40% of College Students Plan to Buy Macs, Survey Says

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
Joined
Nov 27, 2006
Messages
4,646
Eying a cool new MacBook for college (or for your kid at college)? According to a survey cited by Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, roughly 40% or college students say that their next computer purchase will be a Mac. This will result in a higher market share for Apple in the future.

The basic argument here is that students who are used to Apple products grow up, get jobs, and make money. They will then buy more Macs, and will also make Apple products more "mainstream" and become more common in the workforce. Huberty offers Linux as an analog, suggesting that as Linux-savvy students got jobs and then Linux saw large market share gains.
 
Why the big increase? My sister and I both have Macs for college, my dad has been a Mac guy since the beginning days.
 
I am buying a thinkpad tonight for the sole reason that it's the polar opposite of a Mac.
 
I used to work at my college bookstore and the ratio we'd sell macs to pcs was about 2:1. I thought it was ridiculous since I think the main reason was because macs are easier to sell due to their "stylish" design and a couple of misconceptions about macs.
 
Man, people really hate Macs. I don't see why, just ignore their stupid commercials and everything is good :D
 
What people say and what people do are complete opposites.

If I ask the kids at my school who wants their next computer to be a Mac, well over 50% of the kid will say yes. But when it comes time to buy a computer 75+% of the kids who said they were going to buy a mac end up with a low end PC laptop that they got on sale for $600-$700 instead.

Funny how that works. ;)
 
its not really the operating system...

it is this retarded obsession people have that Mac's use "better" or "superior quality" or "hand picked" parts.. and then pay a moronic premium for off the shelf junk that we can get from Newegg for over 50% off the cost Apple sells it for

and then the Fans of mac that get all stupid about the "lack of virius" or "superior security" of their product.... why i linked that artical about mac being hacked in 2 mins to every nut job mac person i know :p

until Apple frees up OSX to be installed by 3rd party OEM vendors it will be a niche product

even if Apple goes to them and gives the OEM people a list like:
3 mobos
4 graphic cards
3 sound cards
2 network cards
314 printers

thats it buddies.. don't ask for more hardware... :p

thats all they have to do, but that would hurt their hardware bottom line.. no idea what it would do to their OS sales though... should boost them, a lot.
 
I am buying a thinkpad tonight for the sole reason that it's the polar opposite of a Mac.

You're buying a Thinkpad because it might actually survive the abuse it will likely see--semester-after-semester.

I bought a Thinkpad, not a Mac. Maybe if I had bought the Mac, I would have graduated earlier?








Nah, it was the booze.
 
That sounds way off. Out of all my friends two own macs, one in med school because thats what she's always used and the other because his dad bought it for him but he wished he had a real computer. College students play games.
 
That's obviously why college students are buying them. Did uh...you go to college, by chance?

Yes and, Mac's are not the end all be all as people make them out to be. In fact Macs are down right scary to use in certain environments. Ever try to get specific medical software to run on a Mac? good luck and hopefully your SO is in the IT field to assist you with this endeavor. (personal experience talking) Ever try to fix a Mac? These are royal PITAS when it comes to troubleshooting and repairing. I personally will not have a Mac on my network--unless its free or company provided. A free Mac is still free... As I see it this report is a direct correlation to the younger generation priorities...meaning if its glitzy and or sexy then it is subsequently popular and "everyone" wants one. Forget about it being useful and something that gets the job done consistently with a minimum of fuss, as long as it turns on the owner then its golden. :rolleyes:
 
Macs are getting more and more common at my engineering school. Students have figured out that, not only do they get a great Windows machine, it is also a solid Unix platform which is rapidly ascending to give Red Hat Linux a run for its money as the defacto-standard educational GNU platform.
 
The corporate world (outside of graphic design) uses PCs, so thats what the vast majority of people are used to, so thats what they buy for personal use too. And again, as mentioned...this survey is what they PLAN to buy. When they go to buy a mac, then find a lenovo or dell next to it with the same specs for half the price..do you think that 40% ratio will stay the same?
 
unfortuneately mac is the new trend. It's "cool" to have a mac...as we have been brainwashed to believe from their god awful commercials...i mean hell... at least that old dell commercial had the hot goth chick in it...

anyway i think its the progression, Ipods hit the market with a sleek product that took in mainstream attention, prior to that mp3 players were much "geekier", how many sports players at your school had a creative zen?

so its a logical progression, joe consumer buys an ipod because it was cool, so wait...whats this??? ipods have computers that go with them? wow i must have one they must be better than everything else.

typical group think. Now don't get me wrong, macs aren't junk, but they are FAR overpriced when a superior system can be had for cheaper. However those superior systems now don't have the 2000 extra feature...the "cool" factor that macs supposedly have.

personally if had 2 grand extra i would just build the highest end gaming laptop i can get my hands on.
 
I think I started a Mac trend at my college. Once I brought mine for a semester, I started seeing new Mac laptops popping up left and right. Macs are great computers, most people that hate Macs are either PC fanboys or they have no clue of what a Mac is.
 
I had a mac in college.. then when i graduated i bought a PC because that's what everyone used in the business world..
 
I don't think its cool to have a Mac, I just like the interface better, and the laptop doesn't have a cheap feel to it. It's well worth my $850 that I paid for mine, I just wish that a Mac Pro wasn't almost $3000.
 
I'm betting that my University is close to 20% Macs right now, and every incoming class has more adopters. It makes me happy because I'm one of the few people who's been using them since the early days, so I know exactly how to fix anything that goes wrong. I make a lot of friends like that. The most common reason I hear from people over why they switched was "I got tired of my damn computer crashing all the time."

Now admittedly, a lot of these are people who are not tech savvy in the slightest, and usually have virus and malware ridden machines, but they're perfectly happy with how stable OSX is, and once I show them a few tricks like using Quicksilver, they wonder why they ever considered using PC's in the first place.
 
In science fields, one of the core concepts is that you shouldn't accept results that obviously don't mesh with observed reality on face value. Surveys are quite vulnerable to giving bogus data if you're not *extremely* careful with a number of factors. Obviously these guys weren't.
 
Man, people can be really stupid.

it's a goddamned computer for Christ's sake. Get over it. It's not any better or worse than most PC solutions. They all have their pros and cons.
 
I just laugh when all these guys buying Macs start to cry about how the game they want isn't out yet (or at all) for a Mac.

How long have Apple products been poised on the verge of a sudden jump in market share? 5 years? 10? Longer?

But the *real* humor comes from the ones that talk about how Microsoft uses all the proprietary stuff and then turn around and buy a Mac. Yeah, that's pure comedy.
 
I know one of those 'kool-aid-drinkin' apple fanboys. He's bought into all the mass media and marketing hype and can regurgitate their ludicrous claims nearly verbatim. I can stomach his ignorance most of the time, but when he starts down the path on 'mac gaming' I have to draw the line and crush his sad little world.
 
Considering the people I see using Mac's at college, I know why.
 
Most Mac fanboys say OSX is so much more stable, but it was never Windows that crashed in the first place. It was probably malware/spyware/viruses or something of that sort. As Macs gain popularity, watch the programmers start writing viruses for Macs. What WILL the fanboys say then? :)
 
I never really thought of macs and thinkpads polar opposites..
In fact, I'm trying to decide between a macbook/powerbook and a t##/x## thinkpad
 
For $1300 I just got a machine that owns the macbook in every way possible:

14.1in WSXA+
2.5ghz penryn
Nvidia Quadro NVS 140m (8400GT equivalent)
9 Cell battery
200GB 7200RPM hard drive
250GB 5400RPM storage drive with Ultrabay SATA adapter
8x Dual Layer DVD Burner
Built in Bluetooth
Trackpoint, touchpad, fingerprint reader
1 year thinkpad accidental damage protection
1 year depot warranty next day service

Drop the accidental damage protection and you're at $1220 shipped for a vastly more powerful machine than any macbook. It doesn't look as good though.
 
100% of college students plan to be very rich



a survey of actual purchases would be actually useful. this is just blather.
 
I enjoy watching people who take macbook pros to class and sit there with an empty screen because in the process of showing off their fancy new lappy, they are unable easily draw structures, write equations, or annotate like my $4 notebook and $3 pen combo can.
 
People can compare specs saying their PC is that much better and cheaper, its not all about specs, some people really really really like OS X compared to Vista or even XP.
 
Back
Top