Microsoft PC Survey

Twenty years ago, we were blessed with the introduction of the IBM PC. While many folks say that it definitely wasn't the first PC (citing such machines as the Altair and those built from kits that you could buy from Radio Shack), it certainly was the machine that brought the PC into the mainstream. To celebrate the IBM PC's birthday, Microsoft commissioned a poll from the Gallup Organization to find out who's got what and what they do with it. Strangely, they only surveyed around 1,000 people - not exactly a slice of life for the U.S. and certainly not a sampling of the world population, but the results are interesting nonetheless. At home, the survey says that folks now use the PC an average of 11 hours a week, most commonly for e-mail, the web, games and educational purposes. Almost half of the respondents use their PC for listening to music and communicating in real time over the Internet through instant messaging or voice calls. The majority of users also report using the PC at home for work-related reasons, giving them more freedom to work in different locations (or allowing them to work more than the 40+ hours they put in at the office). Home PC users strongly agree that the PC allows them to stay in touch with friends and family, helps them learn and stay informed, and "makes life more fun" (MS's terminology. Apparently these folks have never experienced the Blue Screen of Death). More than 80 % of the respondents with children agree that a home PC will help their rug rats learn, and that it is important for the curtain climbers to understand computers at an early age. Three-quarters of respondents encourage their children to use a computer at home. The average respondent has owned a computer for approximately five years, as many as 20 percent have owned a home PC for 10 years or more, and about 30 percent have more than one PC in use in their home. Around 20 percent of respondents reported having used a PC for a year or less. The majority of workplace PC users, 58 percent, consider the computer to be their most important device at work. This compares to 19 percent for the telephone, 8 percent for the cellular phone, and 4 percent for the fax and copy machine. Expert PC users (did they have to take a test?) See the computer as more important than any other device in the workplace. The average worker now uses the PC for 22 hours per week (that's all?), with sending e-mail, browsing the Internet and accessing the company's network among the top uses. About 12 percent of respondents say they use a laptop as their primary work computer. As I said, 1,000 people isn't a very large sample group and one wonders whether they were picked from Windows registration info that MS gathered. That said, if you're interested in seeing the entire report, you can check it out .