Sometimes I am reminded that not everyone in the world is "tech savvy," which is basically industry lingo for "a geek."
I got a fresh taste of that last week during the launch of Acer's Packard Bell brand. Normally during the launch of any new computer line, there is a sheet next to the new machine written in code, which usually contains phrases like 2GB RAM DDR2. I know the code, and so do a lot of non-geeks, but for some people it's just a lot of nonsense.
At the Packard Bell launch, there was none of that. The only numbers used to describe the machine were the obvious ones, like 15.4-inch screen. Beyond that, there were only vague phrases like "enhanced connectivity," "uncompromising set of features," and the ever popular "easy grip grooved cover with treaded pattern."
I complained just a few weeks ago in this column that IT companies in general were killing us with an excess of acronyms, so it's nice to see a computer manufacturer try to move away from this.
Problem was, I was lost. I keep asking the guys at the show, "Okay, I know you're trying to move away from the techno-speak adverting, but just what DOES this machine have in it?"
No one could tell me. I was told there were spec sheets somewhere, but those never appeared. What I was told was that Packard Bell was NOT marketing these machines towards people like me, aka, the geeks.
Packard Bell is for people who just want a good machine but don't necessarily care about the specifics.
Marco Cappella, a Packard Bell exec who was at the launch, had a good argument. A lot of people, possibly between 40 and 60 per cent of you, don't know the difference between the various chips and components out on the market.
Do you know the difference, for example, between a Core 2 Duo E8400 and a Core 2 Due E8500? The difference is said to be very minor, almost to the point of being irrelevant, so why bother trying to market the machines based on obscure numbers?
That's a fair argument, but I think Packard Bell is going too far in the opposite direction. People who don't know what the numbers mean usually go and find someone who does. Will people be willing to invest in a machine without knowing what, other than Intel, is inside? This is an exceptionally risky marketing ploy for a brand without an established reputation in the market.
Who is Packard Bell? Fifteen years ago they were a brand no one would buy no matter how low the price was. Times have changed. The brand today does very well in Europe and is now owned by Acer, who finished their acquisition of Packard Bell earlier this year.
But instead of just rebranding the Packard Bell line, Acer has decided to go with a multi-brand strategy. Acer, despite being one of the biggest computer makers in the world, doesn't have the greatest brand reputation here in the UAE. I have heard them called cheap and low-end. My experience with them has been anything but.
The Acer Predator, a higher-end gaming platform, is one of the nicest machines I've used. I just don't get the multi-brand strategy. I understand it in concept - offering two distinctive products that won't compete with each other - but I'm not sure it's going to work. I really don't believe, as the Packard Bell guys claim, that there won't be some inter-brand cannibalisation.
For example, both brands offer gaming desktops, both offer a variety of notebooks, and both offer netbooks. I've been told the Acer brand will be marketed toward the tech-savvy, but Packard Bell is using words like "latest and greatest generation of components" to describe their computers. So what's the difference? Without those obscure numbers, there's no way to tell.
