I like to check out one of the morning TV shows on one of the major US-based networks for a few minutes, as I’m eating my breakfast cereal. There are 3 major programs on at the start of the day: NBC’s Today Show (the traditional market leader), ABC’s Good Morning America (the perennial runner-up) and […]
How Soon Should Your Software or Hardware Company Go International?
This is a question that frankly doesn’t come up often enough at early stage tech companies. There is usually an assumption that you first conquer your home market and then sometime WAY down the road when you are already flush and successful, it will be time to expand internationally. US-based tech companies are most guilty […]
Is HP acquiring Palm a good idea?
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 […]
VAR vs. Retail Distribution in Software and 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 company, rather than selling directly to the end customer. But in reality the “Channel” includes a wide variety of disparate types of third party resellers. Today […]
The End of Customer Service
No one answers the telephone anymore. What does this signal about the importance of customer service? At least, technology companies in the US surely don’t answer the phone. With big companies, you are either presented with an endless phone tree–“press 1 for a company directory”–or the newest innovation in communications technology: the cheerful “automated voice […]
