(..) IDC first must determine how many computers there are in the country and how many of them installed software in 2008. IDC tracks this information quarterly in 105 countries, either in products we call “PC Trackers” or as part of custom assignments. The remaining countries are researched annually for this study.
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Once we know how many computers there are, then we need to determine how much software each one obtained in 2008. To do this, we conduct an annual survey, which this year covered a mix of 24 countries from all geographies, levels of IT sophistication, and geographic and cultural influences. More than 3,600 consumer responses and 2,600 worker responses were received. In the survey, we asked respondents how many software packages (of what type) were installed on their PCs, what percent were new or upgrades, whether they came with the computers, and whether they were installed on a new computer or one acquired prior to 2008.
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For countries that were not surveyed, we use a mix of other countries and data from previous surveys to develop a figure for the number of units per PC. we choose proxy countries that match the target country in IT sophistication, region, and PC market dynamics.
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Next, to obtain the number of pirated software units — the numerator of the piracy equation — we first come up with a measure of the software market. IDC routinely publishes software market estimates for about 80 countries and studies an additional 20 or more on a custom basis. for the remaining countries, we conduct research annually for this study. This research gives us the value of the legitimate “paid for” market.
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To convert the software market value to number of units, we develop an average system price for all the PC software in the country. This we do by developing a country-specific matrix of software prices — retail, volume license, oeM, free/open source, etc. — across a matrix of products — security, office automation, operating systems, etc. we multiply the two matrices together to get a final average, blended software price. our pricing information comes from our pricing trackers and from local analyst research. our weightings — oeM versus retail, consumer versus business, etc. — come from our survey.
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Once we know the number of total units of software installed, the number of legitimate and pirated units of software installed, and the average system price for legitimate software, we calculate losses as follows:
$ Losses = # Pirated Software Units x Average System Price