Well they can’t all be right (but they could all be wrong), so in a few months’ time we’ll learn who is hot and who is not among the research community – and all those sheep out there that quote forecast market share and market size figures as gospel take note of the 100% discrepancy between the forecasts for this year and remember to advise listeners of the plus 100%, minus 50% margin for error in the figures you quote so glibly: Dataquest Inc reckons that Microsoft Corp will ship 30m copies of Windows95 by year-end, Inteco Corp reckons it will ship only 15m, but will sign up 1m subscribers to the Microsoft Network in that time; the Dataquest forecast is for 14m copies sold and installed in the first few weeks after the August 24 launch, and 30m by the end of the year – with nearly 64m units shipped in 1996; La Jolla, California-based Computer Intelligence InfoCorp is carefully standing distancing itself from the other two by choosing a different period, namely the first 12 months of shipping – the number it goes for is near 62m, but it does make a forecast of 81m by the end of next year, which compares with Dataquest’s 94m guess.
A group led by Ryback Management Corp, St Louis, Missouri investment advisor with 10.4% of the votes, is to ask shareholders in OEM personal computer motherboard manufacturer Micronics Computers Inc, Fremont to request that the board consider a sale or a merger of the company.
The Japanese subsidiary of Microsoft Corp says it expects to sell more than 5m copies of the Japanese version of Windows95 in year one – but it won’t launch till November.
Tokyo-based Kenwood Corp (nothing to do with the British Kenwood) says it will introduce digital audio broadcasting equipment to the European market in February next year, and expects to be the first Japanese electronics manufacturer to do so: it will launch a test receiver for use in field checking of reception for broadcasters at $5,200 and a $31,250 encoder used to generate test broadcast signals for people designing receivers.
Novell Inc expects revenues from NetWare to reach $1,000m in the current fiscal year to October 31, after it did $781m in the nine months: NetWare revenues grew 20% in the third quarter from the second quarter, and NetWare 4 should account for more than half of NetWare sales in the fourth quarter.
Four Japanese optical disk makers have endorsed the Super Density digital video disk format proposed by Toshiba Corp and allies: the four are TDK Corp, Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals Inc, Mitsubishi Chemical Corp and the Pioneer Video Corp affiliate of Pioneer Electronic Corp.
The worst Windows95 story is that French Canadians are going to have to wait until November for Windows95 in their mother tongue simply so that Microsoft Corp can continue to rip the French off by charging them more for it than they charge in North America – it will take that long to come up with a version for Quebec that will be of no use to French users, and thus prevent buying in Quebec to sell in France.
Dutch software house Multihouse NV reported first-half 1995 net profits of $54,726 against a loss last time of $2.5m, on turnover that was down 12.9% to $21.4m: the company, which reports in dutch guilders, repeated its forecast that it did not expect to make a loss in 1995.
Walt Disney Co has appointed Jake Winebaum, former head of its magazine group, as president of its nascent Disney Online service: Winebaum, who joined Walt Disney in 1992 when the company purchased his Family Fun magazine, will be responsible for the service’s development and implementation, and for Disney’s worldwide presence on the Internet; he will report to Disney Interactive president Steve McBeth.
Scientific-Atlanta Inc has consolidated its factory and technical services, training, spares and after-sales into one worldwide organisation: former president of private networks division Donald Upton, has been appointed president of the new worldwide service organization reporting to Larry Enterline, pre
sident of international division for the Broadband Communications Group, the company said.
The Montreal-based CAE Electronics division of CAE Inc has won a contract to supply a Dash 8 full flight simulator and a three channel, 180-degree Maxvue visual system to Scandinavian Airlines System: the simulator will have a six-degrees-of-freedom motion system to simulate the Dash 8’s movements and a system to produce computer-generated images of the view the flight crew normally sees; delivery is set for summer 1996, the firm said, but no financial details were given.
The Windows95 blitz has been so intense, reports Reuters from the CompUSA Inc store in Manhattan just after midnight, that it persuaded one computer consultant to buy it even though he prefers other operating systems – Personally, I hate Windows, but the way things are going it’s join it or be left behind – plus, I want to be part of the entertainment the consultant said; In some of our stores, we literally couldn’t close, CompUSA said, because of the number of customers – it had wanted to be open for 95 minutes from midnight to 1:35am; come-ons it offered included a Pentium computer for $995, a mouse for 95 cents (90 cents too much!) and – real deal, 4Mb of memory for $95.
Ultimate party pooper at the Win95 fest was IBM Corp, the only major personal computer manufacturer that has not signed for a licence to pre-install Windows95 – but it’s not because of any disinclination on IBM’s part, it’s simply that the clicheed company likes to leave no stone unturned in making sure that all bases are covered before it signs on the dotted line for any important agreement – or indeed for any important product launch of its own, and it would rather go on negotiating until Windows95 is obsolete than sign an agreement it might later come to regret in any aspect; We’re still discussing it with them, Microsoft executive vice-president Steve Ballmer told Reuters – every other major personal computer vendor has signed up – given the frenzy around Windows95 you would think they would want to assure their customers that it will be available, Ballmer told Reuter.
Elsewhere in the unprecedented Microsoft Corp Windows95 display of tackiness, in Toronto, a 300-foot Windows95 banner was unfurled from the landmark CN Tower, New York’s Empire State Building was illuminated in the washed out red, yellow, green and blue of the product’s logo, and in Fort Worth, Texas, the mayor, poor sap, ceremonially upgraded all the city’s computers.
India has to wait another 10 days for Windows95 because Microsoft Corp has decided to change the representation of the borders of Kashmir to the Indian government’s liking rather than risk banishment.
Cruel opening in the Wall Street Journal – Michael Jackson’s ‘HIStory,’ Selena’s ‘Dreaming of You,’ Guns ‘n’ Roses’ ‘Use Your Illusion I & II,’ and now Microsoft’s ‘Windows95’ it says, but while Axl Rose is still just living on the edge, Michael Jackson’s HIStory is history already, drifting down the album chart on both sides of the Atlantic, and Selena’s dead, cruelly untimely gunned down by a disaffected employee at the age of just 21.
