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|D |5Diskussion |D
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^C^1Results of Subscriber Survey
^Cby
^CDaniel Tobias

   A few months ago, we sent out a survey to all of our subscribers asking a 
few questions about their systems, and about how they liked ~3|9Big Blue Disk^0.  We
received a really great response; as of press time, over two-thirds of the 
surveys we sent out have been returned.  The information you provided will help
us to make ~3|9Big Blue Disk^0 better, and many of your constructive suggestions
will be acted on in the coming months.

   Whenever I fill out one of those surveys for another publication, I'm always
kind of curious what the results were; however, they usually never reveal these
things, preferring to keep this information to themselves, probably out of a
fear that the competitors could somehow use it against them.  We're not like 
that here; we like to be open with everybody.  Thus, to satisfy your curiosity,
here is the tabulation of our survey.

   First we asked what video display adapter the users had.  The clear leader 
is the Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) and compatible cards, with 75.00% of our 
readership.  14.76% had an Extended Graphics Adapter (EGA), 9.52% had a 
Hercules Monochrome Graphics Card (regrettably incompatible with a CGA, and 
hence not supported by our graphics programs), and 7.86% had a Monochrome 
Display Adapter (MDA) which is unable to display graphics at all.  Note that 
these percentages add up to a bit more than 100%; that is because there were 
several subscribers with more than one display adapter.

   At any rate, it seems like the vast majority of our readers are capable of 
displaying color graphics, so we will go on providing features making use of 
CGA-compatible graphics, even though this regrettably excludes MDA and Hercules
users from those programs.

   The next question asked what brand and model of computer was being used.  
The results of this surprised us.  Since we are billed as the magazine on disk 
for "IBM PC and compatibles," we naturally expected IBM models to dominate.  
But this didn't happen.  Tandy won the title as the most popular single 
manufacturer of computers used by our subscribers, with 31.43%.  The IBM PC 
and PC-XT was used by 18.57%, the PCjr by 6.43%, and the PC/AT by 3.57%; these 
three combined don't add up to quite as much as Tandy's models have.  Perhaps 
we should be calling ourselves Radio Shack Disk?

   Tandy and IBM together still only account for around 60% of the users.  
That leaves a whole mess of manufacturers of "compatibles" and "clones" to 
account for the rest.  These include Leading Edge (with 5.48%), Compaq (with 
4.05%), Zenith (with 3.10%), AT&T (with 2.62%), Kaypro (with 2.38%), Epson 
(with 2.14%), Franklin (with 0.95%), THE (with 0.95%).  The rest of the 
manufacturers, as well as "no-name" clones and homebrew systems, total up to 
another 23.57%.  Once again, the sum is slightly over 100%, because many of 
you have more than one computer, and thus checked more than one box.

   When we asked about your disk drive configuration, a dual-floppy system 
turned out to be the majority choice, with 52.38%.  23.33% of you have a hard 
drive along with a single floppy, while a well-equipped 19.05% have a hard 
drive AND dual floppies.  7.62% still manage with a single floppy drive.  
Several of you added "write-ins" for 3 1/2" drives, a Bernoulli Box, an EMS 
Memory (whatever that is), and a Hard Card 20.  Here, the slight excess over 
100% indicates those with more than one computer who checked the configurations
of a couple of different systems.

   Next we asked what the primary use of your computer was.  Here, a large 
number of readers checked several boxes, producing totals well in excess of 
100%.  The "winner" here was "Home," checked by 71.19% of you.  This is at 
variance with the conventional wisdom which holds that PC's are only used in 
corporate environments.  42.62% of the respondents use their PC in business, 
while 22.62% use it in education.  Many "write-ins" were given here:  these 
included games, programming, church work, community organizations, "hobbyist" 
stuff, graphics, enjoyment, study, and as a "new toy."  There is obviously a 
wide range of interests represented by our readers, and we hope to provide 
features of interest to all of you. 

   We then asked some questions about what you like about ~3|9Big Blue Disk^0, and
what improvements were needed.  These "essay questions" are difficult to 
summarize here, but be assured that we read every one of your answers and will 
act on many of the comments.  On the whole, the comments tended to be positive.
Of course, what is one person's favorite part of our publication can be useless 
to somebody else; we got comments like "I liked the games best" along with 
comments like "Get rid of the games!"  Similarly, such things as product 
reviews, letters from readers, and graphics were both loved and hated by 
respondents.  We'll keep on providing a mix of various types of material, and 
we hope you enjoy the parts that are up your alley.  If we occasionally use a 
feature that doesn't turn you on, remember that it is probably somebody else's 
favorite.  We can't please everyone all the time, but we are attempting to 
please most of you most of the time.

   The next "multiple choice" questions dealt with your evaluation of our price:
was it a good value for you, or overpriced?  Regarding our subscription price 
of $69.95 annually, 8.10% found it inexpensive, 14.76% found it relatively 
inexpensive, a majority of 64.05% found it fairly priced, 11.67% found it 
expensive, and 0.24% found it very expensive.

   As for our single issue price of $9.95, 5.48% found it inexpensive, 6.19% 
found it relatively inexpensive, 44.05% found it fairly priced, 18.10% found 
it expensive, and 1.67% found it very expensive.  On the whole, most of you 
appeared to be pleased with our price.  An incongruity was that some of you 
regarded the subscription price as expensive and the single-copy price as 
inexpensive, while for others it was the other way around.  I guess some of 
you judge price by the amount you have to pay all at once, while others 
calculate the unit price and figure out how the subscriptions actually save 
you money.

   In these categories, the total of less than 100% means that some of you 
didn't answer the question. 

   In the question about memory size, 99.05% had at least 256K, understandable 
given that this configuration is required to run our disk.  I'm not sure how 
the other 0.95% runs our publication.  Unfortunately, we neglected to provide 
check-boxes for higher specific configurations, but a number of you volunteered
that information, giving amounts ranging up to 2.64 megabytes, the most common 
being 640K.

   Next, we wanted to know what you thought of our competitors.  A majority 
(55.71%) had never seen any other disk magazines for the IBM PC.  I.B.Magazette
was the most widely-seen competitor, with a 21.90% response.  PC Life has been 
seen by 10.00% of our subscribers.  Others named were Uptime (2.86%), Easy 
Computing (1.90%), PC Magazine Disk (1.67%), Home Computing Journal (1.19%), 
Compute Magazine disk (0.71%), Centex (0.48%), with a few others getting only 
one vote each.  5.71% have seen another disk magazine, but can't remember its 
name.  On the whole, your comments regarding the comparison were favorable to 
us; several people reported that they no longer bought the competing 
publications since they started getting ~3|9Big Blue Disk^0.

   When asked if you would want improvements before resubscribing, a majority 
of you (55.24%) said no, they like it just like it is.  28.33% said we could 
stand improvement, 1.43% wrote in "Maybe," and the rest didn't answer.

   The question about your age revealed an older readership than I had expected;
only 6.90% under 18, 4.76% from 18 to 25, and 18.10% from 26 to 35.  The larger 
numbers were in the 36 to 50 range (49.52%), with a healthy number (19.52%) 51 
or older.  So while the young hacker "whiz kids" may get the headlines, the 
audience out there is largely more mature.  However, this doesn't mean we will 
stop giving you game programs; not just kids enjoy them, and many of you also 
let your children use the computer.

   The mean amount subscribers have spent on software was $1919.13.  The 
standard deviation was $3478.03, showing a very wide variation; answers ranged 
from under $100 to over $20,000.

   What kind of software do you want?  Most of you checked two or more boxes 
here; it seems few of you are narrowly focused on one kind of software.  The 
leader was Business, with 59.05%, just edging out Educational with 55.00%.  
Games were selected by just under a majority, 46.19%.  These were the categories
given on the form; many of you also added write-ins, with the most popular 
being Utilities (9.29%).  Other write-ins included Home Finance, Programming 
Languages, Word Processing, Desktop Publishing, Graphics, Technical, Scientific,
Communications, Database, CAD-CAM, Agricultural, Management, "Hobbyist," Self-
Improvement, Tutorials, Home Office, and "A little of everything."

   There's a slight incongruity in that only 42.62% indicated "Business" as a 
primary use of their computer (as seen in an earlier question), but 59.05% 
regarded business software as a major category wanted.  One possible explanation
is that you regard such things as word processors, finance managers, etc. as 
"business software" even though they are useful in the home as well.  Perhaps 
"Applications Software" is a better term to encompass these things without 
being prejudiced towards corporate users. 

   Finally, we wanted to know about your occupation and income.  30.71% of you 
were in professional occupations (including lots of teachers).  24.05% gave 
your occupation as "Business."  11.67% were into Data Processing, 9.76% were 
students, 8.10% were retired, and 7.38% self-employed.  Write-ins ranged all 
across the spectrum of occupations, including technicians, machinists, 
mechanics, engineers, military, construction workers, telephone company 
workers, printers, consultants, salespersons, insurance agents, truck drivers, 
a scientist, an economist, an agricultural advisor, and a library clerk.

   As for income, 17.14% of you made from $10,000 to $30,000.  Most of you were 
divided between $31,000 to $50,000 (35.24%) and $51,000 to $100,000 (32.86%), 
with a fortunate 4.05% in the $100,000 or more category.

   Thank you for filling out our survey; it has helped us get a better picture 
of our readership.  But don't wait until the next survey to express your 
opinion; we always want to hear from you if you have anything to say about our 
product, even if your personal demographics don't match the statistical summary 
outlined above.
