[Promotion] Research proposal

[Andreas Nilsson]

Tom Chance wrote:

>Ahoy,
>
>We discussed doing some collaborative research on the KDE marketing list and 
>came up with the following as a possible starting point. What do people 
>think? How could/should we go about doing this sort of research?
>
>We've tried to get both meaningful data on target markets, based upon the 
>market segmentation analysis from KDE and GNOME, and to get useful feedback 
>from users with specific and open ended questions.
>
>--------
>To ask distributors, perhaps others. How can we get those figures?
>
>* Market share:
>  - What is the current market share of free desktops in
>        - enterprise environments
>        - home users
>        - small businesses
>        - government
>        - non-governmental non-profit organisations
>        - ISVs
>        - education (school)
>        - education (university)
>
>* What are the major shortcomings of the free desktops at the moment:
>        - enterprise environments
>        - home users
>        - small businesses
>        - government
>        - non-governmental non-profit organisations
>        - ISVs
>        - education (school)
>        - education (university)
>
>(split both of the above by geographical region if possible)
>
>-----
>Questions to ask end users. How to get a representative sample?
>
>* What is the main role of your free desktop computer?
>        [ ] office use
>        [ ] recreational / gaming
>        [ ] communication (email / chat / IM)
>        [ ] Webbrowsing
>        [ ] Server (email / web / file)
>        [ ] Media (music / TV / Video)
>        [ ] Fun, trying out software
>        [ ] Software development
>        [ ] Games
>        [ ] Web design & development
>        [ ] Artwork / graphic designers
>        [ ] Science
>
>* How important is the price of a piece of software for you?
>
>* How do you usually purchase software?
>
>* How important is it to be the legally allowed to use software?
>  ( ) Very important, all my software should be legal
>  ( ) Important, but if it's too expensive I might use illegal software
>  ( ) I don't care, as long as I don't have to pay for software
>
>* Do you mind advertisements in software?
>  ( ) I'd rather pay for software
>  ( ) If that keeps the software free, and there's no other alternative
>  ( ) Please don't. I try to stay clear of adware.
>
>* What are the most important characteristics of a piece of software for you?
>        [ ] Stability
>        [ ] Interoperability
>        [ ] Feature richness
>        [ ] Price
>        [ ] "freedom"
>        [ ] Professional services
>        [ ] Documentation
>
>* What do you want from your interaction with computers that you are not
>currently getting? Write as much or as little as you like, but try to
>be specific and unambiguous.  Tell us what you like about your current
>experience with computers, what you don't like, and what you want but do
>not currently receive.
>-----
>
>Since there are some people on this list with some experience of this kind of 
>work, and others with lots of energy, it would be good to first have a really 
>focused and productive discussion on the merits of the approach and how we 
>might go about doing this kind of research.
>
>Regards,
>Tom
>  
>
Hello Tom!
Great poll. I have really found the material you previosly posted to 
this list really usefull BTW.
Is there a certain market segment that are going to be asked these 
questions (like a certain age-group or social-group) or just everyone we 
can get hold of?
If that is the case, perhaps it would be usefull to have some age-data, 
living status etc to get a more clear understanding of what kind of 
people answered the questions, so that you don't get all screwy results 
by accident (like only answers tech-savvy 17-year-olds, when you might 
want to target 35-year old women working in small offices with your 
product or something).
- Andreas