Market reports redux

Little did I think when posting my blog about laser market reports two weeks ago that I was throwing accelerant on a fire. Since then, I have logged in a dozen and half more, bringing the total now to 70 reports published by 35 research sources—an increase over the 25 sources previously reported.

Now, the subject breakdown is cutting (15), welding (16), marking/engraving (9), drilling (2), other processing (11), and general laser processing (17). As a closet statistician, I am having a great time tracking and analyzing these report offerings.

As the editor-in-chief of one of the leading publications on the subject, I am puzzling over the ability of 35 researchers to query market equipment suppliers and get useable responses. I can just imagine what laser equipment marketing executives say after fielding the first dozen calls on the same subject.

I’ll be professional and not suggest the possibility of someone hacking into a researcher's computer to pirate data, but there is a certain sameness to some of the reports. On the other hand, if the researchers are all correct, the data should be about the same, anyway.

Stay tuned for further updates on this inconsequential matter.