Re: Business DVD player saturation

From: Paul Coates <drpaul_66_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Tue 02 Sep 2003 08:49:56 -0500

Sarah, you may be playing over your market. That is,
setting a goal for your market audience that may not be
reasonable.

> I'm trying to find out what percentage of
> businesses actually have access to DVD players
> [at work, not at home].
> :
> I hear that business computers from 2001 are
> standard-equipped with DVD-ROM drives, but don't
> know what percentage of our business audience
> owns a computer newer than 2 years old.

DVD and DVD-Ram are standard for most new computers, but
as a small business owner, I only have a stand alone DVD
player at home.

I'm successful at what I do, but I only JUST got this item
a few short months ago, when they went on sale for under
$100 at Wally World (ask a southerner where that is).

What you have to look at is; what is STANDARD for your
market.

> Our business audience is high-growth, but not
> necessarily Fortune 500. Is there anyplace
> online that has these stats: percentage of
> businesses in the US that have upgraded their
> computers over the past two years? Or . . . the
> saturation point for business DVD player access?

I, myself, use multiple computers, some as old as 10 years
old, and my business IS the Internet.

 From experience of soliciting small businesses all over
the country for internet radio advertising, especially the
ones that deal with the internet as their major market, I
find that most Businesses use computers 3-5 years old.
CD-Roms in these machines are generally just that 16x-24x
CD-Rom only, forget CD-RW, DVD-R or DVD-Ram, as these are
seen as accessories with no real business use.

I find a direct impact on my business in that most, if not
all, of the business owners only deal with dial-up ISP
providers & 56k modems, as opposed to broadband. For this
reason I have to program my streaming audio broadcasts so
that these customers, on their old computers, can tune
into the streaming audio or download the pages I publish.

To that end, I publish my radio stream at 16kbps, 16khz,
mono. This format is easily streamed into a 26400
connection which is what some of my advertisers
experience with their dial-up connection, even on a 56k
modem, without being too poor a quality for listeners
accustomed to broadband.

 From this example, perhaps you should consider opening
your market with a self playing Video CD (VCD), that will
play in a standard CD-Rom. This would widen your market,
provide an example to your audience that you understand
the limitations of the little guy, and inform/provide
entertainment to your market efficiently without insulting
the more advanced.

-Paul-




Received on Tue Sep 02 2003 - 08:49:56 CDT