To answer the question posed in the title, it definitely is if you’re Palm! A long time player and sometime innovator in the mobile device marketplace, Palm was rapidly losing steam, market share and relevancy in the hyper-competitive Smartphone market. The company had staked its future on its new WebOS software platform and the recently […]
VARs vs. Retail Distribution in Technology Markets
There is always a lot of talk in the software and hardware industries about distribution through the “Channel”. Generically, that means selling through some type of a third-party reseller company, rather than selling directly to the end customer. But in reality, the “Channel” includes many disparate types of third-party resellers. Today we’ll look at when […]
Retail Distribution of Software Products
Selling software at retail at one point in time was the “Holy Grail” for consumer, home office and small office software suppliers. That’s where the volume was. Everything that a company did starting up was intended to build enough volume to get into a distributor, so they could then pursue shelf space at the major […]
Dell Computer
Dell has been in the news recently, and like many big companies that have had a glitch in their performance, not in a good way. Slowing revenue growth, accounting scandals and customer service issues–you’ve heard it all before. By the way, where was the seminar that all big company managements attended, encouraging them to cut […]
Channel Conflict
In my consulting practice I do a lot of work with software and hardware companies in area of channel development. One of the hardest things to manage while growing a channel business is the inevitable conflict between all the players throughout your various distribution methods, including your direct sales force. Of course, my colleagues in […]
