The Voice of Technology End Users
An abundance of technology exists today that can have a truly positive impact on people’s lives. Yet many people aren’t benefiting from it. Access to the Internet, e-commerce, instant messaging and other timesaving and relationship-building technologies can greatly enhance our lives. But according to most major analyst firms, approximately 40 percent of Americans still don’t even own a computer.*
Recently, many industry pundits have laid the blame for this Gap on the economy or the recent war in Iraq. But what if there is a more fundamental reason behind the slowdown in technology purchases? What if the rate of home and business technology innovation is outpacing its relevance to many consumers, leaving them to wonder if they even need additional technology?
If you take a closer look at industry forecasting and monitoring, there is growing evidence the Technology Gap is widening, especially for consumers and small businesses. According to most leading analyst firms, about 60 percent of U.S. households own a PC. Of the 40 percent who do not own a PC, 50 percent don’t even recognize the need for one.*
The evidence around the globe is similar. In Europe, the home PC market has reached saturation at 59 percent**. And only three percent of European consumers say they will replace their PC within the next six months.
In addition, IDC reports that even though there has been a slight up-tick in corporate spending, there hasn’t been increased IT spending among small and medium-sized businesses.
And while small business computer use has increased slightly – from 80 percent in 2001 to 85 percent in 2002 – less than three percent of small businesses in the United States believe that the Internet and e-commerce present opportunities for them, according to the Dun & Bradstreet 21st Annual Small Business Survey.
These are just a few of the data points indicating a Technology Gap exists — that a large number of consumers and small businesses continue to miss out on the tremendous advantages of technology every day because they do not recognize the full benefits the technology can provide. And, this in turn is detrimental to the industry’s ability to flourish.
How do we address the Technology Gap?
I chair the AMD Global Consumer Advisory Board (GCAB), a highly respected group of consumer and small business advocates from around the world, including Asia, Canada, Europe, Japan, Latin America, Mexico and the U.S.
For the past year, we have focused exclusively on technology . . . and this difference we perceive between the rate at which we in the industry can create new technology and how rapidly customers will adopt it. The GCAB agreed that a Technology Gap does indeed exist, and on a global basis. As a result, the group has charged itself with raising awareness of the Gap and fostering greater understanding of its causes.
The GCAB has determined five primary factors contributing to the Technology Gap:
The bottom line is simply this: despite its promise, the industry and many of its current and potential customers are out of sync.
Working Towards Understanding
Recently, we’ve begun an exciting new phase with the members of the Global Consumer Advisory Board. To find out more about why the Technology Gap is growing and what we can do about it--as an industry and as consumers--the GCAB is conducting research around the first three of the above-mentioned potential causes of the Gap.
We plan to release research findings later this summer. Please stay tuned, as future Consumer Advocate Voice columns will detail these findings, provide further insight into the problems, and offer some prescriptive actions the technology industry can take to close the Gap.
* IDC, 2002
** Forrester, November 2002
Visit us at www.amdgcab.org.
