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June 16, 1997

Readers' Choice Awards

The smoke has cleared and Netscape's fire burns bright

By Charlotte Ziems

Readers' Choice Awards results:
InfoWorld readers make the call
Top five overall winners
(1) Netscape Navigator 3.0 26.3%
(2) Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 13.7%
(3) Iomega Jaz Drive 8.7%
(4) Other (no clear winner) 7.7%
(5) Microsoft Windows NT Server 7.3%
Top five client winners
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0* 28.3%
Iomega Jaz drive* 25.0%
IBM Thinkpad 560 9.3%
U.S. Robotics Pilot 1000 7.7%
Epson Stylus Pro 5.7%
Top five server winners
Microsoft Windows NT Server 44.0%
Novell IntranetWare 21.3%
Sun Enterprise 3000 7.3%
OS/2 Warp Server, Version 4.0 5.7%
Backup Exec for Windows NT 6.11,
Single Server Edition
5.0%
Top five networking winners
Norton Administrator Suite,
Premiere Edition 3.0
27.3%
EtherLink III LAN PC Card 20.3%
Sniffer Network Analyzer 5.0 11.3%
Lexmark Optra Lxi+ 5.7%
Other (Novell 4.11) 4.3%
Top five Internet winners
Netscape Navigator 3.0 56.7%
Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.01 12.3%
FrontPage 1.1 9.7%
Adobe PageMill 2.0 5.3%
Microsoft Internet Information Server 3.0 4.0%
Percentages of votes based on 300 participants.
(*) Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0
and Iomega Jaz drive statistically tied.
If you have been following the saga of our 1996 Readers' Choice Awards, you know that this year's contest has been surrounded by more than its share of drama. We conducted the initial survey on our Web site in February but neglected to put in place any safeguards that would allow us to either identify questionable voting patterns or validate that the responses were statistically representative of InfoWorld's readers. For instance, we didn't capture IP addresses or require user identification during voting.

When, for the fourth year in a row, OS/2 won, and by an overwhelming majority (at least six times the votes of its nearest competitors) in three of the four categories, we knew the survey could not be relied upon and threw out the results. Outrage and anger and hundreds of passionate e-mails followed, but rather than abandon the reader survey altogether, we announced that we would have an outside research company administer a statistically valid survey of InfoWorld (both print and Electric) readers using the same ballot we had used in February. (See From the Editor in chief.)

With that survey complete, we have a true readers' choice: Netscape Navigator 3.0, which grabbed the "overall winner" category. Ironically, the InfoWorld Test Center did not present any browser with a Product of the Year award, debating that even though the product niche dominated 1996, neither Navigator nor Microsoft Internet Explorer was so impressive as to warrant an award. Besides, some of our editors argued, browsers are on the verge of disappearing into the operating system, so surfing the World Wide Web soon won't be any more significant than surfing your hard drive. You weren't convinced and, in fact, chose Navigator by a large margin over Internet Explorer.

In the client category, Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 edged out Iomega's Jaz drive by only 3.3 percentage points, which, statistically, is a tie; in the server category, it was Microsoft Windows NT Server; in networking, Norton Administrator Suite, Premiere Edition 3.0; and in the Internet area, Netscape Navigator 3.0, again.

Lest the OS/2 fans among InfoWorld's readership question our methodology, here's how we conducted the survey: We selected a sample audience on an nth name random basis among InfoWorld's subscribers, a sampling that represents 76 percent of our entire qualified base. Then we hired First Market Research, in Austin, Texas, to conduct 300 telephone interviews between May 5 and May 12, screening out readers employed by any computer-related hardware or software vendors. The sampling variance ranges from plus or minus 2.5 percent to 5.8 percent.

Join our forum and tell us what you think about the results.


For rundown of the most recent feature stories on InfoWorld Electric see Features at a glance.


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Please direct your comments to InfoWorld Electric News Editor Dana Gardner.

Copyright © 1997 InfoWorld Publishing Company

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