CGGenie did an interesting survey called "Upgrades09". After having published the results (see previous link), they also added a very interesting article about how to interpret the results!
It's title: "
To resume the article and the survey, one could say: professional users are less satisfied with their tools than hobbiest or casual users.
Here some extracts:
3ds Max's users have invested a large amount of money, are likely to be professionally pressured in their usage and timescales and also are likely to be pushing the software to its limits every day.
[...] in more challenging ways and those little niggles might become major blockers, those quirky crashes become fundamental cash burners - even though the actual reality of the event, the flaw or the software limitation wouldn't have changed, the user requirements would have.
This helps to understand why a diversified, professional user/customer base might seem always as unhappy grumbler. They use the tools under tight time-frames and budgets. Working with their tool everyday they see what works efficiently and what not. Moreover, they want to push it to it's edges. They want to be fast(er). And if the tool improves, they move fast towards the new 'edge' … pushing it some more! And moreover not necessarily everybody is pushing it into the same direction …
Obviously it's "a far greater challenge" to satisfy those people.
