Analyst: The pace of technological development brings a

[AlexI708]

I answered this question correctly (B), but now going over my test I am confused how I picked the answer (B)...

Which of the following, if true, would best support the analyst's main assertion?

1. What is the main assertion of this argument? Is it the conclusion of the argument (I understand it is). Then the main conclusion reads as follows:

"So, if a company wishes to announce the upcoming sale of a new device, it should wait until purchases of the old device have begun to decline."

answer B might support other premises in the argument, but not the MAIN ASSERTION! To support the main assertion the answer choice should include other facts. For example: after media introduced the new device while the sales of the old device are still strong, the sales of old device shrinked by 20%.

Basically, in its current state answer (B) isn't strenthening the MAIN ASSERTION.

This quesiton is in fact controversial and therefore should be fixed. It misleads the audience.

[sagarr705]

I have read through the thread, and in my opinion most of the explanations around why B is correct border on wordsmithing. The question asks which answers supports the author's "assertion". First we need to define the author's assertion. There are two candidates.

1) Once consumers hear about the new device, they may stop buying the one currently on sale.
2) So, if a company wishes to announce the upcoming sale of a new device, it should wait until purchases of the old device have begun to decline.

If we assume 1) to be the author' assertion, then choice B fits.

It we assume 2) to be the author's assertion (or conclusion, if you may, not really sure what is the fine line of difference between these two here), then B is definitely not the best answer. Then it will be E, because this option indicates that even though competitors announce new technology launches, customer loyalty will result in most consumers deferring their purchases.

To sum up, I believe everyone is trying to "hard-fit" B into their desired mold. The fact remains, this isnt a great question on part of the question setters.

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Using several different words for the same thing is a confusion tactic employed by the GMAT exam: assertion, conclusion, claim, main point all mean pretty much the same thing. Here, we want the 'main assertion'. You're right to identify two, your second one is the main assertion: it's the end of the line of the author's reasoning.

Answer E provides a trap. Customers can be loyal to a technology company, but that doesn't mean that they are loyal to individual products sold by that company. For example, I may be a loyal Apple customer, but that doesn't mean I'm going to keep buying the same old model once a newer one becomes available.

[sagarr705]

Using several different words for the same thing is a confusion tactic employed by the GMAT exam: assertion, conclusion, claim, main point all mean pretty much the same thing. Here, we want the 'main assertion'. You're right to identify two, your second one is the main assertion: it's the end of the line of the author's reasoning.

Answer E provides a trap. Customers can be loyal to a technology company, but that doesn't mean that they are loyal to individual products sold by that company. For example, I may be a loyal Apple customer, but that doesn't mean I'm going to keep buying the same old model once a newer one becomes available.

While I am not really convinced, I do see where you are going with this one. This is something I would just accept as gray. Let me just write the below for argument sake.

B) does not introduce a anything new to the argument to qualify as strengthening the argument. It simply states that consumers get to know of expected product launches through the media. Whether or not this impacts consumer buying behavior still remains suspect. One can claim that the author hypothesis that "Once consumers hear about the new device, they may stop buying the one currently on sale", but this remains at best an individual opinion. I would not take it as a fact. Whether or not, B) strengthens the argument depends on how you view the above italicized statement. I view it as the author's assumption, so for me B) would not really strengthen.

E) is still closer, because it introduces something new that could potentially strengthen the argument. Being loyal to the company does not mean buying the same product over and over again. Taking the Apple analogy, it could mean that if I am looking to upgrade my iphone 8, and I have a great option in Samsung S9 available in the market, I would still not buy the Samsung phone, because my Apple loyalty will make me wait for a new iphone launch. This means that Apple wont lose out on a potential customer, just by deferring or delaying a product launch announcement.

I am not sure if all of this makes sense. But if I had to choose again, I'd still stick with E. I could be wrong, but I do feel strongly for it.

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Sorry for taking a while to reply to this. If you repost a problem it goes to the back of the queue, so to speak. I've deleted the multiple reposts. I can sympathize with your frustration with CR. It may be that it's more efficient for your studies to just move on from this problem.

That said, you raise some important CR issues in your reply. You say that answer B 'does not introduce a anything new to the argument'. It may seem that, because answer B is just saying something pretty obvious that we'd probably take for granted. However, that fact is not stated in the argument and therefore does qualify as new information to this argument. Saying something seemingly obvious is a common trap for correct CR answers.

Answer E is actually pretty easy to eliminate. If, as you say, loyalty to a certain company's products will protect their profits, then it actually weakens the analyst's argument. Sorry for not pointing this out sooner.

I agree that this is not one of our best CR problems. For me, the weakness is the slightly vague conclusion saying that the company 'should' do something, without explicitly mentioning more precise such as 'in order to maintain sales' or 'in order to maximize profits'.