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General Category => Amstrad CPC hardware => Topic started by: Misel982001 on 21:31, 11 September 17

Title: Sales figures
Post by: Misel982001 on 21:31, 11 September 17
Hello guys! I hope you are well!  I did a research on my own but I could not find how many CPC's were sold, overal and per range. How many 464's, 664's, 6128's and plus range were totally sold over the years?
Besides this, what was the biggest selling game of the cpc and how many copies of it were sold?
Thanx!

8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
Title: Re: Sales figures
Post by: Bryce on 08:10, 12 September 17
You could try using the German Tank Problem method to estimate how many CPCs were sold?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_tank_problem

Bryce.
Title: Re: Sales figures
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 11:24, 12 September 17
Although the german tank problem analysis seems more than right here, I think that I would go for a more simplistic view. Knowing Amstrad, I am quite sure that they managed to sell all the units of the standard CPC, and probably quite a few of the Pluses, if not all. If we knew the production numbers we would probably know the units sold as well. I reckon that they did not scrap a single machine  :) .


But we can always collect a ton of serial numbers and do our own analysis, it sounds fun!
Title: Re: Sales figures
Post by: Bryce on 12:25, 12 September 17
Yes, but we DON'T know the production numbers, hence the need to use something like the German Tank method.

Bryce.
Title: Re: Sales figures
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 13:20, 12 September 17
Maybe we can ask for the info?  :) I guess that it is not classified anymore. Otherwise yes, we can start collecting serial numbers  :D
Title: Re: Sales figures
Post by: arnoldemu on 13:46, 12 September 17
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 13:20, 12 September 17
Maybe we can ask for the info?  :) I guess that it is not classified anymore. Otherwise yes, we can start collecting serial numbers  :D
Thankfully Amstrad changed pcb and their logo over time, so perhaps only use the serials of later cpc models. :)

Title: Re: Sales figures
Post by: ThomH on 14:10, 12 September 17
From Google Images I found a Korean-manufactured 464 (http://bilgisayarlarim.com/Amstrad/CPC464/CPC464_17.jpg) with serial number 533-8301061, all on on line, and another (https://picclick.co.uk/Vintage-AMSTRAD-CPC-464-Colour-Personal-Computer-64K-292242741388.html#&gid=1&pid=12) with a much more flimsily stuck-on number of 55169 and/or K31-46.

Is enough known to determine how those two things relate to one another? If not then total production estimation could be tricky.
Title: Re: Sales figures
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 20:15, 12 September 17
Nope... to apply the algorithm Bryce is suggesting you need several serial numbers and then work out, more or less, how the numbering worked. In principle the number could even come from individual parts, for example, the ASICs. These parts would need to be only present in the CPC or Plus range, an ubiquitous component would not be good for the purpose. It is even possible that we would need to tackle the problem by analyzing the numbers of each PCB version  :)
Title: Re: Sales figures
Post by: Dubliner on 08:37, 13 September 17
It's difficult to estimate sales numbers for every model, but the Amstrad website give us a good start:

3 Million CPCs
8 Million PCWs
12 Million PCs

Sadly, they don't list the Plus series, the 664 or the 472, so we must assume that either they sold marginally or that their numbers are included in the CPC range. Who knows.
Title: Re: Sales figures
Post by: Bryce on 08:53, 13 September 17
You can use the dates on the ICs to tell when a CPC with serial number X was actually manufactured.

Bryce.
Title: Re: Sales figures
Post by: chinnyhill10 on 10:02, 13 September 17
Quote from: Bryce on 08:53, 13 September 17
You can use the dates on the ICs to tell when a CPC with serial number X was actually manufactured.

Bryce.


What we do know is that Amstrad made 70,000 664's. (source: The Amstrad Story) and that the total figure is somewhere near 3 million.


As a publicly listed company, Amstrad's Annual Report might yield info. Anyone ever looked?
Title: Re: Sales figures
Post by: Misel982001 on 21:23, 13 September 17
I really dont get how to use the Tank Problem....
Title: Re: Sales figures
Post by: tjohnson on 21:35, 13 September 17
Wow that is alot of revenue 3 million CPC say at £400 thats £1.2Bn in revenue, 8 million PCW at £500 is £4Bn in revenue a huge amount of money in the 80s.  No wonder Alan is so well off!  Wonder what sort of margin they made on each unit?

Anyway sorry to butt in maybe someone could contact Amstrad and ask if they still have records, I know they owned by Sky now but you never know.
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