Re: Determining market penetration.

no answer here, just another question that yours reminded me of.

walking by a new shop (7-11 convenience store i think) where the outfitters were putting in all the new cases, display stands and so forth. outside were dozens of big cartons and skids that the pre-fab stuff came in. every box had cryptic codes on it, but along with 'part number', each one had a 7 digit number two inches high, labelled "ORACLE   NUMBER'. is this common?

if this is referring to the Oracle dbms, talk about lock-in!

p

Paul wrote:
>
>
> Hi all,
>
>
> I have been having a debate recently on another forum about database
> market penetration and how to measure it.
>
>
> My point of view would be that even for companies which *_only_*
> produce databases (Oracle until recently, MySQL, say now), it is
> impossible from their financial filings to determine how many
>
> a) paid for installs there are
>
> and
>
> b) if an install is paid for, how much was paid (VAR, Corporate
> resellers, OEM agreements, <insert contractual agreement of your
> choice>).
>
>
> The thrust of my argument has been that, in the absence of any other
> reliable metrics, an analysis of job adverts in a particular market
> (say country) is *_AS GOOD A WAY AS ANY_* to determine market
> penetration (if no absolute revenue or number of (paid for) installs
> is available - normally the case - and even then, they are potentially
> misleading).
>
>
> Can anyone think of or does anyone know of a better metric for
> measuring db penetration than job ads? They don't *_always_* mention
> the db they are targetting, but *_usually_* there is some mention of
> the particular implementation (be it Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase,
> Informix, DB2.... whatever).
>
>
> I would like to know
>
> a) do people out there feel that this is a good (best) way of
> measuring market penetration?
>
>
> b) if not, how would *_you_* measure db market penetration given
> currently available data from software companies and your particular
> market?
>
>
> I am not a bigot here, and am willing to listen to any/all ideas that
> people might have about how to measure an entity which is very
> difficult to get a grip on.
>
> I mean, even if you have Oracle's revenue for (my country, Ireland),
> that doesn't breakdown VAR/OEM/Corporate deals, nor will it detail
> support (24 hour, 1 day, 5 day - on site, off site - whatever).
>
> For example, I have read that Ryanair use Oracle on HP-UX boxes - more
> or less the Cartier of db solutions - but could I obtain any idea of
> how much Ryanair are paying for that - no chance. I would *_assume_*
> that Ryanair have round-the-clock, engineer living on site type
> support but
>
> a) I have no way of proving that
>
> and anyway
>
> b) I have no idea of what Oracle is charging for that service.
>
>
> So, guys, I'm basically asking - what is the best metric to use for
> establishing (even a rough) an idea of db penetration in a given
> market. Personally I can't see a better one than job-ads, but am more
> than willing to listen to other ideas/concepts that people might have.
>
>
> TIA.
>
>
>
> Paul....
>
>
>
>
Received on Fri Oct 21 2005 - 06:48:59 CEST