The VAR Guy wasn’t looking for love, but he found it during a trip to his local CostCo last night. There, he spotted the $299 Eee PC from Asus. It’s built on Linux — but CostCo’s in-store promotional materials for the device barely mention Linux. That may be a smart move. Here’s why.
During the CostCo visit, The VAR Guy noticed numerous shoppers checking out the Eee PC. (The three Es stand for Easy to Work, Easy to Learn, Easy to Play.) None of the CostCo shoppers — not one — checking out the Eee PC last night asked whether it ran Windows, Linux or something else. Fact is, most consumers don’t know about Linux yet.
The CostCo shoppers had more practical questions on their mind:
- Did the tiny, $299 sub-notebook have Internet access? (yes)
- Wireless support? (yes)
- Email capabilities? (absolutely)
- The ability to share documents, spreadsheets, presentations? (yup)
Notice the checklist above doesn’t mention “Windows” or “Microsoft Office.” More and more of today’s consumers are thinking less about software products by name. The Internet and widely supported standards (TCP/IP, HTML, Ethernet, etc.) have started to free us from monolithic software packages.
Hey, The VAR Guy is still a Microsoft Office user. In fact, he thinks it’s pretty darn good. But if you’re in the market for a low-cost sub-notebook that is easy to use while on the road, the Eee PC is connecting with thousands of users.
Indeed, the Eee PC with a 7 inch screen has been a hot seller. But The VAR Guy will likely hold out for the new 9 inch screen. He may need to pay a little more for that extra real estate. The fact that it runs Linux is a bonus to The VAR Guy. But for most consumers, Linux isn’t even on their radar yet.
Related Posts From The VAR Guy
- March 27, 2008: Red Hat’s March to $1 Billion
- March 24, 2008: Dell, Rivals Leaving Linux Money On the Table
- March 12, 2008: Update: Novell’s SuSE Linux Desktop Strategy
- March 11, 2008: Wal-Mart Stops Stocking Linux PCs
- November 27, 2007: Desktop Linux: Look Beyond Wal-Mart
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Totally agree with you.
On my mind, people don’t need to know the specifics of the OS, they just need to get their job done.
And Linux is great for that, because it’s enable developers to make a fully custom machine build especially for it’s customers needs.
No, the majority of people doesn’t need to know what’s Linux, but they don’t need to know what’s Windows too, all they need is get their job done.
The only problem about that is that microsoft doesn’t like that idea and try to tie the entire world with their applications and frameworks…
I don’t agree. Eee with Linux appeals to geeks like us and also to computer-rookies who search for their fist or second machine and don’t require specific apps.
Yes, they will ask the kind of questions you point out (internet?,wireless?,email?,office apps?) and they will be ‘blinded’ for the price at first.
Later on, the ones that know Windows exists (most costumers) will ask, if that is an strange XP/Vista and when you have to answer ‘no’, they will start to feel incomfortable with the device in their hands.
We, the geeks, will be even happier because the machine has Linux, and the computer-rookies won’t event ask the Windows question. But both the geeks and computer-rookies are a minority at computer shops.
Another question:
$299 Eee PC?
Where?
Which model? 2G surf?
[…] for the Eee PC from Asus barely mention that the sub-notebook runs Linux. That may be a smart move. Here?s why. CostCo?s in-store promotional materials for the Eee PC from Asus barely mention that the […]
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[…] mention Linux March 29, 2008 at 7:39 am | In Articles | The VAR guy has made an interesting observation and wants to share it with you (oh, its to do with Linux marketing, more specifically the Eee […]
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Josvazg: Actually, you’ve raised an interesting point that made The VAR Guy rethink his blog post. You have a point. I think The VAR Guy’s original premise was this: The Linux community spends too much time hyping Linux or Windows compatiblity. CostCo went to the other extreme, and marketed the Eee PC’s simplicity, low cost, etc.
Somewhere along the line, customers do need to know about things like Windows compatibility. I guess the point is, though, that there needs to be a better balance.
Some of Linux’s biggest successes have come from places where it’s the most well-hidden… Look at TomTom and TiVo! The EeePC is just an extension of this into a more computer-like form factor - but focusing more on providing a solid user experience, and less on the name badge has worked in the past.
if this is what it takes to sell the machines, dont mention linux, linux is spreading behind the scenes anyways. get the EeePC out there, and get linux in peoples hands,that is more important.
So many people are Linux users, and they don’t even know it!
Got a PVR? A ton of people have these days, and most of them are running Linux
Got broadband? Your DSL router/modem is very likely running Linux.
Got VoIP? All those little VoIP adapters and VoIP phones that are starting to turn up generally run Linux.
Seriously; go find the most anti-linux person you know and run “nmap -O” against their DSL router sometime..
To follow up on josvazg’s point, after all the basic questions have been answered, then is the time to point out that the OS is Linux. If the customer has never heard of it, there should be a quick explanation of how apps are downloaded from the internet, and that most of them are free–with no strings attached. It would be really helpful to have a demo ready to show how this works. I can’t imagine anyone expecting to use the Eee as a gaming machine or even a desktop replacement, so this should give most customers enough confidence to take on the little bit of a learning curve that will be necessary.
Later . . . Jim
Nobody in their right mind would buy a Eee to run Corel Draw, or Photoshop CS3, or Autocad, or the latest 3D games.
They’re buying it as an effective portable - internet, mostly.
Nobody questions whether their cell phone runs on Symbian or Microsoft Windows XP or some other OS - 99.9% of users buy a mobile for the features it offers, not the operating system. (I’m not talking about PDAs, and even then … good luck running Corel Draw on Windows Mobile.)
A relative of mine is seriously considering the Eee, and yesterday she mentioned the XP version was ‘only’ A$80 more. I asked her how she thought it would run once she’d installed the antivirus and antispyware required on the Windows version. Score one for Linux.
Yes, Nokia made that same with the N800/N810 Internet Table. The don’t mention Linux at all. People who buy the Nokia want a cool device with bright design to browse the Internet, they don’t care about whateverOS runs on it.
While I do believe some computer users will be disappointed to find that they can’t download so-and-so game or screen saver with this computer, most people just want their email, browser, and etc. to run reliably and not slow down the computer over time. As much as Windows users are paying to have their computers cleaned up by people like me, often on a regular basis, more and more of them are beginning to regard the computer as disposable! I have to convince them to reinstall, hah.
If they have any files or accounting programs installed on the computer, then sheesh, the price they end up paying for migrating them only adds to their pain. Many are learning to keep all of their files on a USB key because they see how unreliable their computers are. They have learned to do, via their difficulties with the computer, what we ourselves could not convince them to do with all of our pleadings.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention here my experiment with slipping a linux machine into a production environment, putting it into a sales office at a remote site. Slackware, HP printer, Adobe Acrobat Reader, and Firefox… and all they wanted to know is which icons to click to run Firefox and to edit documents and spreadsheets. They never even noticed the substitution, hah.
I also replaced MS Office on about 100 remote computers with Openoffice and got a total of about… 5 phone calls. I was shocked really. Anyway, the open source thing is quite doable, whether it be at home or in the office.
Hi:
My wife saw it on the costco e-mail she receives and the only thing appealed to her was the fact that it was pink.
My gut feeling is that people may not equate the Eee as a real laptop, but to some “other kind” of electronic device; like the iPod. Think about purchasing a leapfrog kiddie laptop, they would not think that it is a microprocessor running a specialized eeprom programming; because the educational games are “enough for children”.
The same kind of psychology might apply to the Eee.
Just a thought…
I believe you were right in your first assumption. The “average user” doesn’t know ANYTHING about ANY OS. They know familiar icons and the click. If you had a Word icon that opened writer they would probably use it and only wonder why the interface looks a little different today.
I believe we the geeks actually do over think the whole user experience thing. You have many users that would be completely lost if you have them Windows with all the desktop icons rearranged or the task bar at the top instead of the bottom. If you just let the users hop on and let them learn the icons most times they’ll be fine. For documents you may need to tell them about formats so that they can share with others but thats about it. The only people complaining about differences in Linux are the wannabe geeks that think they know something but are still just memorizing Windows icons. They are the ones that complain about installations because they don’t know about deb files etc. etc. The average user from what I have observed would be fine. They have to learn Vista so why not Linux.
I remember back in the last century that NCR took a similar position when selling their UNIX boxes. They were sold on hardware, communication, interoperability, management ease and software features and were a lot cheaper than an IBM solution and another could be added as needs grew.
They sold a lot of them, especially to bank branches, as like Linux can talk to a Windows database, they could talk to an IBM one.
The ASUS EEE software talks to cloud computing portals, especially those of Microsoft’s main competitor. I have their distro running on an old P3 256MB laptop with a wireless modem. It is quite adequate, except when my pre-teen grandchildren fight over whose turn it is.
This of course is the ASUS EEE market. Pre-teens and teenagers, who are used to communicating on a mobile phone, and want something a bit bigger they can pop into their small backpack, and watch video clips, and play music, and chat without straining their thumbs, and play online games or wireless network with each other, and maybe use Google docs to put together a school assignment.
Us old last century Linux geeks still have PS3’s to play with if we really want o show the teens what’s what.
Install a Compiz 3D desktop on your eee and people go aaa in awe!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biRzKj3XxCY
Ooh!
Dr No: The VAR Guy says yes to your video. Very, very cool. Thanks for the submission.
I tell people that it is a fantastic PDA. It will never break and it is almost impossible to change anything and that is why it won’t break. If you want to use it like a normal laptop, then I can re-install it for you, but first try it as is and see if you like it. So far, nobody asked me to re-install it.
I think the biggest problem of not mentioning GNU/Linux is that customers will automatically assume that they can run their existing Windows-only programs. While it is generally easy for someone in the know to recommend an alternative application for them, that conversation still needs to happen at the time of sale. Otherwise, only those who are Free Software advocates will buy (and keep) the machines.
That’s probably the main reason why Wal-Mart’s multiple attempts to sell low cost Linux-based systems have failed. The average retail customer doesn’t know anything about their OS, and so will never ask “will this run X program.” Since Wal-Mart doesn’t really have a dedicated sales staff for computers, no one volunteers this info, and so the customer buys it not knowing…and then brings it back.
I think the best “Linux marketing tip” is simply educating the consumer — but in ways that won’t scare them away…
Herman, is it really a PDA, though? Seems like more of a super-mobile computer.
I disagree with the author; this strategy is extremely dangerous.
In a competitive market, companies maintain & gain market share by brand differentiation. In competition it is vital that the brand image be preserved.
As Mr Lovasco noted, if users aren’t told that the budget device they’re buying won’t run any of the packaged software & games on sale even at the same retailer, they will soon perceive Linux as something “cheap & nasty”.
Imagine the bad press when a hard-up family scrapes together just enough for an Eee for their child’s education, only to find that the “100 great arcade games” CD doting grandma buys for said child’s birthday just won’t work. Yes, Think Of The Children.
Put simply, what The Var Guy is proposing will tarnish the Eee’s brand, and probably all of Linux by extension. Word-of-mouth and viral marketing works both ways.
Ganesh999, you have an interesting take on the situation. Perhaps The VAR Guy should slightly change his advice.
Instead of “Leading” with Linux in product marketing messages, consumer product makers should offer information about the product’s value.
Leading with info about Linux won’t educate a consumer. It will confuse them. Describe why the device will help the consumer, and then casually mention Linux somewhere in the descriptor.