From: pathak@mitre.org (Heeren Pathak)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: 300,000 sold in ten days
Date: 31 Aug 92 14:55:37 GMT
Followup-To: comp.os.os2.misc
Organization: Mitre Corporation

In article <18045.1088.uupcb@satalink.com>, bert.tyler@satalink.com (Bert
Tyler) wrote:
> 
>  > IBM sent two "pros from Dover" (to use a MASH the movie term) to the
>  > last MN OS/2 End-user Group meeting...
>  > - OS/2 2.0 sold 300,000 copies in the last 10 days.  If this continues,
>  >   it has a daily ship rate of 30,000 copies.
> 
> Hmm, wait a minute.  IBM is supposed to be shipping a brand new line
> of PS/2s to their distributors sometime in September.  If, as rumored,
> most of those new PS/2s (and a lot of current ones as well) are to be
> shipped with a bundled copy of OS/2, and if IBM's internal processing
> folks just sent the relevant copies of OS/2 to whomever was next in the
> distribution food chain as part of that rollout, and if someone were to
> treat that shipment as a "sale", then I guess one could come up with
> a figure like the above. 
> 
> That's *really* stretching a point, though.  When you purchase a 
> computer from Gateway and it comes with a "free" copy of DOS and 
> Windows, Microsoft *has* made a sale - to Gateway.  A real live
> sale, on a dollars-per-unit shipped basis.  When you purchase
> a PS/2 and it comes with a "free" copy of OS/2. however, you can't
> really call it a sale, unless you decide that IBM's left-hand is
> selling a copy to its right-hand (and paying Microsoft a royalty in
> the process) ((and eating the cost of that extra 4MB of memory they
> had to add to get the machine to a usable 8MB)).  Sure, they lose
> a little money on each OS/2 sale, but they make it up in volume...
> 

Lets be fair here.  Microsoft's often quote numbers for Windows include
sales to places like Gateway.  Since many computer manufacturers include
DOS/Windows, those figures are bound to be high.  This has been a common
criticism of MS numbers but it hasn't stopped MS from using these numbers. 
I don't see anything wrong with IBM doing the same.

> The real test of OS/2's popularity will be noting what happens to
> IBM's share of the PC market when every PS/2 comes with a bundled
> copy of OS/2 (and every Gateway comes with a bundled copy of DOS
> and Windows).  If IBM's share goes up, that's a sign that folks 
> like OS/2.  If it goes down, that's a sign that folks prefer
> DOS/Windows.  No, I won't make a prediction <grin>.
> 

Well, I also think that sales of OS/2 might be accelerating.  Remember,
when OS/2 was first release, most of the press was very negative on it. 
Now, John Dvorak states it is a greatest thing.  Computer Shopper had a
favorable review.  As people start seeing such reviews, they are less
hesitant to try it out and once they do.....  No more Windows.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heeren Pathak                      | Millions long for immortality who do 
pathak@mitre.org                   | not know what to do with themselves
Mitre Corporation                  | on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
(617) 271-7465                     |	               	-- Susan Ertz
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Disclaimer: Mine not Mitre's.