Need Help!!!

[MohamadAkkad]

Hi, I am not sure if this a good place for that, but I need it so much.

As you know (or not) I am a university student, and I have a project to and I decided to do it about the Apple Mac OS and Microsoft Windows, So am wandering from where can I get some statistical information about the two operating systems in terms of units sold and price, and any other information that can help.


And I would like to make some interview with someone in istyle or ABM and carrefour, if you know a way to do that , that will be grateful.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Mohamad Akkad

[Mushroom]

Both companies are publicly traded companies. All their info is readily available on the net. Just google things like "apple quarterly report" "microsoft sales figures" ect and you will find it year by year and quarter by quarter.

Depending what class this project is for, you might want to reconsider. Remember, Apple is not in business of selling their operating system. They are in business of selling Apple Computers. Microsoft on the other hand IS in business of selling their operating system. You CAN draw parallels and do some sort of an analysis but I would not do it if I were you. As much as MS and Apple are always put against each other, they are really very different to be compared easily in some aspects.

I, personally, would rather do MS Zune vs. Apple iPod. That would be much more interesting and less technical. This would be a direct head to head product battle with hardware, supporting software and services.

OSX vs Windows is more of a techie subject. Something to argue over with your friends in regards to features, stability and ease of use. From a business standpoint, its would be literally comparing Apples to Oranges if you ask me.

[MohamadAkkad]

Both companies are publicly traded companies. All their info is readily available on the net. Just google things like "apple quarterly report" "microsoft sales figures" ect and you will find it year by year and quarter by quarter.

Depending what class this project is for, you might want to reconsider. Remember, Apple is not in business of selling their operating system. They are in business of selling Apple Computers. Microsoft on the other hand IS in business of selling their operating system. You CAN draw parallels and do some sort of an analysis but I would not do it if I were you. As much as MS and Apple are always put against each other, they are really very different to be compared easily in some aspects.

I, personally, would rather do MS Zune vs. Apple iPod. That would be much more interesting and less technical. This would be a direct head to head product battle with hardware, supporting software and services.

OSX vs Windows is more of a techie subject. Something to argue over with your friends in regards to features, stability and ease of use. From a business standpoint, its would be literally comparing Apples to Oranges if you ask me.

Thanks Mushroom for your reply.

This project is for Macroeconomic class. In general, I am not comparing the two operating systems, I am comparing the units sold of each company in relevant to it's price.

To be honest to you after I read your post, I thought about it, and I decided to change it, but am not sure to what.

Thank you.

[fangpyre]

What are you trying to get to?
What theory is this applied to?

You can always compare Apple to HP or Sony.
You need to be careful, that you are not trying to prove which OS is better.
Some times the better product is outsold by an inferior product, due to price or marketing.
Many people claim that the iPod is not the best MP3 player, but its success is due to the cool/design factor and the iTunes economy.
But if you compare it to other MP3 players, you will find it has less features.

A nice place to get data from is Wolfram Alpha.

[MohamadAkkad]

What are you trying to get to?
What theory is this applied to?

You can always compare Apple to HP or Sony.
You need to be careful, that you are not trying to prove which OS is better.
Some times the better product is outsold by an inferior product, due to price or marketing.
Many people claim that the iPod is not the best MP3 player, but its success is due to the cool/design factor and the iTunes economy.
But if you compare it to other MP3 players, you will find it has less features.

A nice place to get data from is Wolfram Alpha.

Thanks for your reply, fangpyre.

As you said, I will not prove which OS is better, but my idea to prove is there a relation between the price of the OS and the quantity sold or there is other factors such as OS features, hardware compatibility and so on.

For doing that I need to do a survey, but before that, I need some data to start with.

[fangpyre]

If that is the case, it will be too hard to drive your point with 2 products.
There are many aspects to a successful product.
Price is only one (check my iPod example above).

A better approach would be to see how that same product changed after a price drop.
A price drop constitutes a shift in the demand curve, changing the intersection between it and the supply curve.
Consider the iPhone after Apple dropped its price when it was first launched, or the new PS3 slim or the XBox 360 drop.

In the XBox's case, it is the same product.
In the PS3's it is essentially less then before (with the exception of the slim part).

[MohamadAkkad]

If that is the case, it will be too hard to drive your point with 2 products.
There are many aspects to a successful product.
Price is only one (check my iPod example above).

A better approach would be to see how that same product changed after a price drop.
A price drop constitutes a shift in the demand curve, changing the intersection between it and the supply curve.
Consider the iPhone after Apple dropped its price when it was first launched, or the new PS3 slim or the XBox 360 drop.

In the XBox's case, it is the same product.
In the PS3's it is essentially less then before (with the exception of the slim part).

You hit the point, I know there are other aspects other than the price, and that is why am considering the operating systems part, to be honest with you; the study will be to see the attitude of the consumers toward the new operating systems and what drives them to upgrade or to switch, off course that will be answered by a survey.

You got a good examples, but I want to prove my point that the price is not every thing.

[fangpyre]

Ok, but remember.
Microeconomics studies that 1 aspect of the equation.
And though the other aspects are very relevant, that is not this subject's concern.
Good luck.