While compiling all the responses is going to take a while (it’s awfully hot, and
my machine has been spontaneously rebooting more than a bit since the hot weather showed up),
I’ve compiled enough to give you a general idea of what I’m getting:
1) A significant percentage of people said they have curtailed their buying decisions due to
the economy: About a third, though about half of those still plan to buy something over the
next six months.
2) There’s a less significant percentage who feel satiated/glutted About 15% indicated one
way or the other that they have all they need for some time. However, if you look at the general sentiment
of those responding, it seems that people are going to need some good reason to make substantial upgrades.
3) There is no killer product everybody wants to buy. The most popular upgrade listed was a
high-end AMD processor, but only a bit more than half the respondents planned on buying one. There was a
decided lack of general enthusiasm for products like nVidia Crush motherboards (though some of that
seemed to be a lack of awareness by potential buyers). Nor is there much enthusiasm for technologies that
have gotten affordable lately (i.e. digital cameras).
4) There’s a ho-humness about the whole upgrade situation: It’s like “well, my (video card
or hard drive or monitor) is getting a bit old or slow or small, so in a little while, I’ll see what’s
out there.
5) DDR is transitioning to the memory of choice, but again, people are in no rush to do so. If people
are going to do a major core upgrade, they’ll buy DDR.
6) Nobody’s interested in Intel Well, not literally, but even after factoring in the relative number of AMD
and Intel users, there is very little interest in Willamettes.
Conclusions
The impression I get is that the bar has been set a bit higher before people will buy. There’s seems to be
a little more skepticism and wariness out there. It’s not that people won’t buy, they will, but this strikes
me as a group that won’t be easily stampeded.
I think this is a very healthy sign. Bad news if you’re selling products, terrible news if you’re a hyping marketeer,
but a somewhat more skeptical audience means better products in the long run.
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