On Sun, Sep 22, 2002 at 11:04:13AM +0300, Voyager wrote:
> Hi guys
>
> 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.
I always thought that companies kept their sales figures secret,
and (as Sellam mentioned) the business reports that claim to collect
sales figures in one place are not necessarily reliable. So my
strategy would be:
Find a list of brands you want to concentrate on. You already know the
common ones, but the categorized lists of Web sites (that Yahoo, AltaVista,
etc. maintain) might still be useful. This site has an excellent cross-
reference of models along with release dates and technical details
(screen resolution, chips used).
http://www.machine-room.org/
There are other "overview" sites which I don't have the URLs for
right now. Search engines or categorized lists of Web sites will
find them with enough patience.
Then look for sites that cover specific brands.
http://www.mcmordie.co.uk/
has some figures for Acorn computers (click on "The history of Acorn's
computers")
http://www.apple2history.org/
is an expanded version of some material from 1991 (click where it says
"Welcome to the Apple II History" in bold)
And don't forget the library. My university library has the "J. Ramade
IBM Series" printed by McGraw-Hill; the books mostly cover mainframe
topics but there is one on the PC line:
AUTHOR Sanchez, Julio, 1938-
TITLE IBM microcomputers : a programmer's handbook / Julio Sanchez,
Maria P. Canton.
PUB INFO New York : McGraw-Hill, c1990.
SERIES J. Ranade IBM series.
OTHER AUTHOR Canton, Maria P.
LCCN 90005870.
ISBN 0070545944.
which is actually quite complete.
And some of these companies are still in business, so maybe you can tell
them you're doing research on '80s machines and get the official prices
and sales figures.
-- Derek
Received on Sun Sep 22 2002 - 21:46:00 BST