Re: tlug: TurboLinux outsells MacOS in Japan

[dave@example.com (David E)]

At  0:56 PM 98.10.28 +0900, Scott Stone wrote:
>> 
>> PHT announced that one independent survey shows them at number two in
>> retail OS sales in Japan (#1 being Microsoft with 69.9%, PHT having
>> 7.35%, and Apple at 6.9%).
>Note that these figures don't include OEM sales, which would almost
>definitely put Apple ahead of us (ie, sales of new Macintoshes with MacOS
>installed).
>

I hate to be a wet blanket, but this is like an example straight out of a
book I have called "How to Lie With Statistics". 

The announcement gives the strong impression that TurboLinux has higher
sales than MacOS, but the fine print (which doesn't seem to be included in
the announcement itself, surprise, surprise) tells us that the comparison
is actually between almost 100% of TL sales (since it doesn't generally
come bundled with PCs) and a very small percentage of MacOS sales (since
the MacOS always comes with the machine and only a small percentage of
users upgrade).

So what we have here is a PR annoucement that isn't an out and out lie, but
(intentionally?) gives a very skewed impression of what's going on. Very
common, but that doesn't make it excusable in my opinion.

While I think it's great that TurboLinux, and Linux in general is
increasing in popularity, the announcement itself justs lowers my opinion
of the marketing people at PHT.

The book I mentioned, by the way is by Darrell Huff. It was written in the
1950's, but is still as relevant as ever. 

-Dave


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