College-bound Kids Don't Plan on Buying Macs
Apple is losing out on the back-to-school crowd this year.
An awful lot of people have a problem with Apple's pricing. Whether you think Apple fans are "drinking the Apple Kool Aid" or paying an "Apple Tax" we can all agree on one thing: Apple computers are pretty expensive. So then, is it any wonder that kids starting college this September don’t plan on purchasing an Apple-branded laptop?
A study by consumer electronics site Retrevo says that the majority of college-bound students are not considering a Mac this year. So what are these students looking for in a laptop?
Well, the 300+ surveyed told Retrevo that they wanted longer battery life, smaller size, and a lighter laptop. The company reports that that 34 percent of laptop buyers will purchase netbooks, and 49 per cent will buy full-sized Windows-based machines. 58 percent of the students planned on spending less than $750 and only 18 percent had a budget over $1,000.
Apple is this year offering a free iPod Touch with the purchase of an Apple notebook or desktop as part of a back-to-school offer and for the first time, allowing parents of students currently attending or accepted into a public or private Higher Education Institution to take advantage of the deal when buying a laptop on behalf of their son or daughter.
- Analyst: Apple to Make HDTVs by 2011
- Yahoo!, Amazon, MSFT Oppose Google Book Deal
- Trick Lets Windows 7 to Run 120 Days for Free
- Quake Live Now on Linux and Mac OS X
- 17-Key Mouse Geared For MMO Gamers
- PS3 Slim Has Updated 45-nm Cell/B.E. Chip
- Windows 7 RC Downloads Now Closed
- Blizzard Making World of Warcraft Magazine
- AT&T Tells Hacker to Find Cell Service Elsewhere
- Pirate Bay Clone's High Traffic Disables Search
- Mitnick May Sue AT&T Over Account Breach
- Asus Eee Keyboard Pushed Back to October
- Microsoft Launches Newly Acquired Office.com
- Lenovo Delays Launch of Ion Netbook
- Acer to Launch Touch-enabled PCs for Windows 7
- Samsung Delays Nvidia Ion Netbook For Win 7
- Carmack: Hardware Physics A Bad Idea
- Battlefield 1943 PC Delayed
"majority of college-bound students"..."300+ surveyed"
/rolleyes
guess they're going to have to remove that Power Point slide of "#1 laptop choice for college students!" at their keynote.
lol. to the above. 300 does not a survey make. I know that im starting my freshman year of college this semester, and Ive got an eee pc with ubuntu 9.04 on it. (Would be running Sabayon but my external dvd burner died 5 months ago). For my part ive gotten as many of my friends as i can to run different linux distros, and set them up with both personal and forum based support. With a good distro and a cheap Acer youve got a solid laptop for cheap.
LOL. yes macs are expensive. At least most universities have abundant amounts of computer labs and network access in every dorm room. I think people want cheaper full featured computers than fashion designed crappletops.
lol wow! a whole 300 students!
If only 18% are willing to pay more then 1000 bucks for a laptop (prolly a decent chunk of those are gamers) then the number of people that can get a good apple laptop are limited.
Apple? I`d rather have a Lenovo any day, never had a problem, and rarely see them broken in my line of work. As for Dell and HP and Acer, it`s a lot more common.
It seems like many people are buying netbooks these days, so this does not come as much of a surprise to me.
Smart kids I'd say!
The typical student would most probably be familiar with Windows and may not want to switch to a new OS.
If you're getting a laptop for school purposes you're not going to need to spend that much. Now if you add gaming into the consideration then that is a different story.
"majority of college-bound students"..."300+ surveyed"/rolleyes
that's actually a normal sample.
if half of the 18% with 1000$+ get macs that's actually pretty much the ratio on the market today.
LOL! seriously I wouldn't have had a computer at all in college if I didn't build a PC myself. Reason- APPLE COMPUTER ARE A HUGE RIPOFF!
Apple openly admits they charge a premium price.
Can't use the "Apples are the most reliable notebook" line anymore. Asus took that title in an article I've read here. Which brings me to an old topic again. What do Macbooks offer that Notebooks don't? Reliability? Windows based machines have more software than apple. Viruses? Stop surfing porn and focus on school. I own both a Macbook and a Notebook. Honestly, no difference other than the OS. Sure Macbooks are sexier in design IMO. But students can focus on luxury after they graduate.
That's going to hurt, this is a large part of their market.
Oh well.
I wouldn't buy a MAC, but i like having them around. Every company needs stiff competition.
Good! Keep them away! If that means shorter lines at the apple store, and my friends not touching my Mac because they have no Idea how to use it to check their myspaces or facebooks or click on that spam IM then im okay with this fact.
300 isn't a bad number to extrapolate from. If you're rolling your eyes because the survey didn't include ALL college bound students that's pretty foolish.
Probably depends where they found those 300 students...
What we're they going into? Graphics design, accounting, engineering?
Depending on your field of interest its going to affect your choice. I for one needed a system capable of running SolidWorks and Autocad. So a Mac wasn't exactly a viable option for me.
I'm sure a graphics design student would be going the Mac direction
My sister got a (white plastic) Macbook cause she wanted the simple and straight forward UI of Mac OS X, she didn't want to have to fuss over Windows Vista (which I dont blame her). But then she had to send the thing back to apple after like 3 months because the case warped and made the CD drive opening impossibly small so that the disc she had in it couldnt make it out XD . and also the webcam wasnt registering some colors at times and wouldnt even turn on sometimes too. So yeah... we got one heckuva lemon (but they did fix it under warranty and it hasnt given her anymore problems). But now after browsing Dell (I know, i know but they let you personalize soo much on them!) and HP laptops I realize how much more you can get for the $1200 we spent on the mediocre Macbook.
Every school nearby uses Macs, and pretty much everyone I know says they suck and their slow. Even the Mac Pros that we have. The macs at the schools give them the impression they suck.
I myself agree.
They will buy Apple and wear women's jean as soon as their liberal professors get through them. Higher education institutions in the US are basically assimilation camps that churn out liberal dimwits that lack critical thinking skills.
The only saving grace is that they’ll turn back into “normal” people by TV and a few years at home after graduation.
I work at a university and while I don't spend much time in computer labs these days, I do recall being in a Mac lab a year or two ago. It was filled with a bunch of pissed off students who had an assignment that involved using software only available on Macs. No one could figure out how to use them. They looked at me and I told them I couldn't help and got out of there before things turned ugly. It's more than just cost, it's also what people know how to use. If you're in college time is important and learning a new OS isn't what people want to do, they just want to do their assignments.
300 students! What is that 1 from every school? Hell UCLA admissions take in like 40 times that every year.
300 students! What is that 1 from every school? Hell UCLA admissions take in like 40 times that every year.
I guess statistics is lost on the bulk of you people... statistically speaking anything over ~30 people is a large enough sample size to extrapolate trends. What's missing is the randomness of the sample as well as the margin of error, is it 1% or 9%. That information would make a big difference.
I work at a university and while I don't spend much time in computer labs these days, I do recall being in a Mac lab a year or two ago. It was filled with a bunch of pissed off students who had an assignment that involved using software only available on Macs. No one could figure out how to use them. They looked at me and I told them I couldn't help and got out of there before things turned ugly. It's more than just cost, it's also what people know how to use. If you're in college time is important and learning a new OS isn't what people want to do, they just want to do their assignments.
Which is why Mac will never be the juggernaut people think it will. As long as they are virtually impossible to find in business they won't win a large % of the market. I'm an IT guy and I don't feel like learning a new OS when I get home, at least not one I want to pay for. I've got Ubuntu running as a secondary OS, but that's for fiddling in my spare time. I couldn't imagine coming home and having to answer my wife's questions on how to log into facebook.
Meh, I like my Macbook but it's true that during the recession, Apple's gonna hurt because people are now looking more at the sub-$1000 market for their notebooks. Unless you're an artist (of any sort) chances are that you won't be getting a Mac during the recession.
I'm a computer science student, but I took in the Mac just because of its UNIX base and I don't have time at college to maintain a smooth traditional UNIX installation like Linux or FreeBSD, so I just went w/ MacOS X. TBH imo, MacOS X is easier to learn than Windows.
Meh, I like my Macbook but it's true that during the recession, Apple's gonna hurt because people are now looking more at the sub-$1000 market for their notebooks. Unless you're an artist (of any sort) chances are that you won't be getting a Mac during the recession.I'm a computer science student, but I took in the Mac just because of its UNIX base and I don't have time at college to maintain a smooth traditional UNIX installation like Linux or FreeBSD, so I just went w/ MacOS X. TBH imo, MacOS X is easier to learn than Windows.
You are a computer science student and can't configure "smoothly" ubuntu(linux base)? Even my mom can do that!!
And who says that you can't run Mac OS on a pc?? You should study hard boy!!
Apple makes a big shot in their foot when they change to a Intel based platafform. How justify that they have the same hardware of their competitors and so bigger prices?
In the past MAC's are much more powerfull than competitors but today there is no much diference. The OS is better, but this is not sufficient to justify the prices.
College students are poor, and now poorer than ever. I'm glad they're not stupid enough to waste extra money on the apple tax.
Probably depends where they found those 300 students...What we're they going into? Graphics design, accounting, engineering?Depending on your field of interest its going to affect your choice. I for one needed a system capable of running SolidWorks and Autocad. So a Mac wasn't exactly a viable option for me.I'm sure a graphics design student would be going the Mac direction
My wife has a BS in Graphics Design. My brother-inlaw works for a company using Autocad to design utilities for houses, and other buildings. Both of them prefer a PC over Apple (his company only uses PCs).
My wife owned a few Apple laptops during collage and most of high school and well as a Power Mac. She was told that the software for Graphic Design was only on Apple. When her brother built her a PC, and she found out they had the software for it, she fell in love. She found it easier to use, and far faster at rendering (faster CPU, and more ram for Less cost).
If Windows limited the hardware supported, there OS would be just as stable as Apple's.
Apple is nothing more then a name, and you pay for a name. The same hardware goes into a PC too. MS charges so much for there OS (I think it should be less though) because they don't get hardware sales like Apple. Apple makes up the difference with the over charge on the hardware.
PC's have a lot more competition in the market place. Lots of companies make them, and people can even build there own.
One reason I don't use an Apple is because of games. If games could be ran on any Os, I'd get some type of Linux. Until then. Microsoft has me chained.
Beside, I'd get a netbook for collage too. Just for typing, and a few things. I prefer my PC for everything else. (Seen an Acer at Sam's for sub $300.
I graduated this spring... Macs represented approximately 30-40% of student laptops. While that's not a majority, they clearly have a more significant market share among students and young professionals than other areas. Like Jobs keeps saying.. .they dont need volume to make billions--Apple's goal is to be the BMW to Dell's Toyota.