Buried on the bottom of page B5 of yesterday’s Wall Street Journal was a short piece about Sharp’s tablet PC announcement.

In the second paragraph, the piece mentioned similar devices from Apple, Acer, and Toshiba.

The upcoming Sharp tablet wasn’t getting much love here. (Remember, Apple’s iPad announcement was on the front page of nearly every paper in America.)

It’s getting no love, because it’s not interesting:

• Sharp is relatively late to the game, but that’s ok. Apple wasn’t first either. Far from it.
• Sharp’s products are generally not memorable. Also ok. A lot of average products sell well thanks to decent marketing.
• Sharp doesn’t have a well defined focus in consumer electronics. No ok. Ask someone what kind of products Sharp makes, and see how long it takes them to answer.
• Sharp doesn’t tell a good story (in fact, I can’t think of a single one). Also no ok.
• Sharp doesn’t talk to consumers. Sharp doesn’t market much. This is the issue most responsible for Sharp’s problems. If you want to sell consumer electronics in this difficult marketplace, you’ve GOT to keep talking people in interesting and creative ways.

There’s your recipe for getting a big product announcement confined to the bottom of page B5.