QuickTime To Get Boost From "More Accurate" Statistics

Justen writes "Nielsen is expected to release a new set of ratings for media players on July 1. Apple lobbied the firm to use new methods to form usage statistics. The new methods are expected to dramatically increase the reported market share of QuickTime. Nielsen says it doesn't reflect a dramatic jump in actual installations, just a more accurate picture of what's been there all along. The article also mentions the new beta of QuickTime 6 and its support for MPEG-4, ahead of Real and Microsoft."

Comments

Re:Alternate Title Large Corp Lobbies To Change St

[2nd Post!]

Read the article.

Apple got them to recalculate the stats in their favor because their earlier algorithms were, um, erroneous.

Then think about this quote, from Mark Twain I believe. "There are three kinds of lies. Lies, damn lies, and statistics."

Statistics is all about taking raw data and making predictive or explanatory statements from them.

How can you count Quicktime usage?

How about downloads per month?
How about upgrades per release?
How about hits to Apple.com/quicktime per month?
How about number of .movs downloaded per month?

All of them are reasonable.

Would you believe, that until now, Quicktime .movs streamed to web browsers weren't counted? That's what Apple convinced Nielson to do. Count embedded .movs.

Statistics have already been released.

[finnatic]

There are two *newer* stories on cnet than the one referenced:

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-938423.html

and

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-938827.html.

The result? Apple is closer to it's competitors, but Real still leads, and is losing it's lead to MSFT.

A better link for Nielsen/Net Ratings (or whatever they're called - at least it's not "monday"):
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/