John Wilson schrieb am Tue, 16 Sep 2003 12:41:03 -0700:
> My assumption is that either the entry into bankruptcy protection
> messed up their distrubtion channels and McMillian pulled back or that
> someone just dropped the ball in North America.
Sorry to say, but: no.
I took the freedom to forward Anne Wilson's first message in this
thread, starting with:
> I have moved to a new thread, in the hope that someone at
> MandrakeSoft, or at least, someone in touch with MandrakeSoft, might
> see it.
I forwarded it to Gaël Duval, co-founder of MandrakeSoft, creator of
Mandrake Linux, responsible for communications. I hope this is
"MandrakeSoft" enough for you.
Here's what he answered:
<quote>
In short:
The overall Linux retail market (all distributions) in the USA has
decreased by around 20% by year since year 2000. One of the reasons for
this decline is that most users now have access to a high-bandwitdh
access, so they prefer to download the ISOs. As a result we started to
lose money on the US retail, so we agreed to stop it with our US
distributor.
At the same time, online services and MandrakeStore revenues are
exploding, so it's certainly a better business model than pushing just
one or two products in shelves. For instance, we sell maybe a dozen
MandrakeSoft products on Store, it would be impossible to do in the
retail. And we're thinking about selling "dematerialized products" for
download (all pack ISOs for instance), which is really a more powerful
business model.
Anyway, if we feel that the retail market would start to grow up again,
we would certainly consider to address it again. We're also aware that
being on shelves is good for mindshare.
Regards,
Gaël.
<unquote>
I can see his point.
wobo
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
