Just who is Palm targeting with the Pixi? 72
Fri, 11 Sep 2009 6:38 pm EDT
[ youtube link ]
Palm says that they intend to open up the smartphone market to new demographics. That wasn’t particularly accomplished with the Pre, which a survey of our readers indicated at about 80% of purchasers had previously owned a smartphone of some variety. Of course, our readership is somewhat skewed, but it still shows that the Pre appealed very much to current smartphone owners and not so much to those who were still living in the dumbphone era. And then there were those commercials; frankly it was hard to decipher who Palm’s target audience for the Pre was.
It would seem that Palm is making an effort to set a defined target audience for the Pixi. Above you’ll find a Pixi introduction video that Palm has posted on their website (click Meet Palm Pixi on the right), narrated by a young woman who tells us to “enjoy the conversation.” While the video's background spends most of the video masked by blurriness, it’s perfectly clear at the beginning, and what we see is a boutique clothing shop. The narrator goes on to talk about what’s important to you (your friends, plans, and conversations) and that the Pixi will let you “express yourself, personally, in ways that you choose.”
Palm is also launching the Pixi during the New York City Fashion Week. Since most of you, like me, probably have no idea what that means, I’m going to point you to Wikipedia: “A fashion week is a fashion industry event, lasting approximately one week, which allows fashion designers or "houses" to display their latest collections in runway shows and buyers to take a look at the latest trends. Most importantly, it lets the industry know what's "in" and what's "out" for the season.”
While a smartphone usually isn’t a really stylish item, at least in the vein of fashion week, Palm’s taken the notable step of unveiling several “Artist Series” backs for the Pixi. The colorful Touchstone-compatible backs wrap around to the front edge of the phone and distinctly change the character of the device. The five limited edition backs revealed were designed by California artists Col Grest, Michelle White, Jeremy Fish, Sheri Bordell, and Melissa Hutton, with more set to come.
The 'Two Fish' Artists Series Pixi back, by Michelle White
A young female narrator, discussion of enjoying the conversation, a Fashion Week launch, and special Artist Series backs. Who might Palm be targeting the Pixi at here? It seems pretty evident that Palm is making a play for the coveted young female demographic, particularly those between 18 and 24 years old, and women that want to pretend they’re that young.
But that may not be the only market Palm is setting sights on. PreCentral reader Mohit let us in on something he noticed on Palm’s website, which was revamped to showcase the Pixi. As with the Pre, the in-focus background loads first and is then blurred before the phone is placed up front. Mohit saw that the background was a place he knew: the Valley Life Sciences Building at UC Berkeley. With the Pixi’s expected low price point ($99 on contract) and Sprint’s low monthly costs, along with some very important features for college students - notably among them Facebook integration - the Pixi may be well positioned to make a drive into the student market.
The Valley Life Sciences Building at UC Berkley
College-aged students are an important demographic for any industry, as it’s at this age that most companies have a last chance to gain lifetime brand perception and loyalty. If Palm can make significant inroads in the college student market they can stand to gain customers for life. But they have a significant competitor in this demographic: the hugely popular Apple iPhone.
The US Census Bureau estimates that 18.4 million will attend US colleges and universities this year, and according to a survey by AdMobs and comScore’s June 2009 survey, 26% of iPhone users live in the 18-24 age bracket. That’s about 5 million iPhones in the college age demographic (based on iPhone sales numbers of over 20 million), meaning that close to a third of college students already own an iPhone. It’s a tough market and Palm’s going to have to put forth a strong and comprehensive marketing effort to capture a significant portion of the remaining 13 million college students (we can pretty much write off any mass defections from the iPhone).
So, fashionable young women and college students; it seems that Palm intends to market the Pixi towards a much younger demographic than that the one that took notice of the Pre (yes, I know some of us fall into the younger demographic, myself included). So the question is, what does Palm have to do to actually capture those potential lifetime customers?
72 Comments
That's pretty clearly the target market. The question is whether those segments wouldn't be better served by the slightly more expensive Pre? Palm has never been very good at properly segmenting their products, and this is no exception.
What's more interesting to me is that the Sprint logo is missing from the Pixi in this video. Maybe other carriers are going to be onboard sooner than we thought?
Inspector Gadget: It's not just a girl's store. Men's shoes to the right of the screen, Women's shoes on the left. Just pause the video at 2 seconds in. And stacks of t-shirts on both ends. This isn't some high class place.
they are gonna target the same audience as the centro
Not a big surprise, right?
Their targeting the same market as the Centro did. After all, its replacing the Centro.
Palm said they were going after the fat middle with the Pre and they (not us) defined that as the smartphone market with RIM and Apple on opposite ends. Of course, other times, they sounded like they had no idea who would buy the Pre.
What ended up happening is the media and everyone else compared the Pre to the iphone. RIM has hardly been mentioned.
This Pixi isn't a RIM killer for sure. It's not an iphone competitor. It doesn't even aim for the mysterious fat middle of that. Pretty obvious Palm is going for dumbphone users and will have to create a spot on that smartphone market line segment.
Still, the challenge they face is that these users are happy with their cheap text phones on their cheaper nondata plans. If they eye moving up to a data plan, they got iphones in mind.
Centro's sold like crazy. But they didn't require huge data plans (remember SERO). And it still bears repeating that Centros were actually an evolution of the Treo line..a faster, better designed compact Treo.
This is far from a homerun. Palm was better off focusing on a BB killer since the Pre targets the consumer end of the smartphone users. But perhaps the best move would have been nothing right now as they concentrate on WebOS and launch the Pre on other carriers. Move the 8gb Pre to 99 to sell. Introduce the 16gb as its 199 phone.
They aren't targeting me. I love my Pre, but I have come to accept its mediocre product name. I'd have a *really* hard time telling people I owned a device called a Pixi.
Rrob13, you took the words right out of my mouth
ditto. I'd add, why was it necessary, in order to target the young female market, to out right exclude the male market? Couldn't they have figured out a way to hit both markets at the same time? I mean, it isn't as if their coffers are full of cash and can afford to ignore a large population with lots of discretionary cash.
yeah, I'm sure there are TONS of men out there who won't buy it simply because of the name alone. Which is too bad, because I think a lot of people might prefer this form factor.
Seems to me that maybe Palm's main focus is to concentrate on fine tuning its platform seeing as they are limited in resources (david vs goliath)...and just want to deliver a fairly decent economic phone that can grab a good piece of market that have still yet to switch over as technology flies by and gain more revenue to finally hit a home run with a more experienced platform and much more resources...baby steps! Either way in the meantime I'm lovin my pre and can see why many will love the Pixi too!
I don't have a Pre yet, and would love to have a 16 gig Pre. Would be nice if they added an SD slot, video recording and text message forwarding to name a few improvements. I don't even care if the made it 0.5 cm to 1 cm larger than the 8 gig Pre to accomadate an extended battery. This would be an ideal Pre version 1.1. I would gladly pay the $200.00 after rebate for that.
Just dreaming I guess, lol
JamRock, you hit the nail on the head. A bit bigger to give us more battery life, more than worth it, fit better on my palm as well, and yes on all those basic necessities, except for the higher memory, but then again, should the Pre aspire to be just average? Can it afford to be below average without these basics; yes, even though it gave us WebOS.
I'm as excited about the Pixi as much as the next palm loyal, but it would seem that precentral has lost its focus. I'm an obsessive reader who is always chomping at the bit for pr
We may be called PreCentral, but our focus is going to have to expand as Palm's webOS phone line-up expands. Just as TreoCentral covered the Centro, we're going to cover other webOS phones, whether or not they're named "Pre."
That, and there's not a lot of Pre news right now. ;-)
It's really too bad that Handango has palmcentral.com set to redirect to its site automatically...
Your points are well taken. In fact, now that I think about it, Pixie news are indirectly important to the PRE in that it let us know what Palm is doing, thinking, that is, improving or degrading, and that will affect the Pre's future. But, there is such thing as the right amount of Pixie information on a PRE website, and too much information.
I was watching Access Hollywood tonight at the Chinese Restaurant, and one of the segments was sponsored by the Palm Pixi. So, there you have it.
""and what we see is a boutique clothing shop. The narrator goes on to talk about what
1) I do not know a man (I am sure there are some) who would carry around a phone named Pixi or any varient thereof.
2) I do not in any way see the Life Sciences building of UC Berkeley in the ad, not in the first 2 seconds, not anywhere. Maybe it is just me.
It is the website background, not in the ad.
Took me a while to figure it out too, but it seems to be it.
So I guess Palm is going after the female market only.
Why on earth would they name the phone 'Pixie' and think they were going to be able to see this phone to a male audience?
Who in marketing approved this name for the phone?
It looks like a totally nice phone and I might like it myself if it weren't for the small screen. I still think the Pre has a small screen for my taste.
But that name, why don't they just shoot themselves in the foot.
I guess that is why the day they announced the Pixie their stock shares went down.
They better figure out a way to have this phone renamed and fast, otherwise it will only sell to a very very small audience.
Rob
right on. Although I would say it isn't such a small market relatively speaking, and I don't think the size is as important as the ability of this particular demographic to spend cash (whether they earn it, or manipulate their parents into spending it). Still, the point is why exclude a perfectly good young male market? They need all the markets they can muster. Unless some obscure marketing research told them that excluding "maleness" in the product would boost female sales higher than a product attracting both markets? (I'm stretching here, I don't know otherwise).
rlanza1054, I think Palm is on to something. Think about it, almost anywhere you go women and young girls out number men by an average of 4 to 1. There are more women in colleges and the medical field than there are males. If they could get and hold onto some of the women in the medical field with the Pixi, and the males with the Pre it would be a win-win. For example I'm in a house with 3 women (my wife and 2 daughters. My two daughters want the Pixi and my wife the HTC TP2, only because of the larger keyboard. If the pre had a slide out keyboard as the TP2 she said she would definitely get the Pre. So there you go, when its time for me to renew my daughters phones palm has 2 more customers besides myself. Palm might have something with the Pixi. Notice they dropped the "E" from the name.
I think you're missing the point, unless you're saying that your daughters want this phone *because* of the name.
And...4 to 1 almost anywhere you go? I'm pretty sure that there is close-ish to a 50/50 distribution of men & women in the world.
I am going to buy my 2 oldest daughters a Palm Pixie once it is realeased. I think that palm is onto something by targeting the younger generation. Especially women since they are generally more into the social networks and txting. My daughters love the Pre but I think it is too much phone for them now so I will wait for the Pixie. Both of them have seen it and can't wait to get their hands on it. Keep bring it Palm! :)
Exactly! My two cousins and younger sister love my pre but they say it looks to business like. I told them about palm pixie and they can't wait until it comes out. Good job palm!
When the time to upgrade came, I told my wife she could get a Pre like I did. She said she didn't want it and went with a BB instead. I just showed her the Pixi and she wants to get it when it comes out, even if it's too soon to upgrade. So, yeah, definitely targeted to females.
Gee, I thought it was PreCentral member grappler who first nailed it as Berkeley in the pic, but PreCentral member grappler is too lazy to search and figure it out. :)
Are these stereo speaker I saw in the video?!! That would be awesome. I listen to my Pre's speaker a lot and would love to have music in stereo!
What about that thing above the volume buttons, looks like a infrared connection? I assume Bluetooth is built in, so what do we need Infrared Connections for?
Anyone?
Hey good attention to detail there! I think its fair to say that those are stereo speakers by all appearances and the other also resembles an infrared port.
I don't think it's an IR port, although that might have been a good idea. I think I remember in one of the videos that it's either the ringer switch, or maybe the power... I remember thinking, "Oh, they moved it off of the top..."
What if, and mind you, this is pure outlandish conjecture on my part...the Pixi is a female version. And that third phone listed in Sprint's database, the C40 or whatever it was listed as, is the male version targeting the same type of demographic age-wise complete with its own distinctive back plates?
Unlikely! Too little resources!
Well then, what's the C40? My possible solution is elegant and not requiring major resources for the male difference. A different name with some male-desired tweaks of the software, same basic profile, and voila!
Question is...what do boys like? :D The Palm Cexi? LOL
Good one.
females/youth obviously, whats with the girls lisp, where is palm finding all of their marketing people?
Has anyone realized that Palm very subtly announced that the Pixi will have "video recording" capabilities? If you check their web site for the Pixi and check the picts under "combined messaging", look at the last "conversation thread" image, and you'll notice the person is sending an video (of a live performance) via instant messaging during a real-time conversation thread. Makes you wonder if the webOS 1.2 update will finally have this capability?
If you think about it
Too hard to tell. It could be a still shot or it could be a video. I've heard nothing coming from Palm so I'm going to assume it's just an MMS. Video would be awesome though. With video my daughters would go nuts with this phone and drive me crazy.
This marketing campaign speaks directly to my soul as woman. It encompasses most of the themes appeal to my feminine nature: fashion, thinness, shopping, clothes, endless conversations, limited processor power, showing up late and multiple partners.
I do think it is targeted towards women/younger users. Not to be sexist but men tend to be more into "specs" and will likely continue to prefer the more powerful pre. That said I think this will actually sell really well. While people will still want their iPhones the truth is that sprint plans are far, far cheaper. My total sprint bill for 2 pres (with tax, phone insurance, etc.) is only $145 per month. ATT w/ an iPhone would be nowhere close (closer to 190-200 once you add in fees and text service).
WIth a family plan a pixi will only cost an extra $20 a month to add to a line (30 once you add in the fees). That is a ton better than the $40 ($50) with fees that an iPhone would entail (plus that doesn't include texting). If I had teenage/college-aged children I'd have no problem giving them all pixi's (they will likely be calling only their friend's cellphones and thus will use no minutes under sprint). So I think these will actually do quite well.
In fact I am half debating getting one for my younger sister (and adding her to my plan) as a christmas gift. She's too cheap to get herself a cell phone (she has a pre-paid one for emergencies) and I feel that her lack of one really hurts her socially. She's also a bit of a klutz and would likely not want a Pre due to its perception of "fragility" (I abuse mine, carry it lose in my pocket, and it's still spotless).
You could save more with sprint if you mention the additional 10% off the total bill per month. I've been getting an extra 10% off for about 3 years now and just recently I noticed my bill was higher by 10% and I called and the reinstated it for another 2 years. So ask them next time you call them. Every little bit helps.
that is with a 15% off discount. The taxes and fees are just high where I am.
I assumed the Pixi is aimed at a younger market (i.e. teens and 20-somethings). But, the funny thing is, I showed it to my 14 yr old daughter and she was not impressed. Said "I'd rather have a Pre". Shows what I know 8^).
I think the pixie is a great product and from my experiance with different OS cooking roms on various platforms including BB I believe this is targeted towards the BB. If you look at the design and functions alone their trying to pit it against a BB and in my opinion they ll suceed. BB like the Iphone OS are maxed out BB has had the same phone nothing revolutionary for the last 4 years the same type of phone only changing the casing the same OS the same MHZ the same resolution if you have a pixie that can have the same functions as a BB then add a web os superior processer and new revolutionary OS with the cards and such this easily beats out a BB and even a iphone in my opinion people are stuck on Iphone and will be for a while but the fact is the iphone OS is maxed out apple will have to make a completely new phone to compete next year and by that time their contract with apple will have expired and will be on verizon as well taking at&t out of the 2nd spot and sliding sprint there watch and see with sprints new plans and better plans then the comp better and all the latest phones and service and network also will have the first 4g network sprints looking to pass at&t and challenge verizon for the top spot in a few years. Good job Palm on the pre, pixie, and web os good job sprint.
My wife loves her Centro: so much so that I just ordered her 2nd one, which she received today. Even I have to admit that the berry color is beautiful.
When she saw the Pixi (stupid misspelled names!), she said, "Oooo, I want one of those." When I told her that it had the same O.S. as me pre and had a slower processor and no wifi she said, "Never mind. Just get me the new Centro, and I'll wait until the Pre actually works right...and comes in pink!"
Show her that pretty pink back cover that is compatible with the touchstone and she just may come to the light :)
with the name "Pixi" they sure as crap weren't targeting the heterosexual male population. it's a cool phone, i love my Pre and have no desire to switch, but if i did get the Pixi i'd just call it by whatever it's designation is (ie the Pre is the p100) haha.
that chick sounds like a rocket-hot valley girl... you can tell when she says "whatever". it just oozes forth as a sure giveaway, like when our great northern neighbors try to say "out". ;-)
they are targeting the exact crowd that purchased the centro. I see it to be in the same family as the centro was from the treo. And since i heard from Sprint yesterday it will be available by November and will definitely be priced at $99 after rebates just like the centro was when released.
Since PreCentral has reported they named it the Pixi I have been complaining. What are they thinking? I couldn't imagine even telling the Sprint Rep. "I want to buy the Pixi..." What is this the Disney Phone? Is integrated DMail support next?
So the the female market might like the simpler, yet more customizable form factor, lower price, and not mind the lack of WiFi etc...
I don't really care for all that "Pixi-ness". I'm just anticipating the enhancements to my "Pre-ness". =D Bring me 1.2 (w/ the notifier light code uncommented out) and then roll out the video, text forwarding, and voice commands, thx.
I just wish they would worry about bringing the PRE up to smartphone standards before releasing another one - The pre is really so basic and primitive, I cant imagine a "lesser" phone might actually work better than the PRE
YES!!!!
My 14th year old son's phone (Rant) and all of his friends have video, text forwarding, ringtones galore notification, colors, wifi, keyboard, on and on, and I got it for FREE with Sprint. Where is Palm's head?
Derek, I think your assumption that all iPhone users in the 18-24 year old age range attend college is flawed. It's not an unreasonably assumption, but it is untrue nonetheless. However, I certainly think that your argument still stands just fine!
As to the male market demographics for the Pixi...
Webster's first definition: "Pixi" means "fairy". The second is "young women or girl."
Imagine the scene in a bar, frat, high school, skate park, concert, or any other place 18-24 year old males might be:
Guy 1: "What kind of phone is that?"
Guy 2: "I got a Pixi!"
Guy 1: "What does Pixi mean?"
Guy 2: "Fairy!"
What happens next to Palm's male demographic?
Fellow straight males, you are looking at the "Pixi" the wrong way. This is how milo's conversation should go:
Guy 1: "What kind of phone is that?"
Guy 2: "I got a Pixi!"
Guy 1: "What does Pixi mean?"
Guy 2: "It means Tinkerbell is in my front pocket a few inches from my... *ahem*... at all times."
Laugh, high-five, and move on. Certainly the Pre is going to be more attractive the the male demographic, but if you are stuck with the choice of getting a dumbphone with a cool name, or a smartphone with an "effeminate" name for the same price, the jock/nerd/average joe is going to deal with the name.
Nope, average joe simply won't buy it because it needs a premium plan to go with it and it lacks too much. May as well get a Pre, iphone, Hero, etc. Or stick to the dumbphone with cheap plan.
my reply would be, "I've got the new Palm p120"
or whatever it's designation is going to be.
the boutique clothing shop is huf in san francisco...great place to get rare nikes...i go there all the time hahaha
I agree with most of what's already been mentioned here. The Pixi seems to be an unabashedly "chick phone".
1) Effeminate name
2) Promoted at a fashion show.
3) 4 out of 5 of the "Artist" backplates are feminine-looking.
This next thing is going to sound kind of sexist, perhaps, but the other big tipoff is that the intro video for the Pixi is essentially content-free. It talks vaguely about letting you "communicate on your terms" with your friends. Instead of "multi-task", the girl says "do more than one thing at a time". There's not even an allusion to Synergy.
Apparently, the people Palm wants to appeal to are either going to have to save up their allowances or work a lot of hours at the GAP to afford it.
if they want women make a keyboardless phone in the form factor of and iphone as well cause i pretty much see women with either blackberrys or iphones. So get your ass in gear with the virtual keyboard which should have been sorted already.
and release that phone on Verizon to get the OS into many more hands.
I wouldn't rock this phone if it was given to me for free. Just cause I'd have to tell people "Well I have a pixi, oh my just look at that ! A cute little pixi in my pocket, someone get me my eyeliner !"
Which is pretty sad cause I really dig the whole slate pre, even if the screen is a little small.
I am the only one who couldn't get past the fact that the rendering was pretty bad?
Anyone who wouldn't buy a phone simply because of the model name is a bit petty and childish. Besides I think most people would understand that something called "Pixi" would be something that is small, which the Pixi is.
Who? With a name like "Pixi" I think hope they're targeting girls from 12 to 22. Because I can't imagine any male, or any woman over that age, buying something with a name like that.
Are they going to do a marketing tie-in with Disney? Maybe have Tinker Bell doing adds for it? And include a little vial of fairy dust in the box?
Gimme a break Palm.
I have a solution...
If you're a guy, and you're embarrassed to tell someone that your phone is named pixi, just show it to them upsidedown real quick and tell them it's an "I-xid." ;)
this may be old news but saw this article from Friday Newsweek mag about the Pixi. Not too flattering
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/techtonicshifts/archive/2009/09/11/regard...
I think Lyons may be about 10% accurate. He dings the Pixi for being too small (which I guess you could say about the screen, even if the reviews seem to say the keyboard is easier to type on than the Pre), but most of his points against Palm sound like Apple fanboy drivel.
1) He starts with the premise that the Pre needed to "blow the iPhone away", but never, in any way, supports that premise. RIM does just fine without blowing the iPhone away.
2) He alludes to McNamee, without acknowledging that Palm repudiated McNamee's iPhone smack talk.
3) Lyons' beloved Apple actually got panned for its announced iPod line-up.
4) Because of this, Palm actually did draw attention away from Apple. Simply put, a new WebOS phone (because it's only the second one in a first-generation OS) is a bigger deal than an iPod line that seems to refresh about every 6 months or so.
5) He seems to base his argument about the Pre's sales on one analyst's opnion. And when Lyons does this, he conveniently omits the part of the article that actually has to do with Palm and the Pre:
The reduced estimates, Eller contends, is less a failure on the part of Palm as
Palm is clearly targeting the messaging market, the equivalent of windows mobile standard. The important features are sms, email, facebook, twitter, etc. Web browsing for more than a few minutes at time is not important for the demographic. Multimedia is not important either, they want instantly available messaging in shape or form at their fingertips, and webos is a very useful platform to deliver it. Is this demographic mostly young and female? I don't know, but I'm sure Palm has studied it.
This is not about a population demographic, but rather a user demographic, and there are plenty of "messaging" phone users, who want simple, but rich, somewhere in between your average pimped-up dumb phone, and a full smart phone. Will Palm isolate them, and market it to them properly? If palm previous advertising campaign is any indicator, the answer is clearly no. But this phone is definitely aimed at a very large, and reachable user group.
my mom immediately asked me about this phone when she saw it.
it was almost like she didnt see any other posters or pictures of any other sprint phone when she was shopping. she just wants the pixi.
"that the Pixi will let you