Thu 14 Dec 2006
Which Laptop Notebook Are You Searching For? Surprising search trend charts on Apple HP and Dell.
Posted by John underI experimented with a new Google tool today called Google Trend and found some surprising trends in the computer industry.
There seems to be a lot more momentum in the general media with laptops - characters on TV programs spend more time with laptops, the Starbucks phenomenon, and other sightings - than desktops. So I was surprised after comparing desktop, laptop, and notebook personal computer search term trends - not much difference in people searching for these three items (to purchase or solve problems). So it doesn’t seem as if the “desktop is dead†like the popular media would suggest - at least based on interest. The other surprise was the difference between news site publications (“contentâ€) and what people are looking for (“searchesâ€). The content providers talk more about notebooks while the searchers are looking for laptops. So a good marketer (who uses Six Sigma techniques) should begin offering and advertising more laptop computers.
Another trend I looked at was the activity surrounding a few large computer manufacturers. As can be expected, the search volume for IBM has been falling as Lenovo, who purchased IBM’s desktop computer manufacturing business, has been entering the market with their own branded products. The surprising development though is how many more searches chase HP even while there is an increasing media content coverage of Dell (that hasn’t changed for consumers either up or down with the HP leadership struggles of late while Dell remains the consistent media darling).
If you’ve followed my previous columns you’ll remember the “ground truth†I watch for in people throwing out computer shipping boxes on trash day – last year it seemed to be more Dell and this year more HP products were received by consumer homes, at least with the statistically small sample size observed and in my specific area of the country (however, HP’s earnings were reported as being way up over last year indicating the micro picture may hold). So more real customers are searching for HP than Dell.
What about Apple computer? Apple gets a lot of attention on sites like Digg but what does Google Trend show? About the same interest as Dell (Gateway trails the pack) from the searching consumers but still doesn’t have Dell’s media darling attention. Both conditions would seem counter-intuitive given Apple’s iPod marketing, so worth more investigation.
Just for fun I tried out Britney Spears vs HP vs laptop and found HP still trounced the ubiquitous Britney Spears – whose minions seem to be equally searching for laptops - but that’s another study (for Six Sigma data analysis and problem solving).
Cheers!