New Things from Old – The Change is Coming
Have you noticed how much time and effort goes into finding all the necessary things for your life after you install new software? I have. Measured it. For each major update (you know, when things look different, are put in different places, are put under new category names – that sort of stuff), account for the loss of one whole day of work! I kid you not – Windows 10 – the one that will make your life so much joy – took fully half a day before I could sit down to do some work. And then what? Everything looked different, felt different, was located in different places. No choice about this, or that, or how, or where – or when. I was one of those people who decided not to upgrade because the first time I tried it (when I had time to work through the issues I knew would come), it FAILED. One chance, blown. Not going to do it again. But lo and behold – while I was having breakfast, my computer was getting the upgrade! Without my knowledge because I had cancelled all the scheduled dates, all the little pop-up boxes had been ‘x-d’ and not acted upon.
There was a sneaky in there. And it updated my computer. So half a day before I could sit down to look at it.
No printer connections. No network connections. No group connections. Go through the whole lot again.
Remove all the junk from the start-up (yes, it is junk, and advertising junk at that!), and find my way around the new neighbourhood. Look in all the places you don’t expect to find things, and there – there’s one, and over here, that’s another one – and put them back where you know your habits will lead you to find it.
It led me to question these things called focus groups (the ones they do when they want to find out how people will accept/use/condemn efforts at change). Do these groups include people over a certain age? People who don’t own a million ***# devices? Anyone over 30? Someone who doesn’t have a laptop? Or a magic tab? Or a phone that is constantly internet connected?
How many people out there would this be? Let me check the numbers for you, please.
Australia: population – just over 24M.
Breakdown by age (median age 37 @ 2014 and rising):
Working age (15-64) 66% (approx 17M)
Under working age: 20% (approx 4.8M)
Over working age: 14% (approx 3.5M)
Within the working age group:
Age Group
% (approx.2014 abs stats)
15-19
6%
20-24
7%
Under 30
25-29
7.5%
20.5%
30-34
7.5%
35-39
7%
40-44
8%
45-49
7.5%
50-54
7.5%
55-59
7%
Over 30
60-64
6%
>50%
71%
See that: over 50% of the market you’re aiming at is over 30.
With the decline in the birth rate, and the increase in products available, as well as the increase in the ‘buy at home’ campaign – if you don’t consider the whole market, you will lose a great deal of market power.
These numbers refer to Australia, but the figures (you work them out) are a reflection of the changes within society worldwide. We are more considerate of our planet and the trouble it’s in; we are more concerned about the high population and the necessity for resources that population poses; we are becoming more considerate.
The young market (
But you should consider these things – the changes in how technology is forced into being; how markets push and push for more and more; how children are the biggest spenders (and therefore, marketed to). And you, you, you – all of us – consider where we are going, and who is doing the pushing.
Think about it. Push back. Don’t dream of owning it all because the advertising tells you – Remember Simon & Garfunkel – The Sounds of Silence? That’s where we are now.
