uptakeTag Archive for uptake archive at Robert Pogson

Tag Archive for 'uptake'

Two Kinds of Countries

Published by Robert Pogson May 4th, 2013 in technology. 15 Comments

According to StatCounter, there are two kinds of countries, those with ~1% GNU/Linux share and those with an order of magnitude greater share:

Of course there are many more than two kinds of countries but these groups seem to do something different with GNU/Linux. Some with the larger shares have adopted and promoted GNU/Linux (Cuba, Venezuela,…)but so have some with the lower shares (Brazil, Russia, China…). That’s not the determining factor.

Let’s look at connectedness. St. Vincent and the Grenadines has ~100K population 73% connected to the web. It has very little business except agriculture. Uruguay has 3 million 56% connected with lots of businesses, high employment rate.

“There are roughly 58 million primary school students in Latin America, according to UNESCO’s latest data from their Education For All initiative. 5% of children in that age range are not in school. And 5% of them use XOs” Could that be it? Nope. Mexico, Argentina and Peru all have huge deployments of XOs.

I think it’s more likely the use of NATing firewalls that is the issue. Some consumers do their own NATing but that only covers a few machines. Schools, governments and businesses do a lot. Even some ISPs do it. Now, StatCounter claims to count page-views and nothing else, but what do they do if a bunch of identical GNU/Linux User-Agent strings come from a single IP-address requesting a single page 100 times a day?

- Robert Pogson

M$ Bars Itself From New Industry

Published by Robert Pogson March 21st, 2013 in technology. 34 Comments

I had to smile when I read this article.“A Sydney library is claiming a world first: it’s going to add Apple iPads and Samsung Galaxy tablets to its lending shelves.”
see Council offers free iPads.

I hope this catches on. M$’s EULA forbids the lending of OEM-installed OS from M$… Chuckle. If libraries or other businesses get into lending/leasing small cheap computers, M$’s OS will not be there except a higher cost because M$ always likes to “get value” for every use of its OS. Another failure for the non-Free software players.

It’s not far-fetched. I can see a raft of tablets in doctors and dentists’ waiting rooms, buses and trains with the things built-in to the vehicles. Airplanes are already doing it. Why not everyone else including the family car? Small cheap computers fit everywhere and M$ does not belong.

M$’s business lock-in is about all that will be left in a few years and it is being eaten by the new trend to tablets and thin clients. It’s all good. What the world’s governments couldn’t do, the market is finally getting around to fixing, the Wintel monopoly disease.

- Robert Pogson

ACER Gets It — UPDATED

Published by Robert Pogson June 5th, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

“We have shifted towards Linux because of Microsoft,” he said. “Microsoft has a lot of power and it is going to be difficult, but we will be working hard to develop the Linux market.”

ACER was a bit tentative, just starting a bit in the pacific region last year, but now this.

see http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2218172/acer-pushes-linux-hard

That is not equivocal to say the least. All the OEMs had a great ride with M$ but they do not want to miss out on emerging markets which are going to accept GNU/Linux widely because it works for them. The emerging markets can be as large as the established market in seats but the uptake will be slow unless inexpensive and easy to maintain boxes are sold. Hence, GNU/Linux on small things.

Update:

At the recent Computex 2008 in Taipei, the world’s second biggest computer trade show, Acer debuted its new low-cost computer Aspire one, which the company claims as an all-new communication device designed to provide a true mobile and wireless experience through continuous access to the Internet no matter where you are.

During the product’s launching held at the Far Eastern Hotel said, Acer chairman Jeng-tang Wang said that after a long and comprehensive study of the market trend, Acer’s findings confirmed that a product like the Aspire one would be welcomed by customers ranging from professional users to beginners, predicting that this segment will become one of the main-stream segments of the PC market in the coming few years.

The chairman of the world’s third largest vendor in the global PC market is optimistic that this new form factor design may be the long-awaited element that will hit the sweet spot needed to reboost the growth of the whole PC market in terms of revenue, which has shown very little growth in recent years because of limited growth in new users.

Wang expects about 15 to 20 percent of notebook shipments worldwide next year would be low-cost notebooks, if the key component suppliers are willing to give a strong support to the few serious players. “A notebook with optimized specification may lower the end user’s price to the turning point that attracts a huge number of first time buyers,” Wang said.

Currently there are one billion PC users in the world and he anticipates this to grow to another billion via a commercial approach that he is proposing, and if industrial leaders and market leaders change their from the current strategy.

“From now on, Wang said,” I call on all key component suppliers to fully support the requirement of all segments, instead of trying to keep certain predefined average selling prices of notebook PCs.” “It’s time to listen to the requirements and demands of the market instead of controlling it.”

http://www.mb.com.ph/INFO20080609126833.html

Boy, does ACER get it. They are predicting 45 million such boxed to ship in 2009 and they want half! They want to ship 7 million this year… If half of those go to GNU/Linux (easy) on top of migrations going to regular desktops and laptops, 2009 will be another big year for GNU/Linux on the desktop.

- Robert Pogson