Apple's Tablet is going to be announced next week and the buzz is reaching crescendo. Nobody is better than Apple at building buzz, lathering us up with rumors, expectations, excitement. This creates a huge energy outside Apple, about Apple. Today: here are the...

The best kind of new consumer electronics product is not a slight upgrade -- which is what most new products in our industry are. Slight improvements with a new model number are for the benefit of the manufacturer. On the other hand, products that either... Break new...

How do consumers talk about your products? Do you know? This is not an option. You MUST know. Not only do you have to know how they talk about your products as a group, you have to know consumers' perceptions of EACH of your products. If you don't, you become...

There are two consumer giants in consumer electronics today: Google and Apple. When people think of smart phones, music players, and the Internet, they usually think of these two companies first. But every category has a leader, and I don't mean market share. I'm...

How will this device help people? This will help you formulate how to talk about your product. How will people talk about this product? What words will they use? This will help you understand what language to use. Where will most people find information about our...

Two articles I read today drive home this powerful point: Consumers must be involved in everything you do. If you're not talking to them, you should be keeping them at the forefront of everything you're doing. When planning a new product, ask yourself these three...

I'm at the CTIA I.T. & Wireless trade show in San Diego, and my conversations here have emphatically reaffirmed my position on several huge problems in consumer electronics: 1. Public relations communications folks -- the ones charged with pitching and...

Although we're coming out of the recession -- the economy is undeniably moving upwards -- the price of your device will still be critical this holiday season. It'll be one of the top two deciding factors when consumers will be making their buying decisions (perceived...

When confronted with an obstacle -- say, a brick wall -- too many of us try to bust through it with brute force. This is especially true in public relations. Media communications folks send a pitch to journos. If they don't get a response (the brick wall), they'll...

Consumers of technology are typically described as satisfied or unsatisfied. Happy or unhappy. But I believe it goes deeper than that. Happy or unhappy alone are benign. But some of your customers are energetically happy -- that is, happier than the average satisfied...