Author: Michael Cummings
Date: 00:15:23 12/16/99
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On December 15, 1999 at 19:47:39, John Merlino wrote: >The difference in number of units between the "serious" market and the "mass" >market is huge. I would estimate (totally guesswork, but as much an educated >guess as anybody's) that 1 in every 1000 units of Chessmaster are sold to >"serious" chess players. From what I've seen, by adding several features that >would make the program more desirable by those serious players, the ratio would >go up to about 5 in 1000. Of course, I could be wrong. Do you think I'm way off >base here? I think you are maybe off here. If serious chess players finally saw CM7K had features that made it an alternative to their other programs because of these new features and the fact that it has the best engine in the known universe. then the 5/1000 units sold would be a little low in my opinion. In my opinion they blew it, if Matel is money driven then seeing they have a great engine, apart from catering to the mass market, they could have also cornered the serious market with a few serious features. Serious players would buy it then simply because of the strong engine and features they can use. Shredder, Rebel, Fritz, Hiarcs are all serious chess playing programs, what seperates them when people buy these programs when they have similar pro features. The power of the engine. If Fritz was ranked the lowest of the serious programs, how do you think this would affect sales ? You need a balance of interface and strong engine power. Only true chess fanatics would accept either one or the other, whereas most need both. Would you buy a program if 1. Had a strong engine, and nothing of an interface. 2. Had everything in an interface and nothing in the engine. My answer is no to both, I need a good interface and good engine
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