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Apple is a lifestyle brand. And Macs seem cooler because they're out of reach for most college students.

The quandry is that, once you drop the price on Macs and otherwise make them more accessible, they don't seem as cool anymore. I don't think you can convert the entire 31%.
 
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studentsmacvspcreasons.jpg

I would've liked to see other top choices for Why PC?

I would place gaming and keyboard as other top reasons.
 
Seems kinda like asking people "if you could get any car of your choice, regardless of price, availability, brand, would you prefer a brand new Tesla or a beaten up 1973 Lada?".

The "survey" is insanely biased - what's really worth looking into is why Apple only scored 71% in such an idealized setting.
 
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I do understand why people prefer Macs. If they worked as advertised, they would have every reason to. MacOS is great, it's constantly improving, it's not bloating, it's not slowing down, it's simple and quite robust with very few problems. The time I spend on "messing around trying to get my computer to work right" has gone from several hours a week to zero as I switched from Windows to Mac.

The mere simplicity of doing everyday tasks such as viewing a PDF, a RAW photo or playing any video is unparalleled. While this has been possible for more than 10 years on every Mac, Windows still shows no signs of catching up. You still need bloated PDF readers, Photoshop or the terrible Windows Media Player and Windows Photo Viewer that still look and work like they did when they last got updated on Windows XP, more than a decade ago, just to do the simplest of tasks. The constant, incessant nagging updates on Windows are not only annoying, they also carry the risk of messing up your computer each time – so no wonder people keep delaying them until the system forces them. Meanwhile, a lightweight update every 3 months is enough on macOS, and it rarely causes any issues.

But my huge concern with the brand is the unfair way Apple deals with hardware repairs and problems. First, they're not transparent: they don't admit to failures, they don't tell you why they're happening and what they're doing to fix them. Second, their repairs are unfairly expensive, and their design choices lead to more expensive repairs whose price is entirely passed onto the customer. Third, despite all this, their prices are constantly going up. Oh, and fourth: they downright lie about the performance of their computers. Since they cannot be properly cooled, their performance is greatly reduced, and they pretend they don't know this. Again and again.

Either make a better computer and increase the price, or if you insist on making bad computers, at least decrease the price so the idiots like us who are still loyal to this brand after all this can at least be compensated.

If Apple can't make useable hardware, they should at least let other brands do it for them. But right now, there aren't many (if any) truly good and up to date computers that run macOS. We'll see about the new 2019 MacBook Pro, but I have my doubts.
 
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Students pursuing higher education prefer to use Macs over PCs, according to new data shared today by Apple device management company Jamf.

71 percent of students surveyed said they would either use a Mac or prefer to use a Mac if cost were not a consideration. At the current time, of those students, 40 percent use a Mac and 60 percent use a PC. 51 percent of current PC users would rather be using a Mac.

studentsmacvspcpreference.jpg

67 percent of students surveyed said they would choose or stay with an organization that offered a choice between Mac and PC. 78 percent of students said that it's important for employers to offer their employees a choice between PC and Mac.

Students who said they preferred Mac over PCs offered up several different reasons. 59 percent cited ease of use, 57 percent cited durability, and 49 cited synchronization over other devices. 64 percent said they "like the brand," while 60 percent preferred the style and design of the Mac.

Among those who said they preferred PCs, the only dominant factor in the decision was price.

studentsmacvspcreasons.jpg

43 percent of students using a PC said that the Mac provides the greatest value despite its higher price point, while 80 percent of Mac users said that the Mac offers a better value. 83 percent of students currently using a Mac said they want to continue using Macs in their workplaces.Jamf's survey, conducted by Vanson Bourne, is based on responses from 2,244 current college and university students across five countries.

Article Link: 71% of College Students Prefer Macs Over PCs According to Jamf Survey
I could have told you that, at my university a huge amount of students use Macs more than Windows or Chromebooks... *Actually just Apple itself more than anything else, (I’ve seen more students with iPad Pros than MacBooks in the past 2 years.)


Kallum.
 
Macs are good if you like A/V crap. If you like workflows for productivity and creativity. But other than that they are expensive toys with a shiny logo. As a rising Twitch streamer/celebrity a Mac is useless. PC is so much better and cheaper. I can emulate games and achieve 120 FPS in RE2. Mac can barely play BioShock 1.
If you only like gaming and raw number crunching. Windows & Linux are your friends. Macs are for the rest of us.
 
Back in college (2009) the shop I worked at gave me a macbook pro (mid-2009) 13´as a payment for my services during the summer. I really enjoyed it as a student, it was a computer unlike any I had before. to make things better I was able to keep upgrading the ram (to a point) and the HDD to bigger configs (eventually to a big ssd), making the computer last me through 2016 working great.

And then apple changed and prices where higher and nothing was up-gradable anymore.... had to made the sad choice to go to a PC instead. In the next couple of years I might go back to mac (since now I have a good job), but back then the price and inability to upgrade killed the mac for me.
 
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iPads with bluetooth keyboards are excellent as well. But the Mac software library is more independent ,thats why I choose a Mac over iPads. I love iPads too, but I have been on Mac for way too long and adore macOS.
 
And the main reason many of them switch or use PC is because they're forced by their employer.

I only work for places that offer Macs with full administrative control so I can install whatever I want. It's one of the questions that I always ask during a job interview. I have an iMac Pro and MacBook Pro at work and wouldn't have it any other way.
 
How do you think MacOS the superior OS? Overall, I prefer it, however I can tell you many (my wife for one) can't stand it.

I was being playful, although for me it's true. I know macOS is not for everyone. Even I hated it when I first switched almost 20 years ago, due to what I call "Windows muscle memory".

That said, this is why I love it:
1. UNIX beats DOS any day in my book
2. Better Multitouch implementation and trackpads
3. Better/smoother multiple desktops
4. It's prettier than Windows (by a lot)
5. Better software management (install/uninstall)
6. Comparative easier of use in most areas
 
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Macs are good if you like A/V crap. If you like workflows for productivity and creativity. But other than that they are expensive toys with a shiny logo. As a rising Twitch streamer/celebrity a Mac is useless. PC is so much better and cheaper. I can emulate games and achieve 120 FPS in RE2. Mac can barely play BioShock 1.

I'll bite.
Windows:
Horrendous Update process, STILL a mess after so many iterations.
Eventually you have to reinstall, I started on OS X 10.0b, never ever did a reinstalled, installed updates and new version over the old one, try that with Windows.
When you run in problems it's many times too much for a normal user to repair it, they need specialised people, macOS does not need maintenance, it just works.
Windows registry......a joke.
Windows 10 "spying" on you.
The mess of settings.
Windows Apps, for instance the default photo/picture viewer, laughable, for instance, just a right flip Icon, if you need to flip it anticlockwise you have to press the Icon 3 times, zooming is another joke, too many steps, and when you want to see the next picture you have to zoom back....
Virus and malware scanner needed, still no such need for a mac.
....
....
And so on.
 
If only they loved their CUSTOMER BASE as much as they love MONEY!

I mean, seriously ... you look at these stats and can easily see that despite 70% preferring a Mac, only about 40% actually use one. Why would they choose to use the computer and platform they like less? It's almost always a money issue. Macs just cost too much, especially if you want something with decent specs.

And I hate that I have to even make this argument, because it's ALWAYS been around as an excuse not to invest in Apple's products, for about as long as it's made personal computers. But in the last few years, it's really become reality!

I refurbish and resell a lot of used computers as kind of a side gig to my day job, so I'm really familiar with who buys what and what kind of price points people are comfortable with. There are always going to be your wealthy families who just buy their kids anything they ask for, as far as a laptop they want to take as they go off to college. But USUALLY, that's not the case. Often times, I find college freshmen who tell me they've saved up "about $400" to buy a computer for school, and they MIGHT be able to cough up an additional $50 or $75 if they're convinced it's necessary. Apple currently loses ALL of those potential customers. (There was a time when at least, they could offer them a Mac Mini for $499 or so, which some would stretch their budget and buy, even if it wasn't a laptop.)

But the other issue is, even when they're able and willing to buy a new Apple notebook, the top-end of what they're willing to pay is where Apple STARTS its pricing for low-spec configurations. It's just not that smart buying a Mac with only a 128GB SSD soldered into it. In 2019, SSDs shouldn't even be manufactured anymore with less than 256GB capacity, IMO. When you look at what they cost for standard 2.5" form factor PC SSDs, you can see 256GB models averaging around $79 retail these days, while a 128GB might sell for $39-49. Apple really locks people into stepping up to laptops that cost hundreds more, primarily to get that larger amount of storage space (plus some insignificant speed bump for the processor). Meanwhile, reliability has been at an all time low with all the issues with keyboards and ribbon cables for the video or backlight cracking or breaking loose. I've even seen the touchbar completely die on some of the Macbook Pros that include one.

These days, I really think Apple is surviving more on its past reputation than anything else. I hope they're starting to get their rears in gear to address it before it's too late. But such things as the WAY more expensive Mac Mini doesn't give me hope.


If only Apple loved the Mac as much as their long-time customers...
 
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If only Apple loved the Mac as much as their long-time customers...


Let's see, what does the past 18 months look like? New Mac Mini, new iMacs, new iMac pro, two upgrades of MacBook Pros, new MacBook Air, new OS, and new Mac Pro and new monitors soon to be released. Yep, no love there at all. LOL.
 
I don’t see how MacOS is superior, maybe in usability but that’s about it.

I am in Engineering and in my field Windows and Linux distros are the best options. I don’t know what the people in this survey study but I can’t use MacOS for all my professional needs.

If gaming is within your likes, you also need Windows.

It is the same when I read that “iPad” replaced their computer... what the F?... I love my iPad but it is miles away from replacing a computer, not even for web browsing.

I was being playful.

Agreed on all counts.

In the Enterprise, there is no substitute for Windows and/or Linux (although it has a solid foothold in the creative arts).

I currently use Apple in the consumer space exclusively, and I don't recommend it for the Enterprise. Too many hoops.
 
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As it is, I cannot recommend in good conscience a Mac to anyone.

Well that's utter madness then - my current iMac Pro, 2018 Mac mini and 2018 MacBook Pro are the best Macs i've owned by far in a long long line of well over 40 different Macs.
 
Their logic is sound:

64% Like the brand: Even if I don't, I'm not the majority, lot of people express their love for Apple more than any other company that makes laptops or PCs.

60% Style and Design: Style is matter of taste but in general there is no better looking PC than a Mac, I like the Surface better but is just me. I don't agree in the design department, the mac design is more prone to issues. In terms of software macOS is more polished than Windows and a better looking OS at then moment, even though Manjaro looks nice and Windows 10 looks more modern in some areas.

59% Eeasy of use. It is true, not because you need more steps on a "pc" to do the same tasks, but just take a look at Finder vs Explorer, you can do much more in Explorer but have links and buttons everywhere, Finder is a simple UI, for users that translate to easy of use, not how much you can do with it.

57% Reliability. Also true, I think now they are at the same level with the current state Windows 10 and current mid/high end generations of laptops, however it will take years to revert the past.

49% Sync with other devices. By "devices" they mean only one "device": "iPhone", and by "Sync" I think they mean "Messages" and the "Contact" list. These people probably had and iPHone before a laptop, and probably their contacts are un iCloud and use Messages more that other service. So yes.Nobody want's to install iCloud for Pc, is cumbersome.

48% Durability. Same reason as Reliability.

37% Best with Apps, I don't understand that but I guess the App Store?.

51% Price: Can't argue with that. You can have access to a PC for less and in the high end side you get better specs than a mac also for less.
 
The Apple brand has become a fashionable luxury brand. Apple is really, really good with inspirational marketing to millennials. Last December I purchased a discounted $300.00 14" HP PC from CostCo. It came with a i3 8130U processor, 1080 screen, 4mb ram, 64Gb m2 ssd, and Windows S. I installed 8Mb ram, and a 512 m2 SSD for less than $125.00. Upgraded to Windows Home (free) and this inexpensive HP computer will do everything that 90% of millennials need. It'll run Apple's PC version of iCloud apps just fine.

Yes the HP case is plastic, but the screen resolution is great for watching movies, simple photo editing is fine, and using MS Office is okay too. It is not a gaming platform, however.

And in 3 years or maybe less you need another one since it broke, Pc's are not cheaper, it has been proven before.
And in the meantime you still need to service it for software problems.
 
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Just a few things off the top of my head:
  • Can't join to a Windows domain without third-party software; even with that, it's not 100% feature-compatible with Windows
  • A lot of third-party software has no Mac version or equivalent (e.g., document management systems like WORLDOX and OpenText/DOCS Open)
  • Macs are less upgradeable and serviceable than PCs, generally speaking (e.g., adding RAM or storage)
  • Lack of common ports means having to buy external adapters to provide connectivity
  • Overall less support from the software industry for Macs vs. PCs, based purely on less market share
  • Everything is just more expensive when you buy a Mac

and yet there are so many people living in the real world who have no idea what you just said)
there are certain profession where pc's are a better choice, and there are those where the mac is. outside of those it's really a matter of what makes more sense to you and what you enjoy.
 
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