Day: March 25, 2003

Tue, 25 Mar 2003 12:01:42 GMT

The passing of a history maker…..   

The high-tech PR business was built around the innovation and intelligence of a small number of early entrepreneurs. 

Adam Osborne, the creator of the world’s first affordable “laptop” in 1981, was one of those people.

His company, Osborne Computer Corporation, although a huge success at the time, selling over 100,000 computers in one year, fell foul of a common practice amongst technology vendors today. They pre-announced a successor to their hot selling product, the Osborne 1, it was delayed, and sales collapsed.  The result was bankruptcy.

Although out of the industry limelight for the past decade, Osborne left a rich legacy. 

He died in his sleep last Tuesday in India. 

RELATED LINK: “A computer in every hand” – Salon

Tue, 25 Mar 2003 09:37:17 GMT

The changing face of Tech PR…..  

Ketchum’s newsletter this month has an interesting interview with PR Week‘s Andrew Gordon, looking at how Tech PR is fairing in the downturn.

“What I hear most frequently is that clients aren�t as concerned about what publications they appear in but what publications their competitors appear in. �Why aren�t we there?� is still the main question. There�s still some egotism involved.”

Looks like some things never change (in any industry!)

They also have an interesting piece written by Mark Jackson on Technology PR in the UK.  Mark is a former colleague [FLASH and pop-up warning!] of mine from the dim and distant past – you know when Windows 95 was really exciting! Of course that was before he was doing testimonials for software companies.

Aside: Someone passed Ragan’s fine feature on “blogging and PR” to me the other day and I noticed I was  listed as a “British PR Pro”, while I take no offence at the “PR Pro” reference, I must protest my innocence of British nationality!