Market research reports are notoriously unreliable, especially if they are
predictive. In the 1980s, InfoWorld did a comparison of PC industry reports
from a half-dozen or so firms, and the numbers varied widely. And some firms
like Future Computing were prone to wildly optimistic numbers, which
endeared them to the manufacturers.
Such reports are useful to get an idea of relative numbers, but the only
reliable actual production numbers will be from manufacturers' sources. That
will be tough, as many of the leading vendors never publicly released real
sales figures.
Your best sources might be old annual reports, press releases, etc. You
might also contact the Charles Babbage Institute (
http://www.cbi.umn.edu/),
which has an extensive library that houses corporate documents from a wide
number of computer manufacturers.
--Mike
Michael Nadeau
Editor/Publisher
Classic Tech, the Vintage Computing Resource
www.classictechpub.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Voyager" <voyager_at_hol.gr>
To: <cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 22, 2002 1:10 PM
Subject: Re: Looking for statistics on the Computer market of the 80's
>
> From: "Sellam Ismail"
> > > I am working on an essay, and I need statistics and figures from the
> 80's on
> > > sales, value, models, types of computers sold. Any number would be
> > > appreciated. I need to cover not only the PC market, but the home
> computer
> > > market too.
> > >
> > > Looking for numbers like like, how many Ti99/4A were sold, per year if
> > > possible and at what price, how many Compaq portables, how many
> Spectrums,
> > > QLs, IBM PC/XT, PC/XT clones, etc
> >
> > Sorry, I can only offer you luck in your search for these kinds of
> > statistics. I would love to have them myself.
> >
> > If you find any, please report them back here ;)
> >
>
> I thought that Dataquest was posting / reporting regurally (quarterly?)
the
> sales of the computer market of the 80s. Unfortunatelly, after a quick
> search, I cannot locate such a report, or article. I found in Gartner's
> site, reports back to 1997, 20 years younger than what I am looking for.
>
>
Received on Sun Sep 22 2002 - 12:50:01 BST