From: Marco Cimarosti (marco.cimarosti@essetre.it)
Date: Thu Oct 23 2003 - 03:27:14 CST
Mark Davis wrote:
> Marco, I certainly wouldn't draw that conclusion. This is not
> the appropriate forum for a political or ethical discussion,
Of course. I just noticed that those numbers reflect a sad fact of life:
that rich people get more than poor people. As this fact is so obvious to
anyone, I thought that my remark would not have caused a long discussion.
> but equating "GDP" with "more important" in any general sense
> is clearly a huge leap, and one that I certainly would not
> make.
But there certainly is a correlation between GDP and what people can buy,
including software.
> The goal of the chart was different. Many people mistakenly
> think the potential customer base of non-English-speakers
> is smaller than it actually is.
Ah, I didn't imagine it from this point of view. For people who live in
non-English-speaking countries, it is easier to remember that English is not
the only language in the world.
I thought the chart was intended as a rationale for prioritizing the support
of languages in consideration of the profitability of the corresponding
markets:
1. support for Western languages is priority one, as it corresponds to the
largest slice of market;
2. CJK support comes immediately after, as it corresponds the second largest
market;
3. then comes Bidi support, which corresponds to a smaller but still
interesting market.
4. Indic support can wait, as the corresponding market is less profitable.
This is, IMHO, how people paying our salaries would read the chart. I am not
even blaming them, as that is probably the "correct" reading, by the point
of view of business.
_ Marco
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