[The Return of the 'nut]

Sign of changes to come?

I am doing an apple software survey sent to me now. I'll highlight interesting points as I go

1. Ask for primary machine and then ask to respond to all questions in regards to using that machine (for me iMac)
2. Ask if you own iWork, if you don't or if you've ever heard of it
3. Ask how often you use a range of software (everything from iSync to Adobe Photoshop)
4. Did you purchase iLife, if so did you purchase it with GarageBand or without
5. check uses of your iMac.... some interesting options....tv, 3d, manage a to-do list, author a blog, create spreadsheets, web page design
6. what mobile devices do you own (phone, iPod, other MP3 player, PDA, DV camcorder, digicam)
6. what brand of phone do you have
7. Does your phone have a camera, internet or sync with your mac
8. do you update when updates are available via software update
9. what percentage of spreadsheet usage is personal/professional
10. what percentage do you use these spreadsheets in word/pages or keynote/powerpoint
11. Do you purchase software upgrades
12. How often do you use iPhoto's publishing features
13. Rate how you think apple's help files are
14. Now an iWork section, what programs do you use with iWork? How do you use pages (personal/professional), rank how you like pages how has the help for iwork been, what templates do you use most often, do you collaborate when using pages, how do you share the document

My take on it:

1. Apple is evaluating how many people use GarageBand and whether it should be in iLife or not. I think we may see a change of paths for GarageBand in the future
2. Apple is evaluating how many people own phones in addition to iPods and how they use their phones. Hopefully that means they are more interested in that market than the crappy Motorola phone makes it seem
3. iWork isn't doing that well and they want to know why and how people are using it and why people aren't. Definitely seems to me like they have plans for a spreadsheet program and based on the other questions it seems to me they are seeing if a consumer Photoshop type app would be good for iWork.

[Mac+]

I think user research is great - but I'm more a fan of participatory design.

How did you have the survey sent to you 'nut? (Not "via email" or "post" - I mean how come you were chosen to take part in it?)

[The Return of the 'nut]

email. i dont know why i was chosen. apple has such huge databases, they know everything about you, sure there was some reason I was chosen