If you go by the popularity of Gaming units, as of Jan 4th 2015, Sony’

Question

If you go by the popularity of Gaming units, as of Jan 4th 2015, Sony’s PS4 sold 18.5 million units and reached 10.9 million PlayStation Plus subscribers, a growth of 37.9% from October 2014. Despite the massive growth, Sony’s PlayStation is behind Microsoft’s Xbox One, which in November 2014 accelerated its sales due to a $50 price cut, and a bundle of free games. On 28th January 2015, Spotify, the leading music subscription service announced an exclusive partnership with PS4, and offered digital music to 64 million PlayStation Network users. With the announcement, Feb 2015 saw a spike in sales for the PS4 units by 45%.

Which one of the following conclusions is valid for the above statements?

a) PS4, on itself, does not have the brand reach nor the mass following needed to overtake Microsoft’s Xbox One.

b) Demand for Microsoft’s Xbox One declined during Feb 2015

c) Bundling of services has increased the market share for Sony’s PS4

d) Price Cut had a direct impact on sales of Gaming Units

e) Sales of Sony’s PS4 will overtake Microsoft’s Xbox One in 2015

huyendiep · Answer

I'd pick A using POE. 
The other answers are ISWATs or inconsistent with the premises.

ravikrishna1979 · Answer

With the announcement, Feb 2015 saw a spike in sales for the PS4 units by 45%.

The last line gives clear information that due to bundling , PS4 sales have one up.

Which one of the following conclusions is valid for the above statements?

a) PS4, on itself, does not have the brand reach nor the mass following needed to overtake Microsoft’s Xbox One. 
--No it cannot be concluded, could be that PS4 can cross Xbox but will take its own time may be 1 or 2 years or more

b) Demand for Microsoft’s Xbox One declined during Feb 2015
--Cannot say, may be new customers the bracket has changed due to bundle.

c)  Bundling of services has increased the market share for Sony’s PS4
--This clearly is a conclusion.

d) Price Cut had a direct impact on sales of Gaming Units
--Cannot generalise with one example

e) Sales of Sony’s PS4 will overtake Microsoft’s Xbox One in 2015 
--Cannot say

Geekie2411 · Answer

A) correct. As stated in the passage, on its own sales of PS4 could not surpass Xbox One (the fact that Xbox cut prices to boost sales did not alter this fact)
B) incorrect. There's no mention of this info in the passage.
C) incorrect. Increased sales does not equal increased market shares.
D) incorrect. Xbox One did employ price cut but it also included free games to boost sales. 
E) incorrect. Prediction is not valid in this case.

souvonik2k · Answer

The answer is A which can be inferred from the premises.
All other options are a step further from the premises

asdasasdasasdasasdas · Answer

Clear A

PS4, on itself, does not have the brand reach nor the mass following needed to overtake Microsoft’s Xbox One. IS ALMOST SAYING THE SAME AS THE PREMISE: Despite the massive growth, Sony’s PlayStation is behind Microsoft’s Xbox One

sidoknowia · Answer

OA is D

A -> incorrect -> no info about brands
B -> incorrect -> no info given
c -> increase in sell of products does not imply increase in market share -> incorrect
e - > out of scope

sayantanc2k · Answer

OA has been added. Please see the following link for OE and further discussions on this question: v07-199574.html#p1536010

Alexey1989x · Answer

C - no correlation between volume of sales and market share is mentioned in the article, thus it is out of scope
D - is a rare example of unstated assumption in inference questions since we are not told that Microsoft success in 2014 was due to price cuts however this is the closest to be true option.

guitargeek · Answer

If XBOX's sales increase more than PS4's sales, then C is wrong.

Mahmud6 · Answer

I initially thought the answer would be D, but switched to another thinking that the sale of Xbox One may be accelerated due to  direct  impact of free games and price cut may play an indirect role. Is it possible?

chesstitans · Answer

what is the best strategy to deal with this special kind of question?
It is because there are many numbers in the passage alone.
In options, there are different ideas.

chesstitans · Answer

My 2 cents:
In each option, ones will realize distinct idea is discussed.
A,E are out because I do not believe the company will be overtaken based on information from the passage.
B talks about decreasing demands, C talks about increasing market shares, D talks about price cut. => B is wrong
D is more vivid.

sananoor · Answer

I cant rule out option C, i thought bundling of services "digital music to 64 million user" might have increased the sale to 45% and thus increasing the market share...Can anyone help me

GMATNinjaTwo · Answer

Yes, sales of PS4 may have increased, but if sales of Microsoft’s Xbox One increased by a larger amount, market share for Sony's PS4 would not have increased. We cannot conclude choice (C) without further information.

This question appears to be from an unofficial source (F1GMAT).

FB2017 · Answer

Spike in sales for PS4 might not indicate an increase in market share, however the increase in sales also directs additional consumers must have been included which is not mentioned in the statement.
If the additional consumers were not available then the spike in sales should be accommodated by compromising the XBox's market share. Hence my assumption was option C.
Please advise on this view.

arvind910619 · Answer

This is a tricky question as it contains a large amount of date which can irk us .
The choice is between C and D 
we cannot say 100% positively that the market share of PS4 increased compared with xbox.
The sales of the PS4 have increase but it might so happen that there are other companies selling their own games who have lost their market .
Only option D is inferred properly from the argument.
Hence answer is D

jrk23 · Answer

I saw lots of people are getting confused between c and d. Let me try this

c) Bundling of services has increased the market share for Sony’s PS4

Pay heed to word " Sale" and "share" both have different meaning

It saying market share has been increased means someone else would have been decreased either of microsoft or any other company but nowhere it is mentioned that something like this happened.

Also we only told about the percantage of sale increase not the market share.

Might be sale of both sony and microsoft would have increase, might be not.

So we can't say for surity that increase in sale will lead to increase in share. So that is why "C" is wrong 
 
d) Price Cut had a direct impact on sales of Gaming Units

Impact- Can be positive or negative

But it is sure that due to price cut there is an impact on the sales of gaming unit sold ( as given in the passage).

Hope you understand my reasoning.

In case of any issue or mistake please correct me.

Shubhardwaj31 · Answer

Partnership and bundling are two different strategies, hence (C) can't be the correct answer, (A) can't be must be true cause there could be people who love PS4 but buy X-box due to some specific game which doesn't run in PS4

If you go by the popularity of Gaming units, as of Jan 4th 2015, Sony’

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