Like many geeks, I have a lot of non-geeks in my family, and Christmas is my best chance to see how the less geeky side uses technology. Here are my observations for 2011:
- Non-geeks know certain brands really well. Everyone knows about the different iPhone models, although they are usually referred to as the “3”, the “4”, and the “new one that you talk to”.
- The Kindle is very popular. The majority of my family members have an e-ink Kindle—mostly the Kindle 2.
- My older brother and his wife have an iPad. She uses it a lot, he doesn’t. She buys books from iBooks and apps for their toddler. Other family members were talking about getting an iPad, but they’re a little pricy.
- Not one mention of a Kindle Fire. I thought for sure someone would ask me about it.
- Two of my family members just upgraded from original iPhones to iPhone 3GS, now that the 3GS is free. One person has a Droid. Several family members have old flip phones, but they have plans to upgrade to the iPhone eventually. The price of the data plan is the biggest deterrent.
- Everyone—even people who don’t have an iPhone or an iPad—wants app recommendations. They know there are apps out there that they would like but they don’t know how to find them.
- Most everyone has a laptop—a couple Macs and the rest PCs—but nobody has a laptop newer than two years old and no one was talking about upgrading except my brother who’s getting a new desktop for Star Wars: The Old Republic.
- I tried to explain Instapaper to a few people (one of my app recommendations). They understood how it works, but not really why you’d want to use it. Maybe it’s only useful if you sit in front of a computer all day.
- There was lots of talk about dropping cable and going to all streaming. This idea is more mainstream than I thought. Everyone was impressed with my brother’s Blu-ray player that streams from Pandora, YouTube, Netflix, etc.
This may not be a representative sample, but it’s interesting to me at least. My conclusions:
- Apple has built an amazing brand image in the mind of the average consumer, but the Apple brand is still considered too pricy for some.
- If you think of yourself as a reader, you probably own a Kindle by now. Amazon is cleaning up in the ebook market.
