Research methodology Essay
In broad sense the research topic I have chosen deals with the demand of the society for new technologies and devices, and from a more precise perspective, the research focuses on the development of tablet computers and iPad tablets in particular. Since the topic is both new and provides a lot of in-depth and context-rich data, it is evidently an area for qualitative research (Newman & Benz, 2008). At the same time, customer demand is most commonly measured by sales volumes, and from this perspective, quantitative research is appropriate. Thus, the whole research topic will consist of qualitative and quantitative parts, exploring the market of tablet devices and iPads with regard to most popular features, future tendencies and dynamics.
First of all, the chosen subject should be researched from a qualitative perspective. Here it is possible to single out three directions of analysis: market development for tablet PCs, market development for Apple iPads, development of competition between iPads and other tablet PC. The goal of this part of the research is to describe the role and functionality of tablet PCs, scopes of their applications and categories of users preferring tablet PCs and iPads. Also, in this part of research it would be useful to determine the characteristics of tablet PCs and functionality which users would like to see in these devices.
There is a number of variables related to this branch of research, relating both to the iPad market and for other tablet PC market. The main of these variables are:
spheres of application
common functionality
types of customers preferring the devices
common software
desired functionality
desired software
future spheres of application
Two research questions for qualitative part of the analysis can be formulated as follows: “What are current tendencies, core characteristics/functionality and desired characteristics/functionality of hardware and software regarding iPads and other tablet PCs” and “What perspectives are there for creating Apple iPad3 and what technologies (hardware and software) it should include?”. The former research question deals with current development of the market, while the latter can be used for performing market forecasts and creating a unique and famous product (which is in fact a strategy of Apple).
One more research question which combines quantitative and qualitative research is the following: “What usability features of iPad2 are more attractive for users compared to iPad”. This question will be based on the findings of the first two questions regarding functionality issues (Newman & Benz, 2008), and will use statistics of sales and surveys of iPad and iPad2 users.
As it was mentioned before, the scope of research of quantitative analysis will be the demand for iPads. One of the most interesting characteristics is also the comparison of iPad and iPad, and of their popularity. For quantitative analysis, major variables are quarterly volumes of sales of iPad and tablet PCs in 2010 for different geographical locations, and in the first quarter of 2011, and the sales of iPad2 in the first quarter of 2011. Research sub-questions for quantitative part of the analysis are the following:
“What is the dynamics of quarterly sales of tablet computers and iPads? What is the dynamics of percentage of iPad sales in tablet computer sales?”. However, the main question for quantitative research concerns iPad2 and can be formulated as follows: “Using Apple sales data for the first month of sales for iPad2 and iPad, which product gained more popularity and what is the geographical distribution of iPad2 customers?”.
The combination of quantitative and qualitative parts of research will provide the opportunity to determine groups of clients who are potential target customers for iPad3, to identify the functionality which these groups will appreciate, and geographical areas where popularity of new iPad products will be the highest. Thus, the combinations of these research questions might serve as a background for Apple marketing policy and can also be used to outline perspectives for new R&D opportunities in the sphere of tablet PCs.
