22 Sep
2002
22 Sep
'02
6:34 p.m.
Hi Derek
Thanks for the info. I have already "sweeped" sites like Alexios'
machine-room.org (he is Greek too you know:-)) )I am looking for figures
published every few months in the 80's. Unfortunatelly, BYTE magazine that
published them regurally in articles, is not on line for so early issues.
Most of the companies I am looking for, are out of business. And, for these
that are not, I could never ask for data (I cannot ask IBM or Compaq for how
many compatibles were sold in 1986 :((( )
I am focused in the home-computer area, and the systems built from mid-70's
to 1995 (when Atari and Amiga eventually died). I try to cover also the PCs
used as home computers at the same time.
I will search the links you gave me. THANKS! (and for the rest of the guys
that replied)
Any other help? anybody with figures? :-)
George
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