impulse purchase for customers with spontaneous needs.

Challenges for radical Challenges for radical innovations:innovations:

•Educate consumer about what the product can do•Convince customers that they need it•Must encourage customers to change their behaviour by incorporating it into their lifestyles.

All of this must be done with a first-generation product that is less than perfect.

The decision of how to position The decision of how to position also depends on:also depends on:

nature of the product: it’s pretty seductive has a “wow” factor incorporates many engineering advances.

nature of customer (who is the ideal customer and how likely is it that this customer will buy into the positioning?nature of company (resources, competencies, long-term strategies)

Is it a break-through, yes or no?