Originally posted by johnmflores Originally posted by RioRico I recall reading that a Pentax Imaging rep monitors these forums. What will they draw from this poll? Most of a self-selected sample of wired Pentaxians prefer using older glass. ... How do we function as a corporate focus group?
I'm sure that they listen, but I'm not sure if they'd consider us a representative sample of their customers.
That's why I used the phrasing that I did. We're NOT representative -- but we're vocal, the party extremists. We've the older hands, sure, but also the newbies with questions and complaints. And we're international, skewed towards English-speakers (1st or 2nd language) and thus US-CA-UK-EI-AU-NZ-SA but with a fair number of Europeans -- and relatively few East and South Asians.
No, we're not representative. Not of a mass audience, nor of typical customers probably. But many of us own more than a few lenses. Many of our discussions seem to drive the purchase of more, better lenses, and more capable bodies. We're probably skewed towards advanced amateurs and independent pros.
I recall that in the PC world, for many years gamers were a relatively small slice of the total user base. But gamers, not spreadsheeters, drove the development of newer faster hardware. Advanced gamers (like my bro-in-law, a networked dogfight fanatic whose game room rather resembles a space-shuttle cockpit -- and he works as a printer!) demanded better performance, better graphics, faster response. Makers responded by developing the muscle-cars of PC-dom.
I don't know if I can draw a parallel. But we're the vocal portion of the customer base, the word-of-mouth viral marketers. Do we have some impact? I dunno.