 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group PC Update survey results Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au |
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There has been an unprecedented response to the PC Update survey, largely owing to its Web-based option. Although there were over 80 questions, our readers took to them with gusto. There isn't the room to display the graphs and the textual comments, but they will be made available online after the other two surveys have been completed.
About 1070 people had responded at the time of writing, but not everybody answered all questions, so some of the totals may not appear to add up. Some paper responses had not been keyed in, but the later responses don't appear to be changing the averages. The later Membership and Internet Service surveys are showing similar responses where a similar or identical question was posed.
The survey package, WebSurveyor can only compute a simple mean, but it can output in FoxPro and Comma Separated Variable (CSV) formats, in case some member wishes to help with a better analysis.
It is premature to draw conclusions from this survey, but the results will be valuable to the magazine editors, committee, volunteers and others. Thank you all for your co- operation. Now on to the raw results.
Demographics
| Q In what
state/country do you live?
|
VIC |
1046 |
| Q How would you describe your general computing proficiency (as concerns your personal computing needs, not as compared to others)? | Beginner Intermediate Advanced Expert |
36 |
| Q
Years since you first joined
Melb PC (Say 1 if less than 1)
Average 5 years
|
1 year 2 years 3 years 5 years 6 years 7 years 8 years 9 years 10 years 11 years 12 years 13 years 14 years 15 years |
122 |
| Q
What is your age?
Average 51 |
13 to 18 19 to 24 25 to 30 31 to 36 43 to 48 49 to 54 55 to 60 61 to 66 67 to 72 73 to 78 79 to 84 85 to 90 |
26 |
| Q
What is your sex? |
Male Female |
934 |
| Q
Family pre-tax income |
Average $61,000 |
| Q
In which industry do you work
or did work if you are no longer working?
There were so many "Other" responses, that
we learnt only two facts: |
| Q: Approximately, how many people work in your organisation at all locations? |
Average 4431 |
PC Update
| Q How many people (including yourself) read your copy of PC Update?> |
Average 2 |
| Q Importance of PC Update to you as a component of Melb PC membership, namely, was it the main or secondary reason to join? | Secondary Primary |
835 204 |
| Q How timely has delivery been for the last 3 issues? | Timely Late |
1005 |
| Q
How many issues have
been delivered in the last 3 months normally (without your having to ask
the office for a replacement)? |
0 1 2 3 |
37 |
| Q
When do you discard each issue of
PC Update?
|
Unread When read Within 3 months Within 6 months Never Undefined period |
10 |
| Q What percentage of pages do you usually read? |
Average 72% |
| Q
How do you rate the layout of
text, columns, use of colour, and images?
|
Poor Acceptable Good Excellent |
19 |
| Q What do you think of the fonts used, their size and readability? | Too small Acceptable Just right |
24 |
| Q
What do you think of the quality
of editing, namely spelling, grammar, structure, flow, and so on? |
Poor Fair Good Excellent |
7 |
| Q How likely is a PC Update review to influence your purchase decision compared to reviews in commercial publications? | Unlikely Less likely More likely Very likely |
85 |
| Q Likelihood to buy from a PC Update advertiser, compared to a non-advertiser, assuming everything else is identical? | Don't know Unlikely Likely Very likely; |
252 |
[Ed: In the following tables
the"Rank" indicateds the overall relative importance of the topic,
on a scale from 0 to 10, as perceived by the respondents in relation to the
other topics surveyed.]
Coverage desired...
| None | Less | Same | More | Rank | |
| PC hardware | 6 | 21 | 417 | 565 | 10.0 |
| PC assessories | 5 | 14 | 457 | 523 | 9.8 |
| Utilities | 4 | 23 | 463 | 525 | 9.7 |
| Internet - How to | 16 | 72 | 382 | 559 | 9.4 |
| Home Office | 15 | 40 | 487 | 484 | 9.1 |
| Windows 9x | 14 | 38 | 497 | 463 | 9.0 |
| New product news | 5 | 15 | 567 | 418 | 9.0 |
| Internet - Web surfing | 9 | 65 | 470 | 478 | 9.0 |
| Melb PC news | 1 | 41 | 684 | 288 | 7.9 |
| Multimedia | 11 | 70 | 602 | 323 | 7.9 |
| Computer Telephony Integration | 44 | 102 | 494 | 366 | 7.5 |
| Educational | 30 | 120 | 527 | 337 | 7.3 |
| Laptops | 99 | 188 | 182 | 522 | 7.2 |
| Advertising | 18 | 49 | 778 | 184 | 6.9 |
| Internet - Web authoring | 28 | 166 | 499 | 317 | 6.9 |
| Graphics | 19 | 141 | 627 | 224 | 6.5 |
| Spreadsheets | 49 | 130 | 579 | 258 | 6.4 |
| Databases | 52 | 143 | 539 | 273 | 6.4 |
| Business | 25 | 147 | 680 | 164 | 6.0 |
| BBS | 102 | 184 | 528 | 194 | 4.8 |
| Articles by CEOs | 84 | 190 | 611 | 115 | 4.4 |
| Committee minutes | 108 | 191 | 579 | 139 | 4.3 |
| Programming | 123 | 227 | 448 | 196 | 4.2 |
| Windows NT | 161 | 202 | 416 | 200 | 3.8 |
| Unix/Linux/*ix | 217 | 176 | 330 | 264 | 3.7 |
| Cartoons | 125 | 258 | 494 | 142 | 3.6 |
| Palmtops | 196 | 246 | 405 | 149 | 2.6 |
| Games | 181 | 332 | 370 | 122 | 2.1 |
| BeOS | 348 | 174 | 369 | 57 | 0.0 |
Q How often do you read...
| Never | Some- times |
Usually | Always | Rank | |
| President's page | 25 | 150 | 286 | 575 | 10.0 |
| Editorial | 30 | 164 | 318 | 524 | 9.3 |
| Features | 2 | 170 | 525 | 333 | 7.9 |
| Reviews | 12 | 221 | 493 | 285 | 6.8 |
| Random access | 52 | 576 | 341 | 353 | 6.1 |
| Discounts | 49 | 374 | 332 | 268 | 4.4 |
| Members free ads. | 87 | 356 | 304 | 285 | 4.0 |
| Advertisements | 39 | 411 | 438 | 138 | 3.0 |
| SIG pages | 105 | 412 | 302 | 208 | 2.4 |
| Shareware library | 121 | 407 | 276 | 227 | 2.3 |
| Training courses | 149 | 488 | 262 | 127 | 0.0 |
Home PC and peripherals
| Q
What is the average age of your
home PC or PCs (in years)? If the PC has been gradually upgraded, treat
the CPU as the determinant of age.
|
< 1 year 1-2 years 2-3 years; 3-4 years 4-5 years 5 years |
171 |
| Q What
brand of CPUs are in all your home PCs? (Tick all that apply)
|
Intel AMD Cyrix IBM Don't know |
799 |
| Q How much
memory (RAM) is in your main home PC? (Choose lower value if you have
some intermediate value)
|
256 MB > 256 MB < 4 MB 8 MB 16 MB 32 MB 64 MB 128 MB Don't know |
5 |
| Q What is the
speed of your main home PC?
|
<100 MHz 100-199 MHz 200-299 MHz 300-399 MHz 400 MHz 450 MHz > 450 MHz Don't know |
66 |
| Q What is the
total capacity of the hard disk/s in your main home PC?
|
< 2 GB 2-4 GB 5-6 GB 7-8 GB > 8 GB Don't know |
197 |
| Q What
operating system is used on your main home PC most of the time? If you
have two or more used equally, flip a coin!
|
Windows 95 Windows 98 DOS+Windows 3.x Windows NT Linux OS/2 Mac Windows CE DOS Don't know |
561 |
| Q What is the
speed of your main modem in bits per second?
|
No modem/don't use Don't know 14,400 or less 28,800 33,600 56,000 V.90 56,000 K56Flex 56,000 X2 ISDN modem Cable |
7 |
| Q Which of the following
computer peripherals do you own? (tick all that apply) The list is too long to be reproduced here, but multimedia devices are standard accessories these days and top the list. Next came ink-jet printers, followed by modems. |
| Q Which of the following do you
intend to buy in the next 6 months? (Select main item, then add others in the "Other" category) At the top of the shopping list are a scanner, new computer, more memory, and CD-Rewritable drive. |
| Q In the past
12 months, how much did you spend on hardware, including consumables?
|
< $250 $250-499 $500-999 $1000-1999 $2000-4999 $5000-9999 $10,000 or more |
233 |
| Q In the past
12 months, how much did you spend on software?
|
< $250 $250-499 $500-999 $1000-1999 $2000-4999 $5000-9999 $10,000 or more |
400 |
Work Environment
| Q Where does
your organisation buy its desktop computers? (Dell and Gateway are
examples of Direct vendors)
|
Direct vendor Don't know PC reseller Value-added reseller System integrator Other Swap meet Department store |
244 |
| Q Where does
your organisation buy its network servers? (Dell and Gateway are
examples of Direct vendors)
|
Don't know Direct vendor PC reseller System integrator Value-added reseller Department store Swap meet |
233 |
| Q Where does
your organisation buy its PC software?
|
Don't know Value-added reseller PC reseller System integrator Mail order Department store Other Swap meet |
256 |
| Q What is your
level of influence over computing purchases at work?
|
None, N/A Decide Suggest Recommend Approve |
448 |
| Q What is the
annual value of the PC-related hardware expenditure that you influence?
|
< $1000 $1000-4999 $5000-9999 $10,000-49,999 $50,000-99,999 $100,000-299,999 $300,000-499,999 $500,000-999,999 $1,000,000 or more |
365 |
| Q What is the
annual value of the PC-related software expenditure that you influence?
|
< $1000 $1000-4999 $5000-9999 $10,000-49,999 $50,000-99,999 $100,000-299,999 $300,000-499,999 $500,000-999,999 $1,000,000 or more |
466 |
| Q How much
will your organisation spend on computing goods and services over the
next fiscal year?
|
< $5000 $5000-9999 $10,000-24,999 $25,000-49,999 $50,000-99,999 $100,000-249,999 $250,000-$1,000,000 >$1,000,000 |
290 |
| Q What is the
primary Network operating system at work?
|
Don't know, N/A Windows 3.11 Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows NT Novell Linux/Unix Other Macintosh LANtastic OS/2 Banyan Vines |
223 |
| Q What is the
operating system on your primary work PC? (can be a desktop or laptop)
|
Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows NT DOS+Windows 3.x Don't know Macintosh Linux/Unix DOS OS/2 Applixware |
392 |
| Q How old (in
years) is your primary work PC? If the PC has been gradually upgraded,
treat the CPU as the determinant of age.
|
< 1 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 > 5 |
260 |
| Q
How much memory (RAM) is in your
primary work PC? (Choose lower value if you have some intermediate
value)
|
256 MB > 256 MB < 4 MB 8 MB 16 MB 32 MB 64 MB 128 MB Don't know |
5 |
| Q What speed
is your primary work PC?
|
< 100 MHz 100-199 MHz 200--299 MHz 300--399 MHz 400 MHz 450 MHz > 450 MHz Don't know |
65 |
| Q What is the
total capacity of the hard disk/s in your primary work PC?
|
< 2 GB 2-4 GB 5-6 GB 7-8 GB > 8 GB Don't know |
213 |
