Thinking About 4 Kinds of Technology People

So, I think there are four basic groups of technology people:

1. Academic Users
2. Microsoft oriented IT People
3. New Web - New Tech People
4. Non Tech people

Now I am going to rant about them for a while. If you are not interested or do not want to waist time, do not read this post. 

Academic users are a group which are often made up of non technology based academics who simply need a computer to perform a specific task for whatever work they do. Of course this group exists in every demographic but I feel they are more common in academic settings. This group is quite strait forward, they are often architecture agnostic and they often are willing and interested in solving their own software problems by developing packages for the job. I think this is good in most cases and has in a few instances lead to the invention of great world changing things, i.e. the Internet and the bar code. At the same time however, I think they would benefit from using more existing systems and open standards. I feel all too often academic developed software is too specific, if it were generalised even a tiny bit a hole portion of the world could benefit. Of course I understand why this is the case, but I think it is a little saddening. 

The Microsoft oriented group, or people who are interested in corporate settings are generally IT workers who have been convinced that working with such a cause is acceptable. Personally, I think it is not that bad to have really ubiquitous and often complete solutions used by large companies however I feel they could also benefit a lot if the listened more to the open crowds. What I really think is interesting about this group though is that most of what they do is a secret to the world. The deal with things like Share Point and Lotus Notes and so forth. Obviously there are users who would also deal with these packages but I really think that it is only a select group of IT people who actually know what is going on with these packages. All the other IT people in the world are not interested because the are open source minded or are not dealing with enterprise solutions. They are an island, but a really well sustained island because there are a lot of big companies that pay a lot to use their solutions. These people really believe in the work they do and are often very supportive of Microsoft. 

When I say new web or new tech people I sort of mean the rest of the really tech inclined world. People who are interested in solutions that solve local problems nicely and conveniently. These people seem to like thinks that are with the times and tend to use a lot of new or modern technology service. Essentially I think these are the mainline technical consumer population. The thing I think is interest about this group is that they are usually not that loyal. I mean perhaps they are for one or two computers, but not for a lifetime. That is to say. I think many users are moving to Apple products at the moment are doing it for an overall functional value as opposed to many of the reasons people may have used Macs in the past 5 to 7 years (Application specific advantage and brand loyalty). So I think this will work well for Apple but perhaps not for long enough. I think that Linux products are getting really good. Ubuntu is about to release a new version and we can look forward to an other one in 6 months or so. The bugs are quickly being ironed out and the software is now being sold direct with a few popular brands (Dell and so on). I think windows market share is going to go down a bit, but OSX's will go down more. 

The non tech people are just the rest of the people who use computers. Elderly and people who are less familiar with IT. I think this is an interesting crowd because it is generally interested in the fastest and easiest solution as opposed to one that does more. I think this group is likely to buy computers from stores like Wall-mart or get them used from relatives or friends. They are good because they have low expectations however not so great because often they have really bad learning curves, they try to memorise how to check their email as opposed to trying to understand what is happening. So, simple reliable solutions are appropriate. I think at the moment, products like the G-PC is a great example of a good solution for this kind of person while for a long time most of them defaulted to windows. In the past few months I have installed Ubuntu for a few people in this situation. In any case. I think this group is not at all loyal to brands although it is a dyeing demographic because fewer and fewer people are not learning how to use computers. 

Okay so that was another really silly ramble. I think I thought it was worth writing because I think it is a slightly valid way to break down computer users. I think if it is at all accurate it indicates that Windows has a lot less of a stronghold than I expected and that OSX is not in a great position as it is sort-of a stepping stone while a more reliable and cheaper solution evolves. I wonder how this would effect the evolution of the desktop and innovation in interface design.

I should mention this hole argument is really simplified and so on and I am sure there are much better ways to identify demographics this sector.... comments....