Every Company Needs a Good Map

Imagine getting someone as visible as Walter Mossberg (link is to his All Things Digital blog - that has a copy of his Wall Street Journal article published today 8/9/2007), as high profile as Engadget and Gizmodo to boot? If you are in the technology business, you recognize how important each of these sites or individuals is.

The marketing department and everyone else who worked on the Zonbu must be very proud. They did a great job of getting their name out there. Very few products ever see as much press.  Anyone who has tried to launch a new product knows how difficult it is to get media attention. Having started, or helped to start a few companies I know how hard it is. With my book, I worked very hard to get the attention of thought leaders - to no avail.

I was very anxious to see how these high-profile outlets reviewed the product...

Imagine the excitement when you see that your product will be reviewed. I think of the scene in the Tom Hank's movie, "That Thing You Do" when the Liv Tyler and the band members first hear their song on the radio. No one faults them for their enthusiasm and exuberance. For the "Oneders" it was a great moment. I'm certain the Zonbu team was anxious to see what Mossberg had to say.

Now imagine how they felt when they read the title: "A $99 Desktop Comes With Software, Backup and Too Many Catches" Add to that his numerous critical comments and you know they were probably not sure they made the right move in getting his review. Perhaps he could have just sent them a letter explaining why he did not like their baby and leave it at that. As the old saying goes," A sword cuts both ways."

The reviews on Engadget, Gizmodo, and other sites were no less critical but perhaps a bit more positive overall. Then again, they are talking to an audience that is a bit more technically savvy. The average Geek can build a similar device and could even use network storage on another machine to meet the zero moving parts claim. Here in my office there is a 12-year-old Dell Dimension XPS Pro200n desktop computer that was converted to Linux and serves as a backup storage and file server. It works well as a simple web browser for quick searches. It has to be rebooted every other day when the drive search hangs - not sure why but it is not a big bother to restart.)

One issue I see with this company is the name. As I have said before, a good name has tremendous value. Having a name that is easy to confuse or remember incorrectly is a big problem. Based on the comments the original TechCrunch post had the name on the link spelled incorrectly. If you are going to be creative, then try to have a name people can easily remember.

Zonbu, Zonbo, Zonobo, Zobobu, Zonobu, Zulubo... Is it too close to Bozo?

If you want to keep track of Zonbu, the computer and the company, you may want to visit: Real Life With the Zonbu Mini-PC where the self-proclaimed "Mr. Zonbu" keeps up (at least for now) to date on everything to do with the power saving little Linux machine.

On the other hand, the news may not be all bad. Zonbu has a great story - an environmentally friendly computer. It uses, without a monitor or other external devices 11 watts/hr. It does not depend on Microsoft software. Ii is relatively free of viruses and spyware issues, but that may change as Linux grows in popularity. It has one feature I really like - it is quiet. Even if it is not well received at first, and who trusts a review that does not have negative comments in it, it still has gotten more attention than 99.9% of the new technology efforts out there. They know what needs to be improved and they can build an even better story around meeting the customer needs.

It may seem like it is raining today, but it may be that the situation is really just watering the seeds for tomorrows flowers.

What's your take on Zonbu's media situation?