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Lack Of iTunes Phone Marketing Irks Motorola
Alias777 writes "Motorola has criticized Apple for not marketing three proposed new phones that will be able to play downloaded music from Apple's iTunes service. "[Steve Jobs'] perspective is that you launch a product on Sunday and sell it on Monday," says Ron Garriques, president of Motorola's mobile phone division. In response, Motorola has delayed release of the iTunes-equipped phones a few more months."
Seems to me that Motorola can complain all they want about Apple. If they delay their product out of annoyace at Steve, they're the ones who will lose revenue, not Apple. Apple is going to continue to sell iPods with or without Motorola.
I don't get why they would even whine about this. They should concentrate on launching their phones and spend a little less time criticizing someone who has been an extremely successful businessman and might know a thing or two about consumer marketing.
If anyone knows how to market a product that works with Apple technology, it is Apple. Conventional marketing doesn't quite fly with their products, and would stand completely out of place beside their current efforts. Motorola should realize that their hardware stands to make them a lot of money given the market/mindshare of iTMS. They should just learn to ride the wave when it comes.
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From TFA:
Motorola Inc. did not show upcoming phones designed to work with Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes digital music service at a recent tech show because of the pair's differing approach...
Uhm. So Apple isn't marketing Motorola's phones for them. Motorola is responding by NOT showing their phones at a tech show, that is, they aren't marketing their phone at a tech show.
Motorola is "punishing" Apple for not marketing Motorola's phones by... not marketing the phones??? That's bizarre to me.
Why is this Apple's job anyway?
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This article claims that Apple stopped Motorola from showing the phones. An article on Heise News even claims journalists were kept from making photos of the empty space where the phones were supposed to be presented.
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Motorola complaining about how Apple markets? Need anyone remind Mr. Garriques that the Apple brand, which just had its most profitable, highest revenue-generating quarter in the company's entire history, has achieved the status of cultural icon and introduced one "it" product after another since Jobs' return?
Nevermind the fact that Motorola's current line up is, on an economy of scale, as unwiedly, unattractive, unimaginatively-designed and poorly built as the DPC-550 flip phone they introduced some ten years ago.
Garriques has missed the point. Jobs' approach is right (big surprise).
The more advance notice you give of a product offering, the more the momentum dies down when the product is actually available--especially if you aren't ready to deliver. Apple learned this lesson the hard way in the mid-90s when the first PowerPC Macintoshes were not being delivered in time to meet demand.
Apple has taken numerous steps to ensure sustained growth... one of these is delaying marketing until the product arrives. Then they blitz... Doing it the other way around, you're banking everything on that first week. Now people know it's out there, big deal.
When Apple has a great idea, what they want to do is create yet another cultural phenomenon. One way to do this is to rely heavily on word of mouth to generate buzz... Do you see ANY other computer manufacturers inserting logo stickers in their packaging? Do you see anyone driving a car with a Windows or Dell sticker on the rear windshield? You'll see it with Apple owners all the time (myself included). Why? Because since the days of Guy Kawasaki and the EvangeList, evangelizing has always been one of Apple's marketing strongholds... it has to be backed up, of course, by good product.
Dell isn't an amazing piece of machinery, it's a discount box... Naturally, who the hell cares to advertise they own a Dell? Owning a Dell certainly doesn't signal that you have, indeed, arrived. It just means you're cheap.
Another thing... Apple's stores... walk by... do you see how it works? Huge glass windows, uncluttered real estate... white backdrops against which the products stand out like fashion displays.... People are magnetized by it and go in. Make no mistake, every element of the Apple Store design was pretty carefully conceived to maximize marketing potential.
Want a PC Clone? Go to Best Buy and search for it amidst a sea of heavily cluttered displays with unknowledgeable people who don't know the damnedest thing about computers. So there you are.
Apple builds an experience, and they want to keep building it. You know... I never would have thought it, but the first time I was peeking into a Mercedes at the Mercedes-Nissan dealership that serviced my Nissan, the salespeople knew exactly what they were doing when they handed me the keys to an $80,000 S-class sedan with only these words, "Just bring it back before we close." That's all it took... I was hooked by the experience of driving that thing and could never be the same. Next car I got was a Mercedes C240 with a very competitive lease. Why? Oh, come on... they know I'll be back for more.
So does Apple.
Motorola hasn't delayed the release of the phone, it's just delayed showing and announcing the phone. From the several articles on the subject that I've read, Motorola doesn't in fact appear to be "irked" and they have not in any way "criticized" Apple. In fact, from the AP article on the subject, Motorola seems to be agreeable to the decision: "'We were doing it (the announcement) the old way,' Zander said." Alias777 probably should have read the article.
The fundamental problem is most likely because Motorola's primary customers are Verizon, Sprint, and Cingular.... where Apple's primary customers are just people.
The wireless companies take time to react to things. They are slow. They need to know about a product well ahead of time so that they can develop their marketing materials, do studies to determine the proper price point, and work out any implementation details on their networks. So Motorola normally gives them a several month lead time on new products so they can get ready.
Apple, on the other hand, sells to you and me. We don't need prep time to buy an iPod, we just buy one.
The thing is, in this market, end-user customers are a tiny, tiny fraction of the total market. Unless and until the big cellular carriers are selling this phone, Motorola just isn't going to move very many. The 'announce Sunday, ship Monday' culture simply DOES NOT WORK for their customers, the people who buy 98% of their product. Without that long lead time and solid coordinated pushes from the wireless carriers, an iTunes phone won't sell well. By the time the channel is really ready to start pushing them, the initial buzz will be all gone, and the product may never do well.
This is a case, I think, where Motorola is right to be upset with Apple. Apple, however, may not care. An announcement today of products available in the summer may impact THEIR sales as people delay purchases. So this move is likely in Apple's best immediate interest. It's a big problem for Motorola, and may have a bad long-term impact on Apple due to fewer iTunes customers.
Apple may be becoming a bit dangerous to partner with.... it'll bear watching.
The real reason Motorola is complaining is that Apple wanted them to market a one-button cell phone.
As I saw it, Motorola was planning to heavily pre-market these phones. That is, announce them and show them off long before they were ready to be sold.
Then Apple said, "Don't do that." They didn't want hype surrounding something that wasn't even available yet. This is something Apple has been moving away from.
So, really, Moto was going to announce these too soon, and agreed not to based on Steve's feedback. That's totally different from what this post implies.
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