Combining CD-ROM with the Web

by Blake Yeaman, Catalyst Marketing Manager (blake.yeaman@sun.com)

A Unique Marketing Tool

When it comes to marketing products, most developers face this challenge: How to develop a compelling message, deliver it to a target audience, and keep the message current and visible without expending huge amounts of time and budget? The answer is by utilizing the latest advances in electronic information distribution and combining media types to achieve high visibility at low cost.

In recent years, many developers have found CD-ROM to be a viable distribution technology and promotion vehicle. CD- ROM is a cost-effective storage and distribution device. It is a stand- alone, interactive resource--a 650Mb self-contained collection of bits and BLOBs (Binary Large Objects) requiring no user hard disk space. Traditionally, access has been slow; but, today's multi-speed drives now produce respectable access speeds. However, the increasing interest in the World Wide Web as an alternative method of providing customers with information and products is challenging existing technologies and channels.

The Web is hot, and usage of this method of high-tech communication is rising. Why? Because it's so easy to use and to publish information. The Web represents a paradigm shift in the way technology facilitates communication and it offers an early sampling of the potential power of the information highway. Recent studies of major Solaris-related periodicals indicate that 56% of subscribers surf the Web.

The Best of Both Worlds

Because CD-ROM favors mature, stable products, it creates challenges for vendors promoting newly released products or existing products requiring immediate upgrade. Information distributed solely through CD-ROM can be dated by the time it reaches the user. The Web compensates for this inadequacy by allowing vendors to create a link to their most current product information. The Web alone, however, still has limitations. Although 56% of users are currently connected, 44% are not. That 44% represents a large market unreachable by the Web. CD-ROM, however, offers other significant advantages; it can house a more powerful viewing environment, for example, that combines search engines, graphics libraries and multimedia technology.

What happens when the two technologies combine? The result is a powerful marketing tool that offers the advantages of both technologies while compensating for each of their inherent weaknesses. Think of this new tool as a portable Web server on a disk. Linking the two technologies gives a potential customer direct and immediate access to the latest interactive demos or production information on the your World Wide Web site (home page). Updated text transfers quickly while the original graphics portion is pulled locally. A Web browser on CD-ROM is also an easy way to present technical documentation and reference materials. It obviates the need to spend time engineering an interface. Home page navigation is intuitive and authoring is quite common today.

Sun is in the unique position of having the largest CD-ROM-installed base of any major computer platform. This allows vendors to distribute their products to most Sun customers by CD-ROM. For those customers not yet connected to the Web, a Web-like CD-ROM offers the ease of a Web browser on a local environment.

Once a customer is actively connected to the Web, she can gain even more from the combination. Some say that everything put on a CD-ROM, a user can access on the Web. That's true if the user has time to download large presentations, uncompress and run them, and if the appropriate viewing or playing software is configured properly. Let's face it: the time a prospective customer spends searching and viewing information is finite. Therefore, it is extremely important to minimize the access and transfer times necessary for product review or evaluation, especially given the current variations in user bandwidth. Local access on a CD-ROM gives users faster access to information, leaving more time for the potential customer to evaluate the product. In addition, users can grab text updates almost instantly across the Web. So, the information they review is always up to date.

Coming in September: A Web Browsing CD-ROM

Catalyst developers can take advantage of several fully integrated marketing programs including Catalyst CDware, Catalyst InterLink and the Catalyst Catalog. These programs provide current, high quality information about products for the Solaris operating environment. In September 1995, Catalyst CDware will publish a disk that will combine the CD-ROM and Web technologies. Developers will be able to provide higher quality presentations for CDware, since the disk format will be in Sun's new HotJava(tm) Web browser that accepts and views HTML (HyperText Markup Language). Companies that have allocated resources for the creation and maintenance of World Wide Web home pages can place their home page directly on this Catalyst CDware CD-ROM. Web links keep the data current when connected to the Internet. HotJava will become available on multiple platforms; the Catalyst CD-ROM will play on all platforms supported by HotJava. However, while the HTML content is platform independent, the binaries still require the appropriate chip to run.

The deadline for inserting information on the December CD-ROM is the end of September. The May disks will include a PowerPC version; the deadline for participation is the end of January. To participate, call 1-800-2-CDware, 415- 849-3449, send e-mail to cdware@docuventure.com, or look on the Web at http://www.sun.com/ smi/Solutions.html.

For more information on HotJava, see Sun's home page at http://www.sun.com.