Mac Marketshare at Universities Booming?

[MacRumors]

The DailyPrincetonian reports on a growing trend amongst at least some universities.

The Princeton University newspaper reports that Princeton's Mac marketshare has been rising dramatically, with 40 percent of students and faculty currently using a Mac as their personal computer. This number is up from only 10% of Mac users on campus only 4 years ago. And this number could still be growing. This year, the University's Student Computer Initiative reportedly sold more Macs than PC's, with 60 percent of students choosing a Mac, up from 45 percent just last year. Students were offered a choice of Dell, IBM and Apple computers.

This follows a recent report that looked at a similar trend at many other colleges. According to a separate Pioneer Press survey, Dartmouth is up to 55% freshman with Macs (up from 30% in 2005), University of Virginia with 20% of freshman with Macs (up from 17% in 2006), and Cornell with 21% dorm network users with a Mac (up from 5% between 2000-2002).

PioneerPress attributes the uptick in sales to the popularity of the iPod, security of Mac OS X, design and ease of use.

These numbers are much higher than the general population, in which Mac marketshare numbers have been hovering around 5-6%. (All of these figures may not be directly comparable, as marketshare numbers typically represent new sales in a particular time-period rather than the installed base. Regardless, the numbers are still significantly higher than would be expected.)

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[mcarnes]

Right on schedule for world domination.

[Ja Di ksw]

Seems right to me. At my Uni, more and more people are choosing macs. I honestly would not be surprised if the percentage was higher. Even the last time I went into a computer lab, there was a (short) line of people waiting for the macs, and not *one* person on the two rows of windows machines.

[brooker]

mebe those darn kidz do knows sumpthin' after all!

[ziggyonice]

all i have to say is look at them apples!


on digg a few days ago

[etjazz]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

PioneerPress attributes the uptick in sales to the popularity of the iPod, security of Mac OS X, design and ease of use.

PioneerPress is way of ... It should be attributed to great design, the switch to Intel and Boot Camp / Parallels - at least those are the most important factors among my student friends

[NicoMan]

It's all rather impressive. But I hate to rain on everyone's parade, but Apple seem to overstretch themselves: proof is the rather numerous hardware/software interaction issues in recent months. I wish they stopped putting so much energy in the iPhone and concentrated on checking their firmwares and OSX updates before releasing them.

[Omni Geno]

I don't know about other schools, but here at UCLA I am seeing more and more Macs, especially in my computer science classes. Even where the class requires the use of IDEs like Visual Studio, I'm seeing Macs. It's a very pretty sight.

[Belly-laughs]

Originally Posted by ziggyonice

all i have to say is look at them apples!


on digg a few days ago

Wow , that´s amazing! Almost like a concert during a ballad…

[brilami]

buy some shares, will post way better than expected earnings. btw, haven't found the exact date in the earnings calendar. does anybody know when they will release them? mid oct? late oct?

all i know is, BUY THEM NOW

[nlivo]

how do you like them apples, baby!!!!!

[Mozutaka]

My World Civ instructor presented a slideshow with his iPod on Monday. That was way cool.

Also, 3/5 of my current instructors (all History) have Macs and I'd say the 40% mark is pretty accurate for the students as well.

[nickd87]

I've noticed a sharp increase here at uni in Brisbane, Australia.

I'd say the article's spot on.

[Spanky Deluxe]

Yeah this sounds about right. When I started University four years ago hardly anyone had macs, in fact I don't remember any of my friends having one, myself included (apart from an old unused iMac G3). Four years later and I have several, my girlfriend has one, three out of my four old housemates have one and several of my girlfriend's friends have them. None of these people had macs four years ago.

I've just started at another University and the whole department is Mac only, all the lecturers have MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

[etep]

I've noticed a similar thing among astronomers (mostly post-graduates and faculty, though): just two-three years ago only very few people had Macs but now a vast majority of colleagues of mine have either bought their first Mac (latest convert on Wednesday this week) or contemplate it as their next computer. In astronomy conferences now I would say roughly half of the people have Macs and the fraction is still clearly on the increase...

[Detektiv-Pinky]

Originally Posted by Omni Geno

I don't know about other schools, but here at UCLA I am seeing more and more Macs, especially in my computer science classes. Even where the class requires the use of IDEs like Visual Studio, I'm seeing Macs. It's a very pretty sight.

I think people in the computer science arena like the underlying BSD. Giving you quick access to command line tools, script programming, etc.
On top of this you have a GUI that let you go on with your other tasks and support from a wide range of professional software (something you simply do not have in Linux).
So in a way I think OSX combines the ease of use and integration people expect from Windows with the openness and flexibility of Linux. Best of both worlds
The only thing that bugs me about OSX really is the diversion in the (German)keyboard-layout from the 'standard' PC-layout, as well as key-bindings in Finder (such as Enter for rename). And please do not tell me will get used to it. I won't - I have to use OSX and Windows systems simultaneously.

For IDE development I highly recommend Eclipse http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/.

[winmacguy]

The article is great right up to the point where they get to the age old market share myth

[iMacZealot]

My sister is a first year student at UCHSC (CU med school for commonfolk), and the school advised people not to buy a Mac because the tech department didn't support them, but about 20% of them did anyway (including my sister, who switched.)

[fastbite]

Hopefully some will graduate and set up businesses with Macs

[nagromme]

It's certainly quite easy these days to get someone to investigate Macs, I find. It used to be that most people would NOT consider anything but Windows, even if they didn't know why.

[bigandy]

there's been a big increase here too. if only the unis would embrace them. My uni turned Mac users away when they asked about connecting to the campus VPN - they said it couldn't be done - just because they didn't know where the settings were...

obviously, i told them where it was and they at least don't turn people away now, but they could still be friendlier about the Macs....

[Spanky Deluxe]

Originally Posted by etep

I've noticed a similar thing among astronomers (mostly post-graduates and faculty, though): just two-three years ago only very few people had Macs but now a vast majority of colleagues of mine have either bought their first Mac (latest convert on Wednesday this week) or contemplate it as their next computer. In astronomy conferences now I would say roughly half of the people have Macs and the fraction is still clearly on the increase...

That's in line with what I said, I didn't mention it back there but my department is Astronomy too and *everyone* has Macs.

On a different note, I know of loads of people that are looking into macs specifically because of their dissatisfaction of Windows Vista. I'm saying this from the most un-mac-fanboy viewpoint I can muster but it is true. I know of no one that is happy with Vista. Most people are starting to look at Macs or even Linux as a solution.

[GoodWatch]

Imagine what will happen if 92% of the world’s personal computer population consists of Apple machines. Will a similar problem as in the Windows world emerge? Will Apple fall victim to the same lame practices? In other words; is this a blessing or potential curse?

[nlivo]

Originally Posted by GoodWatch

Imagine what will happen if 92% of the world’s personal computer population consists of Apple machines. Will a similar problem as in the Windows world emerge? Will Apple fall victim to the same lame practices? In other words; is this a blessing or potential curse?

there would be a lot more viruses, not many fanboys and running windows would be 'thinking different'. I wouldnt like it at all. i like being in the minority.

[crossifixio]

I go to university in london and I love using my mac for my studies and recommended it to so many students who totally agree when they buy one and start using it. Many of my friends cant believe how much time they use to waste trying to do simple tasks on pcs and love their macs now. Cant wait for leopard as thats going to make things even better