[Mageia-dev] Identifying Target Markets

Thu Sep 30 23:11:18 CEST 2010

Reading all this one thing comes to my mind: the world is not the same
+all over the world. Same applies to your assessments of school
+decisions, families and the Linux/WIndows issue.
+
+Over here the public office of a state controlls what computers and
+operating systems are used in schools, money is not a criteria there.
+It is, of course, in the sense that many schools can not have
+computers at all or just 10 machines for a school of 500 students. Ah,
+yes, I'm talking about Germany, not somewhere in central Africa.
+The public office makes deals with Microsoft (sometimes Mr. Gates
+himself came to visit before a new contract was signed), the largest
+local t-com provider sponsors the internet access and the schools have
+no say in that.
+
+The families: if the kid wants a computer then either Dad buys a new
+one and the kids get the old, or they buy a new one but mom has no
+say, it's either Dad or the kids because the parents don't know
+anything about computers.
+
+One of the largest and fastest growing groups of computer users over
+here are people of age, retired persons who visit computer courses in
+the neighborhood center (I'm teaching there sometimes). They are a
+target group also.
+
+I think the one you picked (young couples with kids) are those who are
+the unlikeliest targets - Mom and Dad are working, perhaps with
+computers, most times with Windows. Kids will learn their computer
+knowledge in school, not at home because Mom and Dad have no time for
+that.
+
+See, this is quite different to the picture you are painting, and I
+can imagine that it may be still different in other areas of the
+world.
+
+Therefore picking one target group for a worldwide project like this
+is the wrong way IMHO.
+
+wobo
+