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Netbook or notebook? No answer because it’s the wrong question

Market segmentation by demography, by population, by purchasing power, by usage, by geography – marketers have used all these to plot product targeting.

But segmentation by product features alone?

That is what several well-regarded bloggers were doing when the Sony Vaio P was launched at CES in January.

Was the Sony Vaio P a netbook or a notebook? After all, it was ridiculously small, light and portable. That made it a netbook. But it was expensive, had a high-resolution screen and ran Windows Vista effortlessly. That made it a notebook. No consensus.

Then some among the tech punditry had a brainwave and realised they had been asking the wrong question. So they sparked another round of heated discussion “What makes the netbook a netbook?” Size? Cost? Operating System? 3G connectivity? Optical Drive? Again, no consensus.

The real question that the real buyers in the real world are asking is “Is the Vaio P the machine that *I* want?” They don’t care a battery’s cell if it’s a netbook or a notebook.

If you think you’re a tech pundit, find who those buyers are. Find what makes them collectively tick. Find why they want what they want.

That’s real market segmentation. And real insight.


February 2, 2009 ·  Post to Twitter ·  Email this ·  Insights, Marketing, Netbook ·  Leave a Comment


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