Microsoft's Press on MySQL:
Sun's Open Source Buying Spree
,----[ Quote ]
| After MySQL acquisition, Sun plans to pursue other open source vendors.
`----
http://reddevnews.com/news/devnews/article.aspx?editorialsid=1011
And then this:
The new wave
,----[ Quote ]
| Gartner’s figures for annual sales of database software suggest that in 2005
| ^^^^^^^
| and 2006, open source databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL had a Marketshare
| of less than 1%. Out of $105-million business estimated in India during 2006,
| according to Gartner, the open source vendors had a 0.2% Marketshare against
| Microsoft SQL’s share of 41.5%, Oracle’s 28.4% and IBM DB2’s of 17.6%.
| Gartner says it has not yet finalised data for 2007.
|
| Another study, by Frost & Sullivan, based on an analysis of 300 enterprises
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| across India, indicates that the Indian database market in 2006 was
| $148.6million (which is higher than the Gartner figure) and is expected to
| reach $424 million by 2010. Whatever be the numbers in terms of size, Sun...
`----
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/The-new-wave/285258/
Both firms are paid by Microsoft and it's funny that they claim to be able to
gauge Free software usage. MySQL was downloaded 100,000,000+ times and it
comes preinstalled with some free software distributions. How many blogs are
there in India (they typically run MySQL)?
Are Gartner and Frost & Sullivan magicians? No, they just deliver the figures
paying clients request. They, along with IDC, also deceive on server sales and
desktop usage. Some examples appended. I have many more.
Microsoft: "...analysts sell out. It's their business model..."
http://antitrust.slated.org/www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/3000/PX03096.pdf
Last week:
Need some data to support your cause? Hire an analyst
,----[ Quote
| CIO.com raises an important issue about the integrity of research being done
| by industry analysts. Namely, if a sponsor pays for the research, do they get
| favorable treatment in that research?
|
| [...]
|
| I'm not suggesting that the research is corrupted. I'm just suggesting that
| it's hard to remove the taint of sponsored research. Just take a look at
| Gartner's "Hype Cycle" on open source, which is woefully inaccurate, probably
| in part because Gartner gets its information from the vendors who sponsor its
| research, not the customers who are buying into open source in droves.
|
| So, the next time you read a report, blog entry, or article, consider who
| pays the writer (including when reading this blog).
`----
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9894178-16.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad
http://advice.cio.com/thomas_wailgum/it_research_brought_to_you_by?page=0%2C0
Gartner analyst: OOXML important domino
,----[ Quote ]
| Businessweek (Jennifer L Schenker) quoted Gartner analyst Michael Silver last
| week who puts OOXML in a wider commercial perspective...
|
| "appear more open". This is how Gartner views the credibility of the new
| [OOXML] openness....
|
| Look how optimistic Gartner's Silver is...
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-44362/gartner-analyst:ooxml-important-domino
NY Times bans Microsoft analysts from Microsoft stories
,----[ Quote ]
| Just days after banning Enderle from discussing Microsoft because
| he has Microsoft as a client, the Times quoted Gartner analyst
| Michael Silver and AMR Research analyst Jim Murphy in a story
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| about Microsoft's Windows and Office software.
|
| If the paper would prefer not to quote an analyst who has
| experience with a client, it did a poor job. Silver is Gartner's
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| vice president in charge of client computing. Microsoft happens to
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| do lots of business with Gartner and also happens to have a
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| client-software monopoly. We're guessing that Silver knows
| Microsoft's products well and has direct involvement with the
| company.
|
| And, sure enough, he appears a number of times on Microsoft's
| own site and thousands of times in stories about Microsoft.
|
| Jim Murphy - wait for it - covers Microsoft too and is even more
| prolific than Silver.
|
| [...]
|
| Part of the problem stems from the reticence of companies such as
| IDC and Gartner to reveal their clients. That should make everyone
| nervous, but it doesn't. So called objective technology publications
| keep publishing material bought by vendors without telling you this.
| They're also too lazy or scared to ignore the likes of Gartner and
| IDC until the firms change their disclosure rules.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/15/nytimes_ms_ban/
Buy Vista or die
,----[ Quote ]
| Gartner research vice president Michael Silver said that outfits have delayed
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| their Vista migrations to the point of stupidity and now some are considering
| late 2008 or even 2009, while others mull skipping the OS completely.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/12/07/vista-die
Other Underreported Stories: Analyst Integrity?
,----[ Quote ]
| There was a pretty interesting discussion with views on both sides. Some felt
| that the rumors have been so persistent that, well, where there's smoke
| there's fire. Others saying they have heard from someone who heard from
| someone that once they started paying their exposure improved. Others saying
| it's just like the rumors that magazine advertisers get better reviews, an
| accusation that has been levied to Ziff-Davis publications, as well as
| photography and stereo equipment magazines for years.
`----
http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2007/12/other_underrepo.html?source=rss
Credibility Of Analysts
,----[ Quote
| Research firms make their living by offering expert advice to business and
| technology people about the best ways to invest their IT dollars. It can be
| invaluable insight, but only if that analysis comes with no strings attached.
| And on that, there's no guarantee.
|
| Forrester, Gartner, IDC, and others insist their output is squeaky clean, yet
| they also rake in millions providing services to the very same companies they
| monitor, heavyweights like Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle. Which leads to
| a question that continues to dog the research firms: How much influence do
| technology vendors have over their work?
`----
http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=CTCBZVQX5MTSCQSNDLPSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=178601879&queryText=analyst+influence
Microsoft India Receives the Frost & Sullivan Growth Strategy Leadership Award
for Database Market
,----[ Quote ]
| Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Consulting Company, partners with clients to
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| accelerate their growth.
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071227/20071227005099.html?.v=1
http://antitrust.slated.org/www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/3000/PX03096.pdf
"Consultants: These guys are your best bets as moderators. Get a well-known
consultant on your side early, but don’t let him publish anything blatantly
pro-Microsoft. Then, get him to propose himself to the conference organizers
as a moderator, whenever a panel opportunity comes up. Since he’s well-known,
but apparently independent, he’ll be accepted - one less thing for the
constantly-overworked conference organizer to worry about, right?"
-- Microsoft
Ballmer's Remarks Inspire A TCO Trip Down Memory Lane
,----[ Quote ]
| The email surfaced in early 2007, while Microsoft was embroiled in an Iowa
| class-action lawsuit over alleged monopoly-pricing practices. (The company
| settled the lawsuit in February, 2007 for $179 million.) According to the
| email -- part of a slew of subpoenaed documents Microsoft would have
| preferred to keep to itself -- at least one company official argued that it
| would be "easier" not to own up to sponsoring the IDC study.
|
| The Microsoft exec, Kevin Johnson, now the head of Microsoft's Windows
| product team, wrote that he was concerned about competitors turning
| Microsoft's sponsorship of the study to their own advantage. Oddly enough,
| however, Johnson focused on the fact that the IDC study picked Windows as the
| TCO champ in only four out of five outlined business scenarios.
`----
http://www.bmighty.com/blog/main/archives/2008/03/ballmers_remark.html
Is Linux really losing market share to Windows?
,----[ Quote ]
| Should we be ready, as Kent Brockman might put it, to "welcome our new
| Microsoft overlords," or are the IDC Quarterly Server Tracker figures not
| really reflecting the reality of how servers are used in businesses? I, for
| one, think that what IDC is measuring and what server operating systems
| people are really using are two entirely different things.
`----
http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS8060720094.html
Microsoft's Sponsored OOXML Study
,----[ Quote ]
| Today, Microsoft made available an IDC study about so-called open desktop
| file formats. It's yet another Microsoft propaganda effort, as a crucial
| format standards vote approaches.
`----
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/business_applications/microsofts_sponsored_ooxml_study.html?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535
http://tinyurl.com/2tx9eo
IDC pronounces Linux unimportant to European economy [in Microsoft-commissioned
study]
,----[ Quote ]
| A recent IDC white paper on the economic impact of Microsoft's super
| soaraway new Vista operating system seems to be lacking one crucial
| ingredient -- other operating systems.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34542
NY Times bans Microsoft analysts from Microsoft stories
,----[ Quote ]
| Part of the problem stems from the reticence of companies such as
| IDC and Gartner to reveal their clients. That should make everyone
| nervous, but it doesn't. So called objective technology publications
| keep publishing material bought by vendors without telling you this.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/15/nytimes_ms_ban/
IDC Study:
,----[ Quotes with annotation ]
| "(Microsoft manager:) I don't like the fact that the report show us losing
| on TCO on webservers. I don't like the fact that the report show us losing
| on availability (windows was down more than linux). And I don't like the
| fact that the reports says nothing new is coming with windows .net server."
|
| [...]
|
| "I don't like it to be public on the doc that we sponsored it because I
| don't think the outcome is as favorable as we had hoped. I just don't like
| competitors using it as ammo against us. It is easier if it doesn't mention
| that we sponsored it."
`----
http://www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/9000/PX09695.pdf
Vista filip for US states, claims IDC
,----[ Quote ]
| While reviewers debate the merits of Windows Vista and analysts puzzle the
| over the pace of adoption, IDC and Microsoft are in little doubt over its
| impact for the economies of America's 50 states.
|
| To date, IDC has estimated Windows Vista will create 37,000 new jobs and
| generate $15.5bn in related products and services across just four US
| states.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/24/microsoft_windows_vista_idc/
IDC report on Open Document Standards
,----[ Quote ]
| This study is a fact-based analysis of the emerging open document
| standards, Open XML and ODF.
`----
http://openxmldeveloper.org/archive/2006/11/27/IDC_Open_Document_Standards.aspx
Vista launch to add 100,000 Europe IT jobs: study
,----[ Quote ]
| The study, conducted by research firm IDC and commissioned by Microsoft,
| said Windows Vista will be installed on over 30 million personal computers
| in Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and United Kingdom within the
| first year of shipment.
`----
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060914/tc_nm/microsoft_study_dc
Shill season
,----[ Quote ]
| It's often difficult to figure out the motivation behind a particular
| study - until one finds out who has commissioned and paid for it.
| The so-called tech consulting companies would love it if the consumer
| believes that they have conducted an "independent" study. The worrying
| thing is that not many people blow their cover.
`----
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/8109/1090/
Microsoft Press Releases: Read Between the Lines
,----[ Quote ]
| We have a game we play around the office here with Microsoft press
| releases. The game is called Find the words that make the headline
| true. It's not always easy.
|
| [...]
|
| Our point: Microsoft has a long history of using press releases top
| romote their product momentum in shall we say interesting ways,
| using words like "fastest growing" (meaning, the number we started
| with was really really small) to redefining words such as "sold."
| It's not good marketing practice. Why? Because once consumers and
| press people figure out you are playing lawyer, they stop believing
| you and your brand. And that's more likely to do you harm than good.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/061211/22190_id.html?.v=1
|
|
