Re: tlug: TurboLinux outsells MacOS in Japan

[Scott Stone <sstone@example.com>]

On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, David E wrote:

> 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.

well, the 'study' in question was not funded by PHT, and the post to
slashdot was also unsolicited by PHT - it didn't come from us.  And I did
post a message to tlug a couple hours ago about the fact that Macintosh
OEM sales were not included in the study.


--------------------------------------------------
Scott M. Stone <sstone@example.com, sstone@example.com>
               <sstone@example.com>
Head of TurboLinux Development/Systems Administrator
Pacific HiTech, Inc (USA) / Pacific HiTech, KK (Japan)
http://www.pht.com		http://armadillo.pht.co.jp
http://www.pht.co.jp	        http://www.turbolinux.com


---------------------------------------------------------------
Next Nomikai: 20 November, 19:30 Tengu TokyoEkiMae 03-3275-3691
Next Technical Meeting: January, 1999 (details TBA)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsor: PHT, makers of TurboLinux http://www.pht.co.jp