SA mobile phone users clueless about their OS

Jan said:
Focusing on putting together the articles on the results of the survey as quickly as possible, but will try to bomb the demographics and other sampling data into a forum thread later.

Suffice it to say that the sample looked representative and statistically sound.

Also: Less than half the people said "don't know" and the likely reason, they postulated, is not because people are clueless morons, but simply don't care which operating system their smartphone uses.

*Slight amendment: the sample was somewhat biased towards people in urban areas.
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I'm guessing that might be the case. Nonetheless I still can't understand why, I mean, the OS makes a major difference in how the phone works and what you can do with it. Then again, that apathy probably explains Blackberry's popularity until recently.
 
Elite Override said:
I agree, surely not everyone is a clueless moron.
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You'd be surprised, but then I know a lot of very smart people who could not care less what the exact OS is, as long as it does its stuff.

gregmcc said:
Everyone I know in SA knows exactly what OS they are running.
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You should get out of the server room more. ;)

BB has an advantage here, because BBs run BB OS. None of the other do.

Edit: None of the other run an OS with the same name as the phone!
 
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Most people don't even know a cellphone runs an operating system, as such. In fact many of them probably don't even know what the abbreviation OS stands for.

If you reckon people are morons for not knowing the above, you don't really know much about the world around you.

I don't think this is even limited to SA. I think a significant percentage of the 1st world population also have no interest in knowing all the technical ins & outs and jargon about their cellphones.
 
Guess we can take the BlackBerry overtakes Samsung in South Africa: research thread with a large pinch of salt then given that almost 50% of owners don't know what OS their phone uses :whistle:
 
While there is no shame in not knowing what OS your phone runs if it's a R200 PEP special just used for basic communication, it's pretty damn silly to spend the crazy amounts of money we do on smartphones and caring/knowing that little about it. This study just proves that 48% of those surveyed have WAY too much money for their own good or got their phone free from their work.

Imagine asking someone what engine their Porsche/Ferrari has and getting the response "um i dunno a petrol one derp. who cares like OMG". You'd think it's some sheik with a gold shirt that has more money than brains or a trophy wife that got one for free from her husband because she liked the colour and can fit her stupid Paris Hilton rat-dog nicely in the back seat.
 
I would say that the majority of people dont know and dont care.

Also, some people just want a phone for making or receiving calls. My dad would still use his old Nokia 1610 if he could.:D
 
Elite Override said:
I'm guessing that might be the case. Nonetheless I still can't understand why, I mean, the OS makes a major difference in how the phone works and what you can do with it. Then again, that apathy probably explains Blackberry's popularity until recently.
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It's so hilarious that people here think it is even slightly relevant to ordinary users what OS or version their phone is running. I guess they're idiots too if they don't know what fuel injector or type of suspension their car uses. It's not apathy. People care about whether they can do what they want to do with a device/appliance. There is simply no reason they should care about anything more than that. Insulting people for using Blackberry merely reflects poorly on the individual throwing out the insult because they're demonstrating their own ignorance.
 
TJ99 said:
This study just proves that 48% of those surveyed have WAY too much money for their own good or got their phone free from their work.
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Entirely wrong.

Imagine asking someone what engine their Porsche/Ferrari has and getting the response "um i dunno a petrol one derp. who cares like OMG". You'd think it's some sheik with a gold shirt that has more money than brains or a trophy wife that got one for free from her husband because she liked the colour and can fit her stupid Paris Hilton rat-dog nicely in the back seat.
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Very likely the majority of people don't know much or even anything about the engine in their car, whether it is a R60,000 car or a R500,000 one. If asked they'll list relevant facts as to why they like that particular car, not irrelevant technical details.
 
gregmcc said:
Naa. There is this strange ball of bright light in the sky that burns my eyes :)
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:D

TJ99 said:
Imagine asking someone what engine their Porsche/Ferrari has and getting the response "um i dunno a petrol one derp. who cares like OMG".
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What noxibox said:

noxibox said:
Very likely the majority of people don't know much or even anything about the engine in their car, whether it is a R60,000 car or a R500,000 one. If asked they'll list relevant facts as to why they like that particular car, not irrelevant technical details.
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But also, if you ask the average SUV owner if their car has injectors or a carburettor, they will also give you the :wtf: stare.
Samsung and Apple have been doing well the last few years because of very good marketing. The actual specs comparison is secondary.
 
If you've got a feature phone, you won't bother to know what OS it runs.

My guess is most of the respondents were either feature phone or Blackberry users.
 
A lot of people I know who have Galaxies are perhaps vaguely aware that it's an Android phone but, aren't particularly aware what that means. They don't really understand that the difference between one make and model of Android phone and another is pretty much just hardware. Most people don't really understand what an OS is and they just blank out when we you try to explain it to them because they really don't care at the end of the day.

The idea that the average person is going to spend hours stuffing around with Tasker or rooting their phone so they can run Droidwall is about as likely as the average person learning to set up a media server. Most people just aren't that interested in tinkering with tech stuff. Saying people should care what OS their phone is running so they can make it do cool stuff is like saying people should learn the piano so they can get a better understanding of music. It'd be nice but most people don't have the time, inclination or aptitude.
 
Imagine asking someone what engine their Porsche/Ferrari has and getting the response "um i dunno a petrol one derp. who cares like OMG". You'd think it's some sheik with a gold shirt that has more money than brains or a trophy wife that got one for free from her husband because she liked the colour and can fit her stupid Paris Hilton rat-dog nicely in the back seat.
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Nonsense. The pleasure in driving a nice car is in the handling and the power not in the knowledge of how it works. For those who are that way inclined, the knowledge of how the thing works is an added pleasure.
 
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