On Wed, 2003-09-17 at 07:28, Wolfgang Bornath wrote:
> James Sparenberg schrieb am Tue, 16 Sep 2003 21:29:32 -0700:
> >
> > Are people downloading to save money, or, are they downloading just to
> > get the product. No I don't have all the data, Gael has more. But,
> > the 20% drop in sales is consistent with the drop other software
> > vendors and retailers are seeing across the board. My next question
> > is. Why aren't SuSE, Red Hat, Walnut Creek (FreeBSD) Wasabi (NetBSD)
> > and others cutting back on retail? They sell to the same demographic.
> > Shouldn't they have similar problems?
>
> Who says, they don't? But they have had (still have) other distribution
> strategies and means than Mandrake from the start.
> Mandrake always offered the download edition before the boxed sets.
> All others (I don't know about BSD, so I leave those out) always had the
> boxed sets in the shops first. So their strategy is mainly based on
> selling boxes. Mandrake's business model is based on the "Street
> Performer" model. Now I don't want to go into a discussion of this!
>
> As said before, all other ditributors also suffer from the 20% drop in
> sales. But they can't re-organize their strategy so fast because
> customers are used to find boxes on shelves and wouldn't change habits
> that fast.
I might offer this is one of the culture differences between Europeans
and Americans. American customers change habits as fast as they drive,
and in fact, it is generally agreed that American consumers will change
purchasing habits even if greatly satisfied, just to see if there is a
better product or service. It is FAR more important for visual name
recognition, than for past quality performance as far as increasing
sales.
This is _the_ 'other' spot I see MDKsoft stumbling. I still do not think
Apple would have survived until Steve Jobbs returned had there not been
thousands of cars driving around with the apple logo on the back
reminding folks there was some other computer besides wintel.
I still think that just as shelve space means the very bottom line as
far as eyes seeing the product exists (and to _very_ many Americans, if
you don't see it on the shelf it must not exist any longer) the next
most important is other forms of 'eye time'.
If MDK could take advantage of just 3 outlets (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and
Compusa) that have their own distribution channels, I firmly believe
that the quality of the product would do the rest.
BTW, since this thread started I have ordered a "vainity plate" lic
plate of MDKlinux. I have not been approved yet so I am not sure they
will issue it,,,
and it will be replacing '2 goo fee'...
but if 1 person thinks about Mandrake when they see MDK, it will be
worth the 28 bucks... to me anyway...
>
> For Mandrake it is no change. Production and distribution of boxes is a
> very cost consuming thing which is not very becoming to a company with a
> tight budget. So Mandrake is IMHO just doing what they had to do.
>
> wobo
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
>
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> Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
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