Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft-NPD Connections

“Analysts sell out - that’s their business model… But they are very concerned that they never look like they are selling out, so that makes them very prickly to work with.”

--Microsoft, internal document [PDF]



A LOT of people are saying "NPD this" and "NPD that" right now, but not many people are aware of the firm's business model. For each lie there is a party gaining and that's just how money is made.



We have already explained that NPD is close to Microsoft, but here are some references from recent years for those who are not easily convinced.

Since we cover a lot of stories about the copyright cartel, here is something to give an idea of how NPD is viewed based on its actions:

But wait! The NPD Group? Isn't it that market research firm which spotted the opportunities offered by the corporate movie and music companies from afar and almost overnight became an expert on p2p file sharing with, "highly questionable statistics blatantly slanted towards the entertainment cartels?"


Mind the headline of the article above. It says: "Vista: better than expected"

Yes, that was a few years back when Microsoft paid many analyst groups including IDC to praise Vista. Let us not forget Gartner, either. Microsoft negotiated with them regarding Vista.

But anyway, back to NPD, here is what a Microsoft fan and analyst said about NPD's numbers that flatter Microsoft:

To be clear: The missing information is to be expected, and I don't mean to reflect poorly on Swenson or NPD. Research firms aren't in the business of giving away information to the news media, but selling it to clients. The information provided to the press should be incomplete.


Says an analyst from Jupiter, whose analysis is centred around Microsoft.

Remember Zune? The product that fails to stay alive?

Watch what NPD said about the Zune's performance in the market:

''All in all, that's a pretty good performance,'' said Stephen Baker, an analyst with Reston, Va.-based NPD.


It's worth learning about the man who wrote this article.

Here is more:

Despite getting a hammering in the tech press, Microsoft's Zune has had respectable sales last month according to data from market research firm NPD Group.


You can't make this stuff up, or can you? Channel stuffing in this case.

Here is a story that Reuters published based on NPD regarding Microsoft's Xbox 360. And guess what? Reuters withdrew the story shortly after it had been published. How come? Here is the explanation: "The Los Angeles story headlined "Microsoft's Xbox 360 US sales top first Xbox--NPD" is withdrawn because the data supporting the story may be inaccurate. Reuters is waiting for an update from the company. A new story may be issued."

Here is how the story appeared in Reuters at the time (under a slightly different headline):

Microsoft's Xbox 360 US sales-NPD story withdrawn



The Los Angeles story headlined "Microsoft's Xbox 360 US sales top first Xbox--NPD" is withdrawn because the data supporting the story may be inaccurate. Reuters is waiting for an update from the company. A new story may be issued.


Take from that what you will about NPD and Microsoft whenever this pair shows up in the same article. NPD loves to momentarily count how many products are forcibly pushed into the warehouses of specific stores (sometimes geographic preference, a la IDC). It's one of the oldest tricks in the books, so it's a lie, although technically it may not be, not even marginally.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 03/10/2025: "NPR’s Economics Lessons Come With Neoliberal Spin" and Canada Post at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/10/2025: Panic Attacks and Food Adulteration
Links for the day
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October