Real Networks To Be 'Bitten On The Ass."

According to MacDailyNews, business analysts are continuing to revel in the idiocy of Real Networks' most recent attempts to resuscitate themselves. They agree that the company's attempts to mask their desperation by posing as "groovy liberators" and "freedom fighters" is unequivocally stupid and ill-advised. Real's efforts to piggyback Apple's success will lead to a brand war they have no ammunition for:

"'Real doesn't understand it's fighting a brand battle,' says Bradley Peacock, president of Chicago-based marketing consultancy Peacock Nine. RealNetworks, with its complicated downloads and annoying pop-ups, has never been adored, and it is going up against an aspirational brand that is. (That's why people wear the pocket-size device outside their clothing and use the distinctive white earphones even though other earbuds offer better sound quality.) 'Apple offers a superior product addressing genuine consumer wants and needs,' says Drew Neisser, president of New York-based Renegade Marketing. 'Real was never beloved by its users, only tolerated. Even by presenting itself as a bargain brand, it can't overcome its inherent limitations. A stinky cheese smells regardless of how little it costs,'" Thomas Mucha (of Business 2.0) writes. "Real is waging a grassroots battle where there is no grass... 'At the end of the day, starting a price war is going to bite RealNetworks on the ass,' Peacock predicts. 'Why would you want to Wal-Mart your brand?'"

Good luck, Real. Nothing makes me happier than seeing company after company underestimate Apple. The most resonant part of this report had to be MacDailyNews' concluding question: Will anyone really care if Real Networks ceases to exist? The answer is no.




For more on this story, visit MacDailyNews.