On 28 Sep 98, Kathy E. Gill wrote:
> http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,26746,00.html?st.ne.1.head
>
> LOS ANGELES--Are you a Fast Forward or a Mouse Potato?
Interesting story. In a way I suppose it's just pointing out the obvious --
that there is no single, homogenous "Web user" demographic to which
developers and advertisers can tailor content -- but the point bears
repeating.
The story also notes in passing, "Whatever category people fall into, using
the Internet is one of the top reasons they're buying a new or
replacement computer. That especially holds true for first-time computer
buyers, who want to log on simply to learn how to do it."
This certainly echoes my recent experience. Literally not a week goes by
that I don't get a call from a friend, relative or neighbour asking, "I want
to get on the Internet, what kind of computer should I get and how much
will it all cost?" Or they may already be on the net but growing frustrated
with the limitations of the ol' 14.4/386 in their rec room.
This is an interesting phenomenon, this driving of the hardware market by
the rich consumer content of the net circa 1998. For most of the time
that PCs have existed, a majority of consumers simply didn't have any
compelling reason to buy a home machine. And those who did take the
plunge soon discovered that it really was easier to balance a chequebook
with a pencil than with Excel, or keep track of recipes with a filecard-box
than with FoxPro. So a lot of systems just gathered dust.
But what I see now is that average consumers are starting to feel they're
"missing something important" if they're not on the Web, or more especially
that their kids are missing out. At the same time hardware prices are
dropping, and Internet access is being idiot-proofed by providers such as
AOL and Sprint. So any middle-class family with a few hundred bucks to
spare is suddenly finding the net a "must-have commodity", it seems.
All this has obvious implications for those of us in the Web development
field, but I'm not feeling perspicacious enough this morning to venture any
predictions as to what those may be :)
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Brent Eades, Almonte, Ontario
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Town of Almonte site: http://www.almonte.com/
Business site: http://www.federalweb.com
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