Sales numbers CD-i

Anything relating to CD-i can be discussed in this forum. From the multiple hardware iterations of the system to the sofware including games, reference, music and Video CDs. Maybe you hold an interest in Philips Media and the many development houses set up to cater for CD-i if so then this is the forum.
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Plaksel
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Sales numbers CD-i

Post by Plaksel » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:07 pm

Hi Guys
I'm working for an assignment for school about the cd-i. I thought maybe you can help me. I'm looking for concrete sales numbers concerning the Cd-i. Has anyone an idea i cant find it on the internet

Thnx in advance!

Plaksel

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Bas
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Post by Bas » Wed Sep 26, 2007 6:07 pm

that doesn't surprise me. Rough sales numbers you can find in the dutch CD-i Magazine, so if you are dutch, that's a start. Concrete sales numbers weren't shared a lot and I even suspect companies to flourish them a bit, like Philips was eager on companies like GM and McDonalds buying thousands of players intended for their employees (so... educational field). I tried to collect a few and already found some contradicting numbers. I remember the 250.000 sales point of Alien Gate being the best selling CD-i game in 1995!

But real consumer sales numbers? hmmmm ;)

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cdifan
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Post by cdifan » Wed Sep 26, 2007 11:16 pm

The numbers were inherently unreliable, even at the time. Philips Media counted CD-i's as shipped from the pressing plant, which included everything sitting on store shelves and everywhere in between. Royalties got paid based on those numbers.

When CD-i dropped out from the stores, lots of discs came back and the sales numbers dropped, sometimes by a significant amount. At that time, those royalties had to be paid back to Philips Media!

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Bas
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Post by Bas » Sat Sep 29, 2007 9:54 am

In 1995 this was in the dutch paper: "Philips has claimed that around a million CD-I machines have been sold worldwide as at the beginning of the year, with 500,000 units sold in Europe."

that's..... quite a lot?

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Ruekov
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Post by Ruekov » Sun Sep 30, 2007 11:25 am

Bas, quite different numbers respect The New York Times* news about the end of CD-i (200.000 units sold).

I found old news about cd-i in a spanish tech web. Here the post about it.

*Sorry, really are Wall Street Journal Europe.
Last edited by Ruekov on Sun Sep 30, 2007 12:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Bas
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Post by Bas » Sun Sep 30, 2007 11:59 am

It's a perfect example of how unreliable sales numbers are.
On the one side the numbers include professional sales and production values of the factory. On the other side it's based on one or a few big retail channels, covering a big part on what they sold in one area (europe?)

The real numbers will be.... somewhere in between?

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Devin
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Post by Devin » Sun Sep 30, 2007 12:05 pm

Then do those numbers take into account the professional market?

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Erronous
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Post by Erronous » Sun Sep 30, 2007 9:12 pm

200.000 is too low, a company in Holland claims to have sold 14.000 of the CDI470 type machines. They did say they were philips' biggest customer at the time.

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