The $25,000 PDF at Amazon | Hacker News Reader

The $25,000 PDF at Amazon

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31 pointsalpb39 comments

Edit: Forgot to say, very same PDF is for free on IDC website http://www.idc.com/MarketScape/download/IDC_MarketScape_Virtual_Tape_Library.pdf

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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!

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 understand now. Thanks!

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.

I have no idea who 'mpclark is or what his research firm does; we're commenting about a very large enterprise analyst firm here.

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.

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)

I don't have much of a problem with gigantic price tags on research reports sold to buyers.

I do have a problem with the business model that soaks vendors for "valuable research" as a pretext for pay-to-play appearances in reports.

I cannot say that that is the business model of any specific firm, including the firm whose report is the subject of this thread. Just that I've been very closely involved in A.R. for a couple companies now and know how the market works.

Yes, point taken. Some funny stuff does go on. We've been approached more than once to provide nice supporting quotes for big company press releases, on a paid basis. Gedouttahere!

(The flipside of this is you should run a mile when you see "independent" analysts quoted in vendor press releases)

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.

Not only does it ensure appearance in these reports, access to analysts also gives a firm the ability to influence the report itself through "its market expertise" and whatnot. It's actually not entirely a bad thing for this to happen, since the companies in the industry actually do have better ground level knowledge about the details and direction of the industry.

As with many things, balance is of the essence. :)

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!

Haha... that's a dealbreaker right? Give me free shipping and I'll buy it before you can say 'semiconductor'! :P

EDIT: Review of the microsemiconductor: "Sure, the price looks okay for a microsemiconductor. However, for only 6.3 million dollars more, I was able to purchase a macro whole conductor, Sir Simon Rattle of the Berlin Philharmonic." ROFL

So what can I sell this copy for?

http://www.idc.com/MarketScape/download/IDC_MarketScape_Virt...

I accidentally downloaded the PDF. What do owe you?

Since I already read it once, I'll give you a 50% discount.

Indeed, the $25,000 PDF is also available as one of the free samples on IDC's website.

"Download Samples Now" on this page: http://www.idc.com/MarketScape/index.jsp

I've never been so terrified of a "buy with one-click" button in my life.

Be scared.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Microsemiconductor-120293-000...

Googling around has led me to http://120293-0001revkmicrosemiconductor.blogspot.com/, which greatly puzzles me.

Amazon affiliate advertising bot.

Guessing it's an affiliate marketing scheme. Some guy made a bot that generates blogspot blogs that refer to various Amazon products. When you click on any of those Amazon links they'll use his affiliate id.

Actually it's not an affiliate bot. Whatever a microsemiconductor is, it costs 10 million dollars:

http://store.americanmicrosemiconductor.com/120293-0001revk....

I also enjoy the negative 9 million dollar discount you get.

Does anyone know what a microsemiconductor does?

They make up for it with the $10 shipping.

I have added it to my Amazon Whish List ...

You will get a $5 Amazon MP3 Credit if you buy a textbook >$25. So I guess it's worth it.

This is how smart criminals launder money?

it may very well be. the smart ones do thousand of small, "insignificant" transactions.

I've wondered if that isn't the case, actually, on some non-digital products. You'll see a bunch of sellers offering an item around Amazon's own price, and then someone else selling it for $999.00. Those could just be tests, I suppose...

And it's just 20 pages long! Damn. Never saw us charging like that when I worked for one of their subsidiaries.

The reviews at the bottom are priceless.

Forgot to say, I believe the very same PDF is available at http://www.idc.com/MarketScape/download/IDC_MarketScape_Virt...

What's the big deal, I remember a CD of Janes books used to cost $10,000, and that was in the 90's without widely available broadband.

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.

They have "Verified Purchaser" badges to help you interpret a review.

That "Buy now with 1 click" button makes me nervous.

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