Internet-based market research firm YouGov has conducted a poll of 126 Raspberry Pi users and used their responses to generate a ‘profile’ of the typical user. At 126, it’s not very scientific… although admittedly it is quite accurate if you’re a certain type of person! See for yourself if you match the typical profile.
Yup, as suspected, the computer for children is mostly used by us middle-aged nerds. But… there was an interesting quote from, I think, Sir Clive Sinclair, along the lines of “It doesn’t matter if nine out of ten people only use their Spectrums for games, because we’re selling so many of them, that the one in ten who learn to program will still be a huge number.”
The Spectrum sold 5 million in 10 years. The Raspberry Pi has sold 4 million in 2 years. It doesn’t matter that, in my household, six of our eight Raspberry Pis are solely used by me; the two used by my children are the ones which will matter. Raspberry Pi is selling on such a massive scale that they will still meet all their educational goals even if only 5% of them are ever used by children.
Amen!