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Subject: Re: Lets all buy Weak Engines

Author: John Merlino

Date: 14:47:36 04/03/04

Go up one level in this thread


On April 03, 2004 at 11:11:56, martin fierz wrote:

>On April 02, 2004 at 15:41:35, John Merlino wrote:
>
>>On April 02, 2004 at 15:36:01, Uri Blass wrote:
>>
>>>On April 02, 2004 at 12:36:58, Jorge Pichard wrote:
>>>
>>>>On April 02, 2004 at 12:09:29, Eduard Nemeth wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On April 02, 2004 at 11:46:56, Christian Koch wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>see http://rahman85.tripod.com/rahman.html
>>>>>
>>>>>All engines goes commercial !
>>>>>
>>>>>I hold me then only the best 5 (MAX)!
>>>>>Is this the way?
>>>>>
>>>>>Eduard
>>>>
>>>>All the engines can go commercial, but most people will only buy the top 5 rated
>>>>by the SSDF and other Rating agencies.
>>>>
>>>>Jorge
>>>
>>>If only 0.1% of the people buy weak chess engines then weak engines are going to
>>>have millions of buyers.
>>
>>According to some fairly old marketing numbers from Chessmaster, approximately
>>250,000 "units" of chess software are sold around the world each year. This
>>number may have gone up or down dramatically -- I really have no clue. So, if
>>0.1% of the people buy weak engines....
>>
>>>The reality is different.
>>>
>>>Very small minority is going to buy the top 5 programs.
>>>Almost nobody is going to buy the rest.
>>
>>Exactly.
>>
>>jm
>
>interesting figures. but if they are correct and 0.1% of all people would buy a
>"weak" engine like ktulu 5.0, then you are talking of 250 copies sold a year.
>let's assume they cost 20$, so that's 5000$. not much by european or american
>standards, but i guess for other countries (india, russia) that might be enough
>of an incentive to commercialize your engine if it is now a top free engine...
>
>cheers
>  martin

That's not $5000 for EACH weak engine (and, perhaps instead of "weak", we should
use the phrase "new commercial"), but $5000 for ALL of them that have "gone
commercial". Not much incentive.

jm



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