By Liza Horan, Editor

New York—The news that Prince has "new, innovative technology" for racquets sounds like old news because it is—you've heard it before. Twice last century—in 1976 and in 1995—the company broke the rules by introducing the oversized racquet and the longbody, respectively. And this century Prince debuted the O³ series, which is creating its own history: 100 touring pros have won 150 tournaments since the O³ launched in 2005.

Regular people use O³ racquets, too, which may be why Prince is a whisper away from market leader Wilson. It will be interesting to see if the four points that separate them get winnowed by the newest stick, the Speedport O³. This racquet is differentiated from the other O³ products because it's string holes are rectangular and sculpted like the air intakes on sports cars and jets.

The official announcement of the new aerodynamic racquet—which is designed to increase racquet speed up to 24% so players can "hit their best shots more often"—came last week [Click here for press release]. And while the first model of three doesn't ship 'til January, the racquet's performance seems to have wowed the Prince team already by breaking a record: 50% of play-testers said they would switch to this racquet. That's three times the usual conversion rate for Prince play-testers, according to Dave Holland, who heads Prince's Racquet Product Team.

The tagline you'll see in the full-on campaign, led by communications and sports marketing chief Linda Glassel, focuses on speed. That message will get out through national and regional tennis publications, tournament programs; online ads on thetennischannel.com, tennisone.com, tennis.com, tennisrecruiting.net; and on the air through an integrated package on The Tennis Channel. And, a national tour over February, March and April will put the racquet in players' hands in hopes of converting them to the Speedport O³.

The Speedport O³ won't do anything for your footspeed, but it could make up some valuable time for slow pokes.

Preview the Speedport O³ tomorrow, Dec. 1, when teaser appears at PrinceTennis.com. The preview harkens back to the original Apple TV commercial that was designed to pique curiosity and not showcase the actual product.

Besides building innovation, Prince seems to be building anticipation.

Final thought: Before I had joined today's webinar—which is a teleconference and computer presentation so attendees can converse and view a presentation via in the Internet in real time—Prince already had impressed me. By making an announcement about innovation by using an innovative technology, the company upheld a truism, coined by Marshall McLuhan, the first father of the electronic age, and taught in journalism classes everywhere: The medium is the message. Bravo!