2012 September 27 archive at Robert Pogson

Archive for September 27th, 2012

In a Retail Competition in Portugal for Notebooks, GNU/Linux Won 10% Share

Published by Robert Pogson September 27th, 2012 in technology. 15 Comments

All this talk of GNU/Linux not making it on the desktop is hypothetical. Where GNU/Linux was tried it has done well. In Portugal, some locally-built PCs were produced in several models. One of them had GNU/Linux and because of that had a lower price for software and better hardware. The result? It earned a decent share of the market, 10%. So, the fools who proclaim GNU/Linux has only 1% share due to geeks miss the effect of barring GNU/Linux from retail shelves, something totally on the supply-side. Consumers will choose GNU/Linux if it is offered.

”

bundling of software and hardware with sales heavily dominated by the hardware retail channel

connection between suppliers and consumers through an oligopoly of retailers

…
We should add another fact: the world wide Linux desktop market share, which includes both desktops and laptops, is nearly 1.5%, even though it is very impractical, if not impossible, to buy it preinstalled owing to the aforementioned properties 1 and 2. It was, however, tested on the Portuguese market via e.iniciativas, a Government project for the distribution of laptops to students, teachers and other citizens under state sponsored training. The project delivered around 600000 computers from 5 manufacturers, via 4 network operators who agreed to handle the logistics while supplying 3g Internet connections. Only one laptop model, made available by a single operator, had Linux preinstalled. This somewhat low profile presence of Linux was an imposition from the Portuguese Government. Given the much lower price per unit of the software,the aforementioned model had better hardware than its competitors. Even though the computer was supplied by a local, relatively unknown assembler and the software was not, and still isn’t, mainstream, the final market share of the Linux-based solution on the project was 10%. It is reasonable to think that having a similar option on additional models might have resulted in a larger share.

This remarkable achievement provides strong empirical evidence of the relevance of Linux on laptop computers. We should also like to add the results of an economic impact study that objectively deems this product viable for the entire supply chain, up to the consumer. In fact, due to the difference in software costs, there may be as much as 70 EUR per unit for a mixture of customer savings, retail margin improvement and hardware upgrade. A healthier market would, therefore, have a positive impact on the local IT economy”

The ~1.5% stuff is bogus, too, coming from a different oligopily on statistics.. Without running a parallel universe for the test, that’s the best you can get. It’s what I have been saying for years. The world can and does make its own software. It works. It’s GNU/Linux.

see Retail Oligopoly.

- Robert Pogson

Follow the DRAM – Smart Phones v PCs

Published by Robert Pogson September 27th, 2012 in technology. 10 Comments

If people were only using their smart phones for calling or even one thing at a time there would be little need for more RAM but usage is growing 50% per annum as people find smart phones so useful. According to iSuppli, “

The average amount of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) in each smartphone shipped worldwide is expected to surge by nearly 50 percent this year, as these advanced cellphones gain greater functionality, according to an IHS iSuppli DRAM Dynamics Market Brief from information and analytics provider IHS (NYSE: IHS).

Average DRAM content in smartphones will expand to 666 megabytes (MB) this year, up from 453MB in 2011 and 202MB in 2010.

“

see DRAM Content Rises and Becomes More Uniform in Smartphones – The IHS iSuppli®.

Of course, the numbers are held down a bit by the numerous low-end smart phones affordable in every corner of the globe but even folks with money on their third smart phone are doing much more than making calls with their smart phones. Most smart phones have from 512 MB to 1gB RAM these days. My Little Woman is into using the smart phone more than her expensive Canon camera. It’s always handy and handier… She keeps adding apps too. Folks talk about keyboards when they talk about “creating content” but a camera beats a keyboard by miles and only a couple of fingers are needed. People love that. My younger relations all have smart phones and use them for everything from flashlights to servers. It all takes some of that precious RAM to switch contexts rapidly which they do. My son will whip out his smart phone rather than reaching for a keyboard to tweak a server or our multimedia PC. The horror… I can barely see what’s on the screen let alone tap it in the right place with my digital lumps.

The smart thingy industry now consumes more RAM than desktop/notebook personal computers. That should tell everyone, OEMs, retailers, consumers, and organizations large and small that the Wintel monopoly is on it last legs. There’s nothing like seeing the lead open up to encourage users of FLOSS that the world is changing in a good way. Most of the RAM today is not running M$’s stuff. It won’t be long before all PCs give FLOSS a shot whether in business or on retail shelves.

- Robert Pogson

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.