Zentral Launch the Zentral Home

Zentral Launch

The Zentral Home Command Smart-Phone Remote System: Initial Product Launch Questions

The launch of any product requires the careful consideration of several points before specific launch strategies and activities can be chosen and implemented. With the current rate of technological progress and innovation, product launches are even more essential in determining the success or failure of a given product; mistakes in the population the product is marketed to or the design and approach of advertising can destroy a product that might otherwise have done well, creating ongoing problems for the brand and allowing for competitor's entrance into the market even with secondary innovations. Understanding the true nature of the product and the population to whom the product will be most beneficial (and by whom it will be desired) is essential for a successful product launch.

The launch of the Zentral Home Command Smart-Phone Remote system is no different in this regard. This product does not actually allow the consumer to do anything new, but rather is an attempt to replace older technologies -- several different devices, in fact -- with a streamlined alternative that allows smart-phone users to operate radio-receiving remote devices using their phones (Michaluk 2010). The Home Command System can, with the purchase of all of its available components, control standard a/V equipment such as televisions, media players, and stereos; iPod and other mp3 player docking systems; and can serve as an alternative garage door opener (RedOrbit 2010). As a replacement technology for what are essentially low-performance devices, the Zentral Remote system launch must demonstrate the increased ease of use the product will provide over the existing alternatives.

The Zentral Home Command Remote system is also meant to be a long-term accessory to the daily life of its consumers, and could potentially become a ubiquitous technology as smart-phone sales rise and the devices become familiar to more and more consumers (Michaluk 2010). There would be no successful launch of this product possible if it were meant only as a short-term solution to situations that already have existing (and cheap) long-term solutions -- i.e. The traditional remote controls that can be used to control television and other home entertainment equipment or open and close a garage door from one's car. The hope behind the product launch is that the technology and the product will be successful enough that it becomes the next "necessary" element of the technology age, streamlining the number of devices owned by expanding the capabilities of a single user-interfaced device (i.e. The smart-phone itself) (RedOrbit 2010).

The question of demand for this product is somewhat more complex than the preceding two issues. As a replacement technology, the Zentral Home Command Remote system is competing for market share insofar as the market is defined through the functionality of the product, but as the Zentral system is the first product of its kind to be made widely available to the public it is also essentially creating its own demand in an entirely untapped market (Michaluk 2010). It would be incorrect, that is, to assert that the Zentral Remote system was in direct competition with traditional remote control manufacturers, but it would be equally shortsighted to assume that the product had no competition whatsoever. The competition comes in terms of convincing consumers to change entire technologies, and is not traditional competition.