Re: Openmoko Community Survey 2011 – Results

Mon Jan 16 09:31:23 CET 2012

The discussion of the poll run by Lukas suggested to ask for acceptable
prices for a new Openmoko device.

>>> Openmoko Community Survey 2011 – please take part!
>>> We decided to start a poll about which hardware and which software you
>>> use or are interested in these days. The results will help us to
>>> focus on relevant hard-/software.
>> 
>> ... about 75eur too expensive (compared to the early bird fee). may another
>> poll to see how many people have an interest in really buying the gta04
>> at certain fees would good.
> 
> Making a price poll is a good idea! We may learn how to better size
> and define the price for the next group tour.
> 
> So please use this form to give your statement:
> 
> 	http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=GTA04%20Poll
> 
> I will publish the results when they become significant.

Here are the results (which I think are quite significant):

Q1: What would be the maximum price at which you immediately 
     would buy a GTA04 Complete device (considering its high-end
     feature set)?
     ____ EUR (incl. sales tax if applicable)

Q2: What would be the maximum price at which you grudgingly
     (unwillingly) would still buy a GTA04 Complete device, if it is
     not available at the price said above?
     ____ EUR (incl. sales tax if applicable)

Note: Q2 was added after approx. 30 responses arrived. For those
early answers, it is assumed Q1=Q2 although we would have to
expect a real answer of Q2 > Q1.

So we have collected:

* a total of N=109 answers (see appendix)
* some answers where the unwillingly-price is lower than the
 immediately-price (our English may not have been optimally
 formulated)
* Min Q1: 50 EUR Q2: 100 EUR
* Max Q1: 800 EUR Q2: 950 EUR
* Avg Q1: 323,29 EUR Q2: 363,05 EUR
* Median Q1: 200 EUR Q2: 300 EUR
* 25/75 span Q1: 200-300 EUR Q2: 250-450 EUR

By cumulating answers and plotting over different price levels we
can see how different prices influence how many GTA04 devices
would be bought.

(read as: at 500 EUR 20% of the respondents tell they would buy immediately)

Q1:

http://lists.goldelico.com/pipermail/gta04-owner/attachments/20120116/cb849e81/attachment-0002.pdf

Q2:

http://lists.goldelico.com/pipermail/gta04-owner/attachments/20120116/cb849e81/attachment-0003.pdf

Let me describe my first observations from these figures (not deeply
elaborated):

1. this result shows that we have a very large bandwidth what we
see as an acceptable price. For some of us the current price (which is
production cost driven) is ok, while for others it is far too high.

2. I find it interesting that there is no big difference between Q1 and Q2
which indicates that we either buy immediately or are just willing to add
50 EUR to make us unwilling buyers. This appears to be a strong
"mental level of maximum acceptable price". Or is it just available budget? If
we have it we buy immediately, if we don't we can't even buy unwillingly?
Or is it driven by the addition of Q2 only after 30 responses on Q1 only?

3. at the current price of the GTA04 group tour (450-500 EUR range) we
can expect approx. 30% buyers. This would still mean 6000 of the originally
sold GTA02 devices. Hm. We are still far away from this figure with
subscriptions. What are the reasons?

4. a final observation is that I have to conclude that some of us have
no realistic perception of the market prices. 

More than 40% would not want to pay more than 200-250 EUR
for a complete GTA04 (even with case etc.).

This makes me really puzzled as the GTA02 was never sold cheaper
than 199 EUR. Isn't getting UMTS, fast 3D graphics any value to the
majority of the Openmoko community? 

The cheapest UMTS Android 2.2 device I can currently get in
Germany is at 129 EUR (most likely from some overstock clearance).
Has a 320x240 display, no sensors, no free and open software. No
hardware description, no schematics. Appears to be crap and much
less featured than the GTA04. But the poll result indicates this is the
way we should go. Really?

I wnder how the community thinks it can be done at such low prices?
One answer (that I don't like at all) could be:

	http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-child-labor-2012-1

So please prove my last observation and conclusion to be wrong.

BR,
Nikolaus

Appendix:

Q1	Q2
249 249
550 550
500 500
800 800
600 600
699 699
300 300
650 650
500 500
480 480
300 300
499 499
300 300
400 400
500 500
500 500
369 369
200 200
350 350
200 200
749 749
200 200
100 100
200 200
100 100
300 300
250 250
400 400
250 250
350 350
250 250
749 749
500 600
500 600
275 375
600 850
300 350
500 649
350 500
375 350
100 150
370 340
399 499
400 350
400 500
800 950
200 250
400 450
400 600
300 400
400 370
200 250
200 240
80 150
200 300
749 300
200 250
200 300
100 200
150 200
400 500
150 160
250 350
150 250
200 300
149 180
250 300
200 250
400 400
200 250
749 120
200 300
200 200
100 200
200 250
300 400
150 300
150 200
200 250
200 250
150 200
200 250
300 400
200 200
400 350
200 299
150 200
200 250
400 479
150 200
130 200
100 150
200 300
200 250
300 350
300 350
250 150
100 150
300 400
250 350
150 250
120 270
600 749
200 300
350 450
50 100
749 749
600 750
650 900
300 555