On Tuesday 23 December 2008 18:16:30 Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier wrote:
On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 10:10 AM, jdd <jdd@dodin.org> wrote:
the way ubuntu do: giving away demo cd (these people often can't read dvd) by mail free order.
We're working on distributing more demo DVDs, but free mail order as Ubuntu does it is very cost prohibitive. What I'd like to offer very soon is an inexpensive way to order the DVD or live CDs. More on that shortly, I hope.
My ideal would be a "Distributors/Retailers pack" a box with the manual and maybe 12 to 20 DVDs in sleeves that I could buy in the same way that the "Boxed set" is available now. These would be ideal for the small high street Computer Retailer. Each disk would have it's own key so that the client could register online post-install for a support package, for a price of course. Best Buy and Amazon rarely establish markets, they tend to follow trends. Trends are established by bricks and Mortar operations because they are face to face with the clients. Build slow from grassroots. I agree with the Novell guys, there is no point pushing with volume retailers until there is a volume market. Until then make it easy for small retailers and OEMs to get, distribute and make a profit from the DVDs/Installs. Perhaps the Marketing team needs to come up with a booklet that demonstrates how small retailers can make make a buck from OpenSuSE. I've done the Novell Sales Professional course. Maybe something along those lines aimed at this market. Make no mistake, many small retailers are unsure about OpenSource because they can't see how to make a buck out of it, think about it, the most well known Linux Distro will send you a CD for free, they're not sure how to compete with that. What's our added value proposition then? We make the effort to educate them about why their customers will be willing to pay and thence how to make a profit and we put in place systems that support that, that's our added value.
Best,
Zonker -- Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier openSUSE Community Manager jzb@zonker.net http://zonker.opensuse.org/ http://blogs.zdnet.com/community/
Cheers GL -- Graham Lauder, OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html INGOTs Assessor Trainer (International Grades in Office Technologies) www.theingots.org OOoGear: For the Well dressed OOo Advocate http://ooogear.co.nz -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org