October 7, 2011 Peanut Labs
An already tumultuous week for Apple takes another turn tomorrow as the iPhone 4S goes on pre-sale. After Tim Cook’s muted keynote debut, and news of Jobs’s death yesterday, many will be keeping their fingers on the pre-sales pulse as a clue into Apple’s performance in the post-Jobs world. We surveyed 250 current smartphone owners on their impressions.
Blackberry Exodus
A tough year for Blackberry is about to get tougher, as 1 in 4 owners said they were ‘very likely’ to jump ship to the iPhone 4S by the end of the year. More bad news for the Canadian mobile manufacturer after turbulent stock performance, mass lay-offs, and a dissapointing tablet launch.
Key-not
As a first peek inside Tim Cook’s Apple, many were watching the keynote to see if the zeal and fervor Jobs had brought to the post would carry forward. The expectations for an iPhone 5 were high, and even if it be just a name, that magic number would have represented a symbolic victory for Cook. An affirmation that he would keep Apple on the edge of possibility. Instead, we were treated to a iPhone 4S that may be humming on the inside, but merely felt sensible in an event pregnant with expectation. 79% of smartphone owners following along with the keynote felt the iPhone 4S did not ‘exceeded expecations’. Cook’s focus on market expansion may have sat well with shareholders, but he would be remiss to forget the allure of wonderment in the company’s image.
September 30, 2011 seda.balci
Research plays a fundamental part in enabling businesses to make better decisions. Amidst a recession and continued budget cuts, small and medium sized businesses may no longer be able to afford outsourcing their research needs. Enter DIY surveys, do-it-your-self surveys that can afford businesses the research data they need without the help of a professional or third-party company. More after the jump.
The creation of online survey tools provides DIY researchers a readily available survey platform to create and launch surveys, all with a low cost of entry. Recent statistics by Cambiar estimates DIY spending to be at $700-$800 million worldwide, a compelling number fueling companies to create an online survey tool that caters best to DIY researchers. With the introduction of more competitive survey tools, we can expect that it will not only propel the self-service sampling industry forward but will eventually increase the acceptability of DIY surveys as research tools for all businesses.
Addressing choice overload
With over 100 online survey tools currently in market, finding the differentiating factor between them can be difficult. New platforms offer features that other platforms lack while they further develop innovative features that current users need and want. Furthermore, the challenge for users is to be able decide which is DIY platform is most appropriate for their research needs.
From interface design to the survey creation process, each platform offers something different. A simple interface lets users quickly create and launch a survey, sometimes in as little as six minutes. Some platforms also offer pre-made templates, tailored questions and the ability to add incentives. Customizable features coupled with ease of use help to improve the survey creation experience for the user while making the survey taking experience more engaging for the respondent, and thus, providing better quality data.
Once created, surveys are sent to a selected list of contacts; and in most cases, the user needs to own each contact’s email address. That is one of the main differences between DIY and traditional research methodologies. Third-party research suppliers can offer access to millions of consumers, but a DIY researcher is limited only to email addresses they possess. Without sample, do-it-yourselfers are denied access to an audience they potentially need simply because of a lack of email addresses. While sufficient in some cases, not being able to reach a broader audience when needed can prove to be detrimental to the research data collected.
Online survey tools that offer access to sample bridges that gap, by allowing users to launch their surveys to a targeted sample pool of consumers from today’s growing social media population (similar to what a research supplier can provide) at a minimal cost.
What are the benefits?
Fast, cheap and accessible. DIY surveys are meant to be affordable and less time consuming while technological improvements are enabling online survey tools to become accessible to almost anyone. Certainly there are times where DIY surveys are more appropriate; a simple poll of asking employees what they want for lunch or a customer satisfaction survey requesting feedback about a new product. By design, DIY surveys are better suited for straight-forward research, including situations where feedback needs to be collected quickly or insights can be achieved with only a few questions.
It’s also important to note that not all DIY researchers are seasoned survey writers, and that fact is the root of many concerns regarding DIY surveys. Alternatively, the beauty of self-service sampling is that it is available even to those who aren’t in market research, can’t afford it, or need faster results. However, it’s our intention and responsibility to promote proper survey writing as best we can, and in the end, we all want the user experience to be enjoyable and the survey results to be insightful.
In our experience, there are certain things users can do to ensure they reach such goals. So before hitting send, I encourage do-it-yourselfers to consider the following tips:
- Pay attention to survey length – keep in mind the time it takes to complete a survey and aim to keep it under 10 minutes.
- Avoid loaded, leading or confusing questions – make sure questions will not lead a respondent towards a certain answer
- Use clear, readable English – technical and elaborate words are not part of the average person’s vocabulary and might only confuse them.
- Offer incentives – rewards are a good way to thank your audience for taking the time to complete a survey. It’s also a proven way to increase response rates.
- Test, spell-check and test again – a survey full of typos, poor grammar, or incomplete sentences will only make you look bad. Similarly, a survey that does not make logical sense can often frustrate the respondent and result in a low response rate.
Consider the situation – don’t waste energy trying to fit a difficult research project into a simple DIY survey. This can only lead to higher costs and more time needed to generate usable data. Instead, consider partnering with an online panel provider to ensure your research results are as representative and as insightful as possible.
Using these DIY survey tips, coupled with taking the time to understand effective survey writing, will generate quality results at affordable prices. But most importantly, it will give DIY surveys and online survey tools a better reputation now and into the future.
by Noman Ali, CEO and Co-founder of Peanut Labs, Inc.
For Social Times post: http://socialtimes.com/not-your-typical-survey-tool-what-a-new-online-survey-tool-means-for-the-diy-survey-market_b79842
September 18, 2011 Peanut Labs
Every month we plan a social networking event and invite our friends to have quality time together. Happy hours, charity parties, fundraisers, discussion panels, cruise parties and many more…
In addition to enjoying our time after work, our events are also a big opportunity to share the latest news about the industry with the heavyweights of Silicon Valley.
For our September event, Peanut Labs is honored to be hosting another unforgettable party at the hot spot TempleSF. Please join us on September 28th, 2011.
For the details and directions please RSVP here.
Please clean your calendars ladies and gentlemen. We are looking forward to seeing you there!
~ Peanut Labs Crew ~
September 16, 2011 Peanut Labs
Opportunity is Everywhere. Tap into It at Mobilize 2011.
Mobilize 2011, GigaOM’s premier event for mobile innovation, is taking place September 26-27 in San Francisco. Now in its fourth year, Mobilize 2011 is the only conference to explore the conjunction of mobile computing and cloud-based services.
At Mobilize 2011, GigaOM editors and GigaOM Pro analysts will lead a discussion on technology and business trends affecting mobile software, hardware, services, content, and infrastructure companies. During interactive panel sessions and fireside chats, conference attendees and speakers will debate the cultural, social and business impacts of a world where everyone is connected all the time.
Speakers at Mobilize 2011 represent the who’s-who of mobile. See the complete list here.
Sold out for the last three years, Mobilize is the must-attend conference for anyone working in the mobile industry, as well as those looking to mobile technologies to drive long-term business innovation.
Friends of Peanut Labs register now and save $100 on your two-day ticket to Mobilize.
Check out the Facebook event to RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139663112758241
Google and Peanut Labs are co-hosting a panel discussion on the evolution of online gaming with industry thought leaders weighing in on the big questions facing the ecosystem in the new year.
Panelists confirmed so far include:
- Alex St. John – President at Hi5
- Kai Huang – CEO & Founder of RedOctane, creator of Guitar Hero
- Mike Sego – CEO at Gaia Interactive
- Owais Farooqui – GM at King.com
- Tim Chang – Partner at Norwest Venture Partners
Noman Ali, CEO Peanut Labs, will be moderating the panel.
Discussions topics for the Panel:
- Evolution of game mechanics, virality and game economies across different game types – social, casual and MMORPG – and across different platforms
- What were the key developments in 2010?
- Fostering and measuring user engagement
- Are social games becoming more social?
- Are social games or traditional MMO games more social?
- Can games go big outside of Facebook?
- Evolution and growth of the gaming audience. Global trends.
We propose: 2011 will bring a renewed, and overdue, focus on innovating new gameplay experiences in online gaming domains that include social gaming, casual gaming, and MMO’s.
We believe the recent history of these industries has laid the groundwork:
Over the last half-decade, browser technologies, development frameworks, and the 2007 opening of Facebook’s application platform all have seeded opportunities for low-cost game development and accessible, engaging online gameplay. Concurrently, innovations in monetization — including integrating virtual goods and cost-per-action offer revenue streams directly into games — have set the stage to turn this play into serious business. Within the last year or so, the rise of juggernauts like Zynga, moves into social gaming by heavyweights including Disney (with Playdom) and Electronic Arts (with Playfish), and Facebook’s efforts to more tightly control virality and monetization within their platform have demonstrated that stakes are high. Of late, social entertainment sites including IMVU and Gaia Online have taken a turn to emphasize gaming within their environments, too.
Here we are at the onset of 2011:
- Some survey data shows a blurring of the divisions that have separated casual gamers, social gamers, and more traditional hard-core game players, laying the opportunity to create cross-genre appeal.
- Meanwhile, the expected widespread onset of Facebook Credits as a universal virtual currency could enable users to more readily sample play across titles, driving the need for games to become more immediately engaging or social.
- These developments happen under the cloud of some recent market analysis that shows a shortening period of user engagement for “x-ville” games — each title arrives to a brighter flash and a larger crowd of users, but loses its appeal more quickly.
In our estimation, this sets the stage for an innovation on what online gameplay actually is.
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