Big, Fancy Computers: Extravagance or High End Sales Tool?
Earlier this month HP announced the HP TouchSmart IQ800. At this time HP is marketing the large monitor, touch screen computer as something for the home. However, I think for some business industries and locations the IQ800 could be an awesome sales tool.
Imagine having a 25" computer monitor in your office or in your conference room and instead of giving the usual Power Point presentation, being able to point and click with your finger through a more interactive and visually stimulating presentation of your products.
Imagine being able to call up video, audio, flash and other multi-media aspects of your sales pitch or demonstration. Substance is more important in a presentation, but HOW you deliver the presentation is also very important. At around $2,000 this computer is not much more than a high end computer. To win more sales, especially in a slow economy, this is not an extravagant purchase.
At the Web 2.0 conference in NY last week, I saw for the first time Microsoft's Surface computer.
It's a different device than HP's TouchSmart and well worth looking at. The Surface is a full fledged computer whose power shines when its programed to how you want to use it. There are cameras and sensors on the water and dirt resistant surface, which enable you to use it in a classroom, restaurant, hotel or other location. The example I saw was politics, which MSNBC is actually using it for. There was a map of the US on the Surface's screen and using little disks (pre-programmed) one could have the map display projected election results. One could touch different parts of the map as well and on the fly program the little disks with new information. At over $10,000 Surface is not "cheap" but if you want to wow your clients or boost your impression index it's definitely worth considering.
