On Sun Sep 21, 2003 at 03:57:11PM -0700, John Wilson wrote: [...] > Sadly, Rolf, having no visible distrubution channel, ie product on physical > shelves in bricks and mortar physical stores, will reduce Mandrake to > invisibilty in North Amercia. Like it or not, and that applies to > MandrakeSoft not you, we North Americans like to hold something in our hands > and look at it. Kick its tires as it were. To get people to migrate to > Mandrake is a whole lot easier if I have a box in my hand than directl them > to a web site to order a package. > > This may not apply elsewhere on the planet but it does here. And that's the > point that those of us who live on this continent have been saying. If boxed > sets don't start showing up here it amounts to writing off this market. And > that's just the way it is. > > I do understand the need to cut costs at MandrakeSoft and I do empathize with > them on this point. It's just that the wrong marketing decision was made > with respect to this part of the world. And that, too, is just the way it > is. > > Perhaps one day we'll be comfortable with the notion of doing most or all our > purchasing on line. But given the overhype of the internet on this market > and it's abject failure to deliver on that hype it's gonna take a long, long > time.
I really have nothing to add to this thread other than one thought (I'm taking a back seat in this one... it's not worth it for me to open my mouth since I'm not in marketing... I've also only begun to read the thread for "moderator" purposes). If most people in North America, or the US, feel this way, then let me pose this question. Why has Red Hat then, the most well-known Linux vendor in the US, decided that they are getting out of the retail box market, if this is in fact the case? Seems to me that if Mandrake has stupid marketing folks, then Red Hat must as well. However, considering Red Hat's revenues are also increasing, it would seem to me that they think this is viable and will not hurt the business. So which is right? I'm trying to find where I read this, but so far looking at the PR's on RH's website shows me nothing, so maybe I read it on /. or something (in other words, I'm quite sure I read this as accurate, but until I find the source, don't take it as 100%... this was just something that popped in my mind while reading this). -- MandrakeSoft Security; http://www.mandrakesecure.net/ Online Security Resource Book; http://linsec.ca/ "lynx -source http://linsec.ca/vdanen.asc | gpg --import" {FE6F2AFD : 88D8 0D23 8D4B 3407 5BD7 66F9 2043 D0E5 FE6F 2AFD}
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