71% of College Students Prefer Macs Over PCs According to Jamf Survey

[curtvaughan]

I got tired of reading this rambling mess about a third through. What's your point?

Hey, thanks for the compliment? Should have prefaced it with TL;DR for those of superior intellect. The point is the stats presented were insufficient to justify the conclusions arrived upon. That work for ya? The rest was by way of explanation / justification. Carry on!

 

[jimmy_uk]

Student discount + lifestyle brand

 

[jdiamond]

Sounds to me like there's an enormous potential market that Apple is totally failing to address right now.

I'm curious how much they'd need to bring down prices to capture a notable portion of that market?

There's also the question... if price is your greatest concern, why not just buy a 2-3 year old Mac on eBay? It's not like they're radically different now...

Because even used Macs are too expensive - My 2015 MBP is 4 years old now and sells for around $2,400. A broken 2010 Macbook Pro still costs $500, and it's broken. For me, I'm forced to buy 2 year old Macs just to get the price below $4K these days. So it's all relative, and of course, it depends what level you need. But I think you'll find that Macs hold their value to an insane degree. A several year old Mac is typically only about 20% less than new.

 

[Shirasaki]

That was true until late 2016, the new designs are pretty disappointing from a durability perspective. My 2016 is going in for its third repair in about as many years, more than any other electronics (not jut limited to laptops) that I've ever owned.

Yeah, those people claiming Mac computers are durable own 2015 and earlier models. I have yet to see many claims their 2016 model is durable and stable.
I have an easily 2014 11” MacBook Air. It is nowhere snappy but stable enough and extremely portable. I doubt I can achieve the same thing on 2018 MacBook Air.

 

[jdiamond]

This isn't much of a bone - it's still saying that nearly 2 out of 3 college kids are using Windows, even if one of the Windows users wishes they weren't.

 

[curtvaughan]

Of course I know that.

But why spend more on an Apple computer and extra software cost and support costs to run Windows on a Mac? The cost to set up a Mac to run Windows and to train users on how to use it -- with VMware Fusion, Parallels, etc. -- is WAY more than the cost of just buying a PC with Windows on it. I ran Windows at home for over a decade using VMware Fusion on my Macs, but I would NEVER force a "normal" user to run Windows that way -- especially not in a business, domain-based environment.

Just anecdotal history - some guy commented earlier today that my blather is unreadable, so in the name of tl;dr, my point:

When Jobs switched the Mac to Intel, he worked out some sort of deal with Gates to allow Windows to work on the Mac, in hopes it would hasten Microsoft software migration to the OSX platform. Cheers, more beers!

Now to the background blather:

Just an intuitive guess, but I think that the ability to install Windows in a "blessed" manner on a Mac came about around the time Mac migrated to the Intel platform back around 2006. When the Mac went to Intel, it made it possible for users, especially developers, to use the Mac hardware platform directly in getting native Windows software, especially Office, migrated to OSX. A temporary side effect, not anticipated by Apple, was that Linux kernel developers figured out how to get Linux to install on the Mac Intel platform. Apple made no profit on that, so came up with ways to only allow "blessed" OS software to successfully boot on Macs. There was a brief period of a couple of years, around 2007/2008, where Macs produced could not be booted to Linux, regardless of boot loader reconfigurations to get multi/dual boot to work. I installed a boot loader called "rEFInd" to get Linux Mint installed on my old 2006 MBP (1,1), the first MBP on the Intel chip. I tried to use the same procedure to get it to install on a 2008 MBP owned by a friend to no avail. There was some sort of hardware firewall put into the Macs for a couple of years to absolutely prevent any system other than "blessed" Windows to boot. Apple removed the hardware firewall (can't remember the name of the chip) after a couple years, as it cost more than it was worth just to prohibit a few Linux geeks from messing with MacBooks.

 

[ThatGuyInLa]

More accurately, “would prefer macOS.”

They should offer it for MS, Dell, and HP products. Certified drivers for those products only. Thus giving users access to more affordable and flexible hardware while not diluting the brand too far. If dedicated people want to hack drivers to work on home built rigs or others, fine. They do it now. But at least have the certified PC based OEM as an option.

 

[iop]

Macs are also PCs. Can we stop treating Macs like a completely different type of device from PC, which wasn't true at least since the Intel transition in 2006?

They are, but at the same time they are trying hard to not be... I am talking about the T2 chip.

 

[femike]

I'm not a student, and I also prefer macOS but use a Windows machine because Apple doesn't make macs with the features I want.

 

[Moonjumper]

It wouldn't really make much sense.
If you are using Mac, you are using it because you prefer to use it over a PC. You wouldn't buy a more expensive machine if your preferred platform that cost cheaper. And even then, If you don't, you would sell it and buy a cheaper PC. If you are using PC, you are using it because you prefer it over the Mac, or because it is cheaper than Mac and you wouldn't want to spend twice the price for a Mac, that you would prefer.

They are students, it could be they inherited a Mac from a family member, or their parents bought it for them. It isn’t unknown for parents to buy a surprise gift that isn’t the preferred option of the recipient.

 

[curtvaughan]

I'm not a student, and I also prefer macOS but use a Windows machine because Apple doesn't make macs with the features I want.

Exactly! What has happened the last 5 years is that Mac hardware design has deprecated, but the MacOS system is still desirable. I just wish Apple would split into two companies, hardware and software. Then farm out the software to PC hardware in general. Put the OSX/MacOS BSD based system on high end PC hardware. Apple could then concentrate on iOS devices, services, and flying cars (or whatever). It would be a shame for the Mac to go away, but even more a shame for the Apple Mac system to go away with it.

 

[fairuz]

It’s more a split between Windows and iOS, these days. I can’t image that macOS is dominant in anything any more bit I’d be happy to see contrary examples.

On US college campuses, macOS is dominant from what I've seen. Not completely sure about the entire US, but in California, it is for sure.
[doublepost=1558657441][/doublepost]

Exactly! What has happened the last 5 years is that Mac hardware design has deprecated, but the MacOS system is still desirable. I just wish Apple would split into two companies, hardware and software. Then farm out the software to PC hardware in general. Put the OSX/MacOS BSD based system on high end PC hardware. Apple could then concentrate on iOS devices, services, and flying cars (or whatever). It would be a shame for the Mac to go away, but even more a shame for the Apple Mac system to go away with it.

He might just be talking about having a touchscreen or a decent keyboard or regular ports like USB-A and HDMI. It's kinda sad that I'm forced to keep a 2015 MacBook forever or buy 999 trillion dongles and give myself arthritis (exaggeration).
[doublepost=1558657641][/doublepost]

Soon it won’t, at least not that easily because of Apple’s ARM CPU MacBook Pro.

I'll worry about that if/when it happens. Linux does run on ARM, and by that time, Windows might too.

 

[ipponrg]

One of Apple's main advantages software related is the seamless integration of devices, syncing between them, try that on a Windows machine.

This is slowly starting to disappear.

As Windows starts to become more integrated with Linux/Unix, it's starting to entice a lot of people such as myself back to developing on Windows. The syncing between devices doesn't help much when people such as myself are not embedded into the Apple ecosystem. Most 3rd party software supports syncing regardless of what ecosystem you're in.

 

[curtvaughan]

This is slowly starting to disappear.

As Windows starts to become more integrated with Linux/Unix, it's starting to entice a lot of people such as myself back to developing on Windows. The syncing between devices doesn't help much when people such as myself are not embedded into the Apple ecosystem. Most 3rd party software supports syncing regardless of what ecosystem you're in.

An example is the Signal messaging application - works with both Android and iPhones, as well as both Macs and PC's (Linux and Windows). It's fully encrypted. I have Signal sync'd with my iPhone, my LG V40, my iMac, and my three Linux PC laptops. It works just fine.

 

[-hh]

Where is the option for "Use Mac but prefer PC"? It should be there for accuracy. There are people that crazy!

Yup!

This lack of symmetry in the survey's design means that the survey is flawed. It should never pass Peer Review.

 

[pika2000]

Soon it won’t, at least not that easily because of Apple’s ARM CPU MacBook Pro.

Microsoft is doing Windows on ARM, so it’s not entirely impossible. With the recent Edge development for Mac, it seems that Microsoft and Apple are getting closer in relationship than we usually thought.

 

[tallscot]

What about the Mac users who wish they had a PC? lol. Seems like that wasn’t even considered. My son wishes he had a PC laptop instead of the Mac I bought him, for games. PUBG...

I got a new job where I do graphics design on Windows 10 using Adobe CC.

I hacked the registry so that you can switch between apps with one click on the taskbar versus the idiotic behavior of having to click twice. It acts more like a Mac now.

Also hacked the OS to have “Recent Folders” appear in Quick Access in file Explorer. How retarded is this OS that it doesn’t have Recent Places/Folders?? But the open/save dialogues do NOT have Recent Places and I waste sooo much time in Windows navigation the corporate server drive to go back to where I just was. There is a more complicated hack, apparently, to add it to the open/save dialogue. Not sure if I’ll attempt it on the work PC.

The old save dialogue appears when you save optimized out of Photoshop. WTF? It’s like 2000 again.

Downloaded free Seer utility to give me Quick Look function. Highly recommend it.

Windows 10 is still a mess. Amazing after all these years.

 

[Shirasaki]

Also hacked the OS to have “Recent Folders” appear in Quick Access in file Explorer. How retarded is this OS that it doesn’t have Recent Places/Folders?? But the open/save dialogues do NOT have Recent Places and I waste sooo much time in Windows navigation the corporate server drive to go back to where I just was. There is a more complicated hack, apparently, to add it to the open/save dialogue. Not sure if I’ll attempt it on the work PC.

Listary can also bring you to where you were in file explorer last time. Its search is also fast.

I do agree that windows is still a bit messy even today.

 

[blueflower]

Hi everyone, I work at a University as a Faculty Member and I do agree with this article. I have seen a steady increase in not only students with Macs but my colleagues as well. This is worth noting the University is in an impoverished location so students make a sacrifice to buy Apple items. Personally, a Macbook does not suit my needs I use a Thinkpad but I do use an iphone SE and an Ipad Pro 256gb.

 

[TwoBytes]

I specifically went down the road of why Jamf could possibly want this data to come out in their favor, but it'd just lead to overblown expectations for financial results if anything because they'd expect more customers than they would actually get. The "common sense" approach is that they'd prefer to underestimate the number of students who want Macs, if they for whatever reason don't want the real number (which may bring up significant legal issues involving their investors).

Not to mention that Jamf isn't exactly in the business of selling to college students or solutions related to them. The closest I can think of is IT management of Mac labs. I'm not sure if you've been on a college campus in the past decade, but computer labs in general are not a growing market, let alone Mac labs.


Have you been on a university campus recently? A disproportionate number of students have Macs. This is backed up by the numerous anecdotal experiences shared in this thread alone, my own anecdotal experiences as a recent graduate, and this survey which you so desperately want to discredit.

I see it simply: Jamf want this data because they want companies/schools to buy macs instead of PCs. What is the IT admin going to use when they have bought in hundreds of macs? ..Jamf!
What's the best way to future proof your business? Plan for the future and make sure that people are going to use Apple products so you are still in business.

I don't really care who is on top. The essence of what i'm pointing out is if you can't smell the bias or question it then something is wrong. I'd question the same just as when Microsoft release their survey results with a bias towards them or just as when McDonald's publish their survey results with a healthy bias towards themselves. If you can't see this as marketing, then you are a brilliant consumer in the eyes of these companies. For the record, my personal bias is I hope people gravitate towards Apple products. You just have to step away from the Apple Koolaid once and a while.

 

[Tech198]

Can't argue with those figures.. Makes the PC look kinda dull when compared to all the %'s on the Mac side.

I would of thought at least, half-and-half, particularly now in this day and age, when the majority of new PC laptop's are the same thinnest only..

That's the only % i would change.

 

[beanbaguk]

"73% of students prefer a luxury sports car but have a cheap banger ***"

It's a bit of a daft survey. The fact is Apple MacBook's are luxury products and students generally cannot afford them. There is also a fashionable "trend" to own a MacBook so there are students that will throw themselves into debt to have a MacBook.

PC's are not at all low-end and a many PC's may even outperform a Mac, but image is everything when you're a student trying to find a way to express yourself.

*** 87% of people will believe anything with a percentage attached to it.

 

[WatchFromAfar]

Just anecdotal history - some guy commented earlier today that my blather is unreadable, so in the name of tl;dr, my point:

When Jobs switched the Mac to Intel, he worked out some sort of deal with Gates to allow Windows to work on the Mac, in hopes it would hasten Microsoft software migration to the OSX platform. Cheers, more beers!

Now to the background blather:

Just an intuitive guess, but I think that the ability to install Windows in a "blessed" manner on a Mac came about around the time Mac migrated to the Intel platform back around 2006. When the Mac went to Intel, it made it possible for users, especially developers, to use the Mac hardware platform directly in getting native Windows software, especially Office, migrated to OSX. A temporary side effect, not anticipated by Apple, was that Linux kernel developers figured out how to get Linux to install on the Mac Intel platform. Apple made no profit on that, so came up with ways to only allow "blessed" OS software to successfully boot on Macs. There was a brief period of a couple of years, around 2007/2008, where Macs produced could not be booted to Linux, regardless of boot loader reconfigurations to get multi/dual boot to work. I installed a boot loader called "rEFInd" to get Linux Mint installed on my old 2006 MBP (1,1), the first MBP on the Intel chip. I tried to use the same procedure to get it to install on a 2008 MBP owned by a friend to no avail. There was some sort of hardware firewall put into the Macs for a couple of years to absolutely prevent any system other than "blessed" Windows to boot. Apple removed the hardware firewall (can't remember the name of the chip) after a couple years, as it cost more than it was worth just to prohibit a few Linux geeks from messing with MacBooks.

Thats the problem right there; you buy a "computer" you should have the choice to have Windows on it or Linux on it or (it came with it) macOS on it. Apple shouldn't be stopping you (but they are)

 

[moshind]

A large number of those 71% will be greatly disappointed when they enter the real world.

You mean when they need to pay for the the device... This survey is a fake if not so we would have seen a bump in Apple computer and device sells, but no, the figures are the same for years in computer sells and even a decline in devices figures.
Fake survey or “cooked” survey.

 

[Wowereit]

Always fascinating to watch form a European perspective.

The only workplaces with Macs I've seen so far in Germany are in the creative field, mostly design and music.

Other than that it's Windows only.