Everyone therefore asks for PCs with only INTC inside.
There is some evidence of people asking for AMD recently, because of higher performance. I am not sure how much evidence there is of this marketing program being successful in terms of it actually making a difference to the buyer.
But, even if it were successful at some level, the two companies are not really in comparable positions at this stage. INTC is in the position of dominating its market and wanting to scare off the consumer from buying an imitation. In total handset count, QCOM is still a minority player and so would have to couple that QCOM Inside sticker with a marketing message that CDMA was superior. One might have some hope of that if one could commonly get CDMA or TDMA from the same carrier, but I think it is a real long shot whether one could get that across in the midst of all the muddle of rate plans, service options, coverage, freebies, etc. that go into selecting cellular service. When this translates into "I can only get this service if I go with this carrier", then you have something the consumer is likely to understand.
Besides, even if it were possible to get the CDMA message across to the consumer, given that QCOMs direct market is the carriers and handset manufacturers, I would much rather assess the strength and quality of their marketing program by how they are doing with that direct market.
If there is something to criticize in QCOM's marketing, I would first point the finger at their inability to effectively squash the recent FUD in the press. |
