General public machines (Was: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

[allison]

On 12/22/2016 11:37 PM, Fred Cisin wrote:
> NO source is completely reliable.
>
>
>> http://jeremyreimer.com/m-item.lsp?i=137
> http://jeremyreimer.com/uploads/notes-on-sources.txt
>
> He does provide some information on his sources.
>
> When we talk about sales, are we talking about UNITS, or about dollars?
> (an important distinction for such as the ZX80 V anything else!)
>
>
> His curve fitting is flawed.  For example, in his 1975 to 1981 graph,
> he has points for sales of TRS-80 of ZERO in 1976, and LOTS in 1977. 
> But, then he just drew a straight line, which erroneously implies a
> linear increase, with sales in 1976.  THAT derivative should be a
> vertical line, not a slope, unless/until you add more resolution for
> months, instead of years, representing an extremely steep slope in the
> end of 1977.
>
As someone that was on the front end of the TRS80 it went from Zero to
60 in '77 as the first deliveries were a batch of
1000 then 5000 to the stores.  they sold very fast far faster than
expected.  Indeed the first 12 months had a very steep
curve.

Most number and data I see to day in the popular media is just plain wrong.

Allison