Approximately two hundred brands of personal computers are being manuf

Question

Approximately two hundred brands of personal computers are being manufactured, but we currently limit our inventory to only the eight most popular brands. We plan to increase greatly the number of computers we sell by expanding our inventory to include the ten best-selling brands.

Which of the following, if true, points out a major weakness of the plan above?

(A) The capabilities of three most popular personal computers add to be approximately equivalent, with no brand having consistent superiority in all respects.

(B) The seven most popular brands of personal computers account for almost all computers sold.

(C) As the users of personal computers become more sophisticated, they are more willing to buy less well-known brands of computers.

(D) Less popular brands of computers often provide less profit to the retailer because prices must be discounted to attract customers.

(E) The leading brand of personal computer has been losing sales to less popular brands that offer similar capabilities for less money.

SonalSinha803 · Accepted Answer

Only B and D can catch your attention.

However, only one can be right and it is B. D is incorrect because it talks about profit. However the argument is not concerned about profits. It is only focused on including brands to increase sales. Thus, B deliberately weakens the argument by giving a reason that even if more brands are included, sales won't increase.

Thus, B is the best.

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Pavelxxx · Answer

Only 7 brands give us income. If we start to sell 3 more brands of computers (totalling 10), we will not increase our sells, because people will go on not to buy other computers which are not those 7. So, people buy only 7 brands, other brands are not interesting for them.
So B weakens the argument

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ParthSanghavi · Answer

daagh   VeritasKarishma

Could you please explain why (B) is correct?

AdityaHongunti · Answer

Understand : 
- we limit our inventory ( available stock with the company at present) to 8 most popular brands
- We will expand our inventory to include "ten best selling brands"
- why??   INCREASE GREATLY   the number of computers we sell
 
- Flaw

Think:  
 Typical GMAT pattern - OVERLAP of groups .... I want to increase the sale of computers from my store. I already have 8 most popular computers , and now i am going to expand my inventory to 10 best selling brands. why?? I want to increase my sale SUBSTANTIALLY. But what if i get to know that the most popular are themselves best selling?? that is most of my current most popular brands are actually the best selling then including the same brands once again  MAY NOT increase my sale GREATLY
  .Have I made sure that both are actually different?? that is there is a minimal overlap of both groups??
 
- In this answer choice we are only considering the most popular brands and comapring capabilities among them. HOW does this choice help us ecaluate the efficacy of my plan to increase sale by include BST selling brands??
 .
 - If 7 of most popular brands are also the most selling (best selling) then including 2 top selling brands  may not increase my sale GREATLY . Sure it may increase but not  greatly  
 
-This does not talk about a weakness in my plan. also there is a reason why "best selling brands" is used. It means consumers actuallu but those specific brands in great numbers.
 
- "profit" is not our concern. we are concerned with SALE
 
-"The " that means one particular brand is loosing its market to someone else. But are we including that brand in our inventory?? WE DONT KNOW

pkshankar · Answer

They are currently selling 8 most popular brands and expect that by selling 10 best selling brands their sales figures will shoot up.
We need a weakener.
Option B says that almost all the sales are accounted for by the 7 most popular brands hence inclusion of 2 more brands may not really have a big impact.
Hence B is the answer

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Rohit23 · Answer

The plan here is to increase the number of computers in the inventory greatly by including 2 more brands. Choice B would be the most weakening sentence because if top 7 brands account for almost all the computers sold then it would make minimal change in the number of computers in the inventory if he includes two more brands. Hence, B is the answer.

Muskaan1237 · Answer

I think here one of the major factor is that the question talks about best selling brands and not cheap/popular brand. A cheap brand can be best-selling. For example Oppo is a cheap brand in India but it is highly possible that it is one of the best selling brand

Azakura16 · Answer

Premise: Approx 200 brands of PCs are being manufactured.
Premise: We currently limit our inventory to the eight most popular brands.
Conclusion: We plan to greatly increase the number of computers we sell by expanding our inventory to include the ten best-selling brands.

We’re looking to weaken the argument.

A. Irrelevant. These brands are included in either inventory offering.
B. This weakens the argument. If the seven most popular brands account for a majority of sales, then it seems unlikely that adding the ninth and tenth most popular brands would  greatly increase  the number of computers sold.
C. This potentially strengthens our argument, if by  less well-known  they mean a preference for the ninth and tenth best-selling brands. It’s not the answer to our question though.
D. Irrelevant. We’re talking about numbers of computers sold, not profit.
E. The leading brand could be losing sales to the second or third leading brand, or it could be losing sales to the ninth or tenth leading brand. Without that being clarified, this choice has an ambiguous effect on the conclusion.
Best choice is B.

SafSin28 · Answer

QS: Weakness of the plan
Argument: 
Bgrnd info: 200 brands but we have the 8 most popular ones!
Plan: if the 10 most popular, then we sell more comp.s.
The added 2 increases sales?!
(A) The capabilities of three most popular personal computers add to be approximately equivalent, with no brand having consistent superiority in all respects.--- OUT. It just describes the top 3.

(B) The seven most popular brands of personal computers account for almost all computers sold.-- Ok. a weakener for the plan

(C) As the users of personal computers become more sophisticated, they are more willing to buy less well-known brands of computers.- hurts the argument

(D) Less popular brands of computers often provide less profit to the retailer because prices must be discounted to attract customers.-- additional info. OUT

(E) The leading brand of personal computer has been losing sales to less popular brands that offer similar capabilities for less money.--hurts the argument

shivansh2501 · Answer

Author's Conclusion-  Increase the number of computers we sell  by expanding our inventory to include the ten best-selling brands

A.  Out of scope-  The capabilities of the top three most popular computers are not of our concern, we just need to find an option which will weaken our plan leading to less sales of computers

B.  Correct Answer (Weakener)-  If the seven most popular brands account for the most number of computers sold, then it doesn't make sense to add the best-selling brands, on adding the best-selling brands, it will only lead to a decrease in the overall number of computers that we sell. Suppose earlier we had 80 computers to sell from the most popular brands and we sold 79 of them, if we add 100 from the best-selling brands, we will sell only 79 computers of the total 180 as compared to 79/180 previously.

C.  Neutral -  If people are willing to buy less known brands, some of these brands might be a part of the ten best-selling brands right? So this might or might not lead to an increase in the number of computers that we sell.

D.  Out of scope-  We are not concerned with whether the  profit  of the retailer will increase or decrease or how his revenue will be affected!

E.  Neutral-  If the leading (most popular) brand of computers has been losing sales to less popular brands, again some of these brands might be a part of the best-selling brands that we plan to include, uncertain whether it will increase or decrease our sales.

agrasan · Answer

Hi  KarishmaB   DmitryFarber   IanStewart

(C) As the users of personal computers become more sophisticated, they are more willing to buy less well-known brands of computers.

Can we say that (C) is wrong because we have to make an  unwarranted assumption  that users buying computers are sophisticated which is not supported by the argument?

IanStewart · Answer

Not only that, but if C is true, then it will be to the store's advantage to start selling less popular brands, and that is precisely their plan. So if you make that unwarranted assumption, C is still wrong, because it does not point to a flaw in the plan.

That said, this is not a good question (answer choice A does not even make sense).

officiisnobis · Answer

Conclusion :- We plan to increase greatly the number of computers we sell by expanding our inventory to include the ten best-selling brands.
Pre-thinking :- What if the new computers added do not sell as much as others then how will the plan of increasing the number of computers sold expand?

Option B matches the pre-thinking.

DropletMaverick · Answer

if we are already selling the top 8 most popular brand and  B  is talking about almost all the computer sold are from seven most popular brand then that weaken the argument to expand the inventery to include ten best selling brans will be counter productive !!
Hence the answer  B  most weaken the argument.

Approximately two hundred brands of personal computers are being manuf

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Approximately two hundred brands of personal computers are being manuf

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