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The $25,000 PDF at Amazon

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21–30 of 43 posts

Re: The $25,000 PDF at Amazon

#21

So you can review a product thats available on Amazon without actually having purchased it? Surely thats a flaw?

This was a design decision made long ago at Amazon. The reasoning is quite simple: If you buy a product somewhere else, or want to write a review based on the description, you should be able to share the information you want.

Not to mention you get some pretty funny fake reviews on products like the three wolf moon shirt.

Re: The $25,000 PDF at Amazon

#22

Here is what I get in my "Customers who viewed this also viewed" list: 120293-0001REVK: $10mil (various electronic components?) Zenith Men's Extreme Tourbillion watch: 90k 6-in-1 keychain multitool: $9.95 Dating for Dummies: $14.95 Giant inflatable human hamster ball: $1,699.99 Tactical Bleeding Zombie Target: $94.59 I assume you guys are responsible for these?

I just noticed those jerks at American Semiconductor are charging ten dollars shipping for the $10,000,000.00 part. What a rip!

Re: The $25,000 PDF at Amazon

#23
post #5

Subtext, for those of you who don't know how analyst firms work: Vendors subscribe to these things, or buy reports for their field, in order to get access to analysts. Access to analysts ensures that they themselves will appear in these reports.

Well, my firm does research reports like this (but not quite as expensive) and that is emphatically not our business model. We set out to deliver the best information we can to whoever needs and will buy it, and there is no relationship between being a customer and getting mentioned in a report.

It probably obvious to all, but I'll just state for the record that proper research reports are expensive to put together (and often impossible for buyers to do, because industry players won't talk to each other in the same way as they will talk to analysts) and typically sell in very small volumes (from just a handful of copies through to a couple of hundred if things go well -- of course there are outliers that become huge successes too, but they are few and far between)

Re: The $25,000 PDF at Amazon

#24
post #5

Subtext, for those of you who don't know how analyst firms work: Vendors subscribe to these things, or buy reports for their field, in order to get access to analysts. Access to analysts ensures that they themselves will appear in these reports.

What is an analyst? Just any kind of analyst, in the traditional sense of the word? How do you get access to people when you subscribe to a publication? Why would they want to be in those reports? I'm confused!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analyst

In this case, IDC is a tech market research firm that has a stable of tech analyst that research and evaluate the a market and distill their work into a fancy book report. There are others like Gartner and Forrester that do something similar. Tech companies, media companies and investment banks buy these reports to keep track of the latest trends.

Re: The $25,000 PDF at Amazon

#26
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is an analyst? Just any kind of analyst, in the traditional sense of the word? How do you get access to people when you subscribe to a publication? Why would they want to be in those reports? I'm confused!

Analysts are the people who write about subsets of the technology market for market research firms. They travel to vendors and to large companies who buy from vendors and attempt to assess the whole market; then they write these reports, which are ostensibly intended to help enterprise purchasers pick the right products (and thus easily justify 5-figure price tags).

I think you're failing to distinguish between companies like Gartner, who are more along the lines of what you describe (i.e. mass-market research) and other companies (like mpclark's) that have a small audience and need a lot of work to produce these reports.

Re: The $25,000 PDF at Amazon

#29
post #5

Subtext, for those of you who don't know how analyst firms work: Vendors subscribe to these things, or buy reports for their field, in order to get access to analysts. Access to analysts ensures that they themselves will appear in these reports.

[deleted]

Re: The $25,000 PDF at Amazon

#30
post #5

Subtext, for those of you who don't know how analyst firms work: Vendors subscribe to these things, or buy reports for their field, in order to get access to analysts. Access to analysts ensures that they themselves will appear in these reports.

And also timing. A paid analyst report might sell for $25,000 on release, could sell for $0 (free with registration) once it is superceded.
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