51% of US Households Own An Apple Product

[hglk]

Did anyone else notice that this only adds up to 99%?

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Did anyone else notice that this only adds up to 99%?

It is called truncation/rounding error. That is fine amount to be off because they are not showing all the digits.

Say you have 3 points that are 5.2, 4.4 and 5.4. All the numbers get rounding down for a total of 14 if you are going integer only but if you use real numbers you get 15.

 

[talmy]

It is called truncation/rounding error. That is fine amount to be off because they are not showing all the digits.

I wonder what happened to people who said "greater than 5" that aren't in the 99% but would appear to be >1% of the total. Seems like the numbers wouldn't add up correctly even with rounding error.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I wonder what happened to people who said "greater than 5" that aren't in the 99% but would appear to be >1% of the total. Seems like the numbers wouldn't add up correctly even with rounding error.

Personally I just assumed that the last one was 5 or greater.

 

[tdmartin102]

Do you love your job because you do something you're passionate about or just because the tool that you use to perform your job is a Mac?

Hmmm both actually. I love what I do, and have loved it for years. As a bonus I get to work with a wonderful tool that helps me with my job. I was happy when I was working under Windows too, but working on a mac makes it a few notches better. Plus I am the Admin here, and since we went from Windows to OSX/Linux my job has become MUCH easier. So, the tools you work with can affect how happy you are.

 

[oldgal3]

Stereotyping much?

I thought it would be higher. Excluding houses with just old people nearly every household I can think of has at least one ipod.

You might think this crowd would not be quite so quick at silly stereotyping. While I know many are way ahead of us, the two of us retired folks, genuine senior citizens, are currently at 14: Macbook, iMac, Airport express, nano (2nd), nano (5th), Nano (6th), iPad, 2 shuffles (2nd), original shuffle, iPhone 4s, iPhone 4, iPhone 3gs (not active, used as a touch), and an Apple TV.
Of course, we go back a ways, formerly owning a Lisa. If our grown children still lived here, we would jump to just under 30. My daughters aren't any better than I am at getting rid of iPods that still work.
We are deciding when a second iPad makes sense, so it looks like number 15 is on the horizon.

 

[jcdinkins]

Some of your points are valid. Being married with two kids myself, I do have to watch where I spend my money as well. The difference for me though is that I now view Apple products that I own (and upgrades) as a necessity. Don't get me wrong, if it's between putting food on the table and buying some Apple gear, we eat. Having said that though, if my shuffle breaks? I go immediately to the store and get a new one. I dropped my iPhone 4S in water a couple weeks ago and trashed it. I felt a sense of panic not having this very important device any more, so the next day I got a replacement 4S through Apple's water replacement policy and also threw in Applecare+. I'm not anti-microsoft. I still use Windows 7 at home because I'm familiar with video editing packages on windows and don't want to re-learn any in a mac o/s. But of course, it's boot camped on my MBP. Most of us on the forum know the MBP makes a fantastic windows machine. If my MBP breaks, I'm buying another one.

The point here is for most (not all), Steve Jobs did somehow create a user experience unlike any I've had with all types of other software/hardware I've dealt with in my life. I guess where I'm at is, using Apple products actually makes me feel like a better person. Maybe I should spend some of this money on psych visits or something since that is the case. Whatever. Apple had me at ehlo.

Long Apple.

And why are you guys always ignoring the not so glamorous reality? Because you need another, more fancy justification why you spend so much money on expensive Apple products?

I began using and buying personal/private computer stuff more than 30 years ago, and in the last seven years OS X has played a significant role in my household. In the beginning, I liked Apple and their software like anybody else here. Then slowly but surely reality set in and revealed a simple but extremely ugly fact: Apple products age FASTER than all other products on the market, and it costs MUCH more to keep an Apple environment running than it would cost with competing products. Of course, you can keep using five year old stuff - as long as you do NOT want to upgrade your software. But well, I upgrade. And in Apple land, you upgrade more often than in Windows or Linux land, and it always costs.

It didn't bother me that much when I was between my first and second marriage and before I bought a house and before I had two dogs. It sure bothers me now, because there are now IMPORTANT things in my life on which I need to spend money.

And that leads me to another reality: Apples does not offer one single product that is so much better than the competition that it justifies the additional expenses. Not one. I like Apple's hardware design, but I really began to dislike their software around the time Snow Leopard came out. After Leopard, everything appeared to be a step back or a step in a direction that wasn't mine or was headed where I want to go.

And what I really began to hate with a passion are Apple's constant attempts to lock their customers even deeper into their ecosystem. Mac App Store here, Gatekeeper there, iTunes Store there. They are much more intrusive than Microsoft ever was -- and back then I thought that Microsoft was bad.

The sad truth is that when you live Microsoft for Apple, you only move from one abusive relationship to another and you only swap the name and the face of your tyrant.

The only difference is that Apple puts more makeup on the ugly, stinking pile of dung than Microsoft does.

But people are more forgiving to Apple because they pull the same strings that all those perfume and designer clothes companies pull. They all speak to their customers' vanity, and they all sell an image and status symbols. Microsoft never got there. But I'm not even sure if they ever really tried.

Using a PC always gets the job done, and it usually gets the job done faster and cheaper. It's just not sexy to use a PC.

But using a Mac won't stay sexy for much longer either. Obviously, Apple products have become mass products quite a while ago. They're no longer "special".

It's time for something or somebody new.

 

[Lershac]

Definitely an outlier, 13 in my house of 3 people... That just iPhones, iPads, and macs. Start counting other stuff and no telling how high it goes. Plus I bought my mom and adult daughter MacBooks and iPhones. In Louisiana. Do I get like a free turtleneck or something?

 

[lsochrin]

And yet

As a very long term Apple user myself (owned the first Mac), I'm still amazed at the number of people I know who not only won't discuss Macs but only buy non-Apple mp3 players, non-Apple smartphones, and other tablet-like devices. Half of them are long-term computer support people, and obviously fear for their careers, which have always had a Microsoft connection. The other half never got the fact that there is more to a decision than purely specs, and also buy inexpensive but lousy cars.

 

[OmegaRed1723]

It's nice to see so many people are enjoying Apple products. It seems like a lifetime ago since we had our original Apple ][ (bought second-hand). That was followed by an Apple IIc, PowerBook 100, PowerBook 180c (color display!), and finally a Macintosh Performa 6300cd. That was my last Apple product until the PowerBook G4 brought me back into the fold. Now we have 5 iPads, 2 MacBook Pros, a Mac mini, 2 iPhones, easily half a dozen iPods of varying generations, 3 Apple TVs, and 4 Airport routers. Suffice it to say, Apple has won over this family's collective heart.

 

[CandyCane23049]

In my household I only have 2, my 5th generation Nano and my 4S.

 

[tbrinkma]

I was thinking that the numbers some of you were posting seemed high, but then I thought about the Apple products I own.

PowerMac G4 (Sawtooth, rev A)
iPod 30GB
iPod 160GB
iPhone 4s
iPhone 3Gs (x2)
TV 2
TV 3
iPad (retina)
MacBook Pro 15" (2006)
MacBook Pro 17" (2010)
AirPort Express (b)
AirPort Extreme (g)

That's 13 that I can think of, not counting accessories.