Good grades translate into rising Mac share

Buried in an insightful Ars Technica article on digital music is this casual throwaway line, "At Princeton, Macs accounted for an astonishing 40 percent of all student computers in 2008."

Forty percent?!? That's amazing. In the general operating-system market, according to Net Applications, Apple commands nearly 10 percent of the personal-computer market, which shows great progress over its formerly anemic market share but which still is a distant second place to Microsoft's 88 percent share.

But that's today. The funny thing about students is that they eventually graduate. With graduation comes jobs, which provide discretionary income to buy more Macs.

Yes, those jobs also often force these former students to "grow up" and use Windows, though this, too, is changing, as BusinessWeek points out.

Assuming that Princeton's Mac market share numbers are even moderately representative of academic adoption of the Mac (and some anecdotal evidence at the University of Missouri suggests the Mac dominates even more than 40 percent of some universities' computers), Apple has a rosy future ahead of it. The more students it graduates, the more Macs it should sell.

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[apflaum]

Matt, here at Zimbra we had one of our higher ed customers -- a middle-of-the-country, large state university -- tell us 3.5 years ago that their incoming Freshmen were 30% Mac users. At the time that seemed like striking evidence of the re-emergence of Mac among students. By this past Fall, we had some private colleges telling us that as many as 70% of their incoming Freshmen were 70% Mac users. We hear similar numbers at or around 50% for most schools we talk to now (typically a bit less at larger state schools, a bit more at private schools).

[apflaum]

Matt, here at Zimbra we had one of our higher ed customers -- a middle-of-the-country, large state university -- tell us 3.5 years ago that their incoming Freshmen were 30% Mac users. At the time that seemed like striking evidence of the re-emergence of Mac among students. By this past Fall, we had some private colleges telling us that as many as 70% of their incoming Freshmen were Mac users. We hear similar numbers at or around 50% for most schools we talk to now (typically a bit less at larger state schools, a bit more at private schools).

[jroon]

doesn't anyone remember that apple went after the younger generation and schools like 20 years ago and it didn't really translate to much for them once those people grew up? this time around they have the "cool" factor that university students especially are drawn to. will they have that forever?

and why is apple being written about in the open source column? seems odd to me.

[paulej]

You are correct about the marketing 20 years ago, but there is a significant difference between now and 20 years ago: the Internet. The value of the computer is shifting from the computer itself to a combination of the computer and the Internet. Most users use applications on the net as much or more than they do on their computers. With time, perhaps most or all applications will be on the net. This is really helping Apple a lot and also putting Microsoft's value into question. And, of course, the coolness factor cannot be ignored.

Visiting a library in London last summer, I was absolutely shocked to see so many Macs in the building. I counted the computers as I walked down one hall and 50% were Macs. There is no question that a shift is afoot.

[odubtaig]

Because OS X wouldn't exist without it? Because it affects the shape of the overall market? Because GCC-OBJC is the primary compiler?

Doesn't matter how closed Apple may be in a lot of ways, from WebKit and GCC to Gnu Tools and the Mach Microkernel, Macs are both heavily dependent on and inextricable from open source.

[xcal78]

"and why is apple being written about in the open source column? seems odd to me. "

Apple is a closed source OS with open source components (Darwin).

[c4s2k3]

I also read the Business Week article you referenced. I'm glad to see some organizations are starting to relax a bit on this matter. I did not 'demand' a Mac for use at work, but I expressed a strong preference for basic productivity reasons. I've been using a Mac for work in an environment where the majority use Windows and Linux for about 2 years now and it's working out beautifully. I would hope that as a decision maker, if you have an employee who is a good performer telling you that he/she could be even more productive with different tools, you could at least give it some consideration.

[solu1978]

Mac is good for students .. but unfortunately when they get a Job and work in real environment they have to deal with PC's - Windows..

[Perry_Clease]

Not all of those jobs.

[c4s2k3]

I agree with Perry_Clease. The notion that a "real environment" can only be supported by a Windows-based infrastructure is ludicrous. I think it would be wise for any manager/decision maker to consider alternatives and choose the best tool for the task at hand rather than simply trying to fit the task/problem into a specific solution. Notice I am not suggesting Mac (or any specific platform) is always the answer, but I do believe companies have been spending far more money than they should have spent supporting Windows based infrastructures over the last two or so decades and there is nothing wrong with re-assessing the suitability of tools employees use to get their work done. I think efficiency is always an important and often overlooked factor, but it is even more important when we consider the current economic climate and the need to do more with diminished resources.

[xcal78]

I'd say greater then 50.01% of jobs use a Windows interface so you can call that a 'majority' of the jobs will use it. That leave a HUGE opening for linux and apple for new jobs that's much larger then realistic but it's only an example.

[aka_tripleB]

Two school isn't even enough to assume meager representative of academic adoption of the Mac. With there being some 4100 colleges and universities in the U.S., it really can't be viewed as an accurate sample.

[phish2live]

You're right, so I'll add to the sample size. I just graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage, and mac laptops were obviously the most common personal computers on campus. The university systems were 100% Dell, but the desktop machines in various professors' offices were as likely to be macs as PCs.

This situation has changed during the 2004-2008 period that I attended. Desktop macs were already common on professors' desks, but the latest macbook line has really taken off in popularity. Lots of students seem to like the ability to run both operating systems, but in practice almost nobody bothers. I've only seen Parallels running on a single system.

What is most striking about the mac surge is the clear envy of PC owners. Long gone is the sneering derisive attitude that PC users once heaped on macs. Now one is more likely to hear a mumbled "I should have bought one of those..."

[Jonnygthedrummer]

cool , im gettin a mac lol

[Waam]

We're a non-profit in MN. We have switched from an all PC environment to an all Mac environment. Two reasons. One, of the 40 computers we bought in 2003, 39 are not around anymore and the one Mac still is. That got into the mind of the Exec Director, and he did some research and found that the depreciation and cost of maintanence was much higher on the Dells, than they were on our Macs. TWO - many of the new workers from 2003 to now went to school with Macs, including the new program managers at the time, who had major influence in the direction of where our technology was going. The last PC (which was really our server) to go went two years ago, when it was replaced by an X-Serve.

[Pishkado]

Another data point: I teach in the business school of a large (but not mega) public university in the northeast U.S. Macs in my classrooms have gone from barely noticeable six or so years ago to a substantial minority, well over a quarter, today - and I teach mostly juniors and seniors, so it could easily be higher among frosh.

The only time students need Windows, in our program, is when they learn to use Access - and they don't have to do that on their own computers. With more and more computing being done on the Web, in the cloud, SaaS, whatever, platform issues make less and less difference. Even Microsoft's not updating IE for the Mac won't change that: with IE's market share down below 70 percent, thanks largely to Firefox, Web developers can't (or at least shouldn't) design sites that require it any more.

[frumious]

As an employer, I long ago shifted our company's preferred platform to the Mac. The reasons are plentiful.

First is productivity. Employees like working on Macs and work quicker and better. They rarely complain about Macs whereas Microsoft WIndows bashing was a time consuming sport until we went with Macs.

Second is lower total cost of ownership. True, PC's often cost less to purchase than Macs. But the maintenance costs of PCs compared to Macs is off the charts. During the reign of PC's, our company had a full-time IT position to maintain and debug the PCs and the network. With Macs, when on occasion we have a problem the staff can't fix, we call in a Mac technician. (Mac technicians are like Maytag repairmen - hungry for work.) WIth less downtime, again, productivity is increased with Macs.

Third: Mac's are virus and crash resistant. That is not to say they never crash or swallow adware or spyware. But in the years my companies have been using Macs, there has never been an incidence of a virus incapacitating a single machine or taking the network down - not once.

Finally, Macs keep our employees happier. Macs are more fun to use. They are easier to use. And, yes, Macs seem to possess a "cool" factor that Dells and other PCs just don't have. Our company rides the "cool" wave with our staff.

When a Mac finishes its fourth year we give it to the employee - free. They love this. A Mac going on five years old is not yet totally obsolete. They make a good second, even first, computer at home.

[shycelticwitch]

@ frumious... THANK YOU for putting into words what the rest of us Mac owners feel. Same parts as PCs? maybe?but the quality of the workmanship that goes into the machines, and the stability of the software that runs them make it far beyond "cool" to have one. It's just SMART decision making based on facts, and not hype.