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“When will Steve Jobs retire from his position as Apple’s CEO?” (MacStudies 2007)

The above questions were ultimately intended to find out whether participants would view Apple differently without Steve Jobs running the company. In Figures 1 and 2, the answers to this question were combined with the suggested year, in which Steve Jobs might retire from his position.

Resuls from North-American users

Figure 1 shows the results from 196 participants from Canada and the U.S. Two years were mentioned most frequently: “2010″ and “2012 or later”. The number of participants who have indicated that Apple would change without Steve Jobs running the company, was quite high.

Resuls from German-speaking users

Compare this to the results from 204 German-speaking participants (Figure 2). Again, “2010″ and “2012 or later” were mentioned most frequently but this time, the relative number of those who have indicated that their view on Apple would change without Steve Jobs running the company, is considerable smaller.

Implications

Because the survey is still running, it is a bit early to draw conclusions from these preliminary results. However, it is save to say that Steve Jobs is of considerable importance to Apple. Well, that is not really surprising, isn’t it ?!?

What is surprising, however, is the fact that North-American users seem more influenced by the person Steve Jobs in their views on Apple, while German-speaking users seem to rely less on him in their view on Apple. This is particularly surprising as Apple always had a much stronger position in North America than it ever had in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.

One explanation could be the fact that in these countries, Apple was historically perceived as a supplier to creative professionals, not as a company being attractive to consumers. As a result, “die hard Apple fans” in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland might still connect more to the products rather than the company itself.

“Would you view Apple differently without Steve Jobs running the company?” (MacStudies 2007)

Just a few days before this year’s MWSF Keynote, MacDailyNews reported a rumour suggesting Apple will announce that Steve Jobs will be taking a leave of absence from the company. Considering he shared last year’s WWDC Keynote with three fellow Apple colleagues, such an idea did not seem completely unlikely (see also this discussion on Slashdot).

Personally, I like Apple and Steve Jobs and recognise that at times I can appear to be a bit of an Apple groupie fanboy. Hence, I admit that the rumour disturbed me but more importantly, it provided me with the opportunity to add some questions about the future of Steve Jobs to a survey I was preparing at the time.

The Study

The survey - conducted among the German-speaking online-community of Mac-users - consists of two parts. The first part was conducted prior to the Keynote and resulted in 1,007 responses.

Altogether, 48% of participants submitted an e-mail address and were invited to participate in the second part of the study, which started after MWSF07 (Figure 1).

Since then, 53% of invited participants have already completed the second part of the study. Here I discuss preliminary results from this second part, which are based on 221 responses so far.

“When will Steve Jobs retire from his position as Apple’s CEO?”

The questions were ultimately intended to find out whether participants would view Apple differently without Steve Jobs running the company. In Figure 2, the answers to this question were combined with the suggested year, in which Steve Jobs might retire from his position.

Two years were mentioned most frequently: “2010″ and “2012 or later”. Interestingly, a high percentage of those who indicated that in their view Apple would change without Steve Jobs running the company also chose the year 2012 or later.

“For how long have you been using a Macintosh regularly?”

Another question that participants were asked was the year when they started using a Macintosh regularly (Figure 3).

This time quite a high percentage of those who indicated that Apple would change without Steve Jobs running the company, actually became Mac-users in the previous few years.

Final Remarks

Of course, with only slightly above 200 participants, this exercise does not aim to provide a comprehensive view on the thoughts of the Mac-Community at large. However, it is hoped that these thoughts may start a wider discussion within the community.

The majority of questions from this study emphasise the view of participants on the products that they expected for this year’s MWSF Keynote and their personal views on the newly presented products.

MacStudies 2006

Following the insights gained from the first iPodStudies, it was decided to test a new study concept before and after WWDC keynote 2006. The new project is called MacStudies and will hopefully accompany some of the most relevant Apple events of 2007.

MacStudies provides those consumers interested in Apple-related products with the possibility to state their personal product suggestions in a structured way, and also to provide reasons why they consider their suggestions to be relevant.

Because the MacStudies project is purely an academic exercise, the study design varies in several significant aspects from commercially oriented research studies covering a similar subject. Firstly, MacStudies was designed by people interested in the subject themselves. Secondly, summaries and interpretations of the results are provided to participants through a variety of channels, such as a dedicated weblog and additional publications in a variety of different media. Finally, MacStudies aims at fostering and supporting a discussion among interested consumers.

The first MacStudies for WWDC 2006 was conducted among German consumers and consisted of two distinct stages:

1. An initial survey prior to Steve Jobs' WWDC Keynote
2. An additional survey after the Keynote

Initial Survey before WWDC Keynote

Before the actual keynote, participants could register for an initial survey, in which they were asked to state up to three products they would like to see Steve Jobs present during the Keynote. The survey consisted of open-ended questions, which meant that participants could actually name as many products as they wished. Additionally, participants were asked how realistic they consider the release of each of their product suggestions.

Altogether 221 people participated in this first survey and made 587 product suggestions. The products mentioned most often are shown in Figure 1. The majority of participants provided extensive explanation for their product suggestions.

Again, it has to be stressed that the products shown in Figure 1 are those participants had hoped for, not those they expected to be presented during the WWDC Keynote!

Second Survey after WWDC Keynote

A few days after the Keynote, 179 participants received an invitation for the second part of the study. Altogether, 120 respondents participated. They were asked to provide their opinion on a variety of aspects about the Keynote presentation, two of which will be presented in the following.

For example, 75 participants rated the performance of each of the four Apple executives that took part in the Keynote on a scale from 1 (best) to 6 (worst). Not surprisingly, Steve Jobs received the best score, followed by Scott Forstall (Figure 2).

Also, 54 participants took the opportunity to rate each of the ten OS X 10.5 features that were presented during the Keynote. The best score was given to Time Machine and the worst score to Dashboard (Figure 3).

Future Outlook

We therefore hope to conduct a similar study in the near future, in which consumers from other nations, such as the US and Japan, can take part. This would allow us to turn MacStudies into a comprehensive discussion of Apple-related product suggestions!

iPodStudies 2005

This study was aimed at revealing attributes of the iPod that are desired by users. In particular, the technique utilised in this study (called "<online laddering) allowed for a deeper understanding of the desired attributes of the iPod, to uncover the constructs that underlie these expectations, and to reveal the underlying benefits that consumers look for.