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lilo777

macrumors 603
Nov 25, 2009
5,144
0
Well I don't doubt that there are Mac dead zones however times have changed and not everybody wants to buy a cheap PC, especially when college curriculum doesn't require the use of a PC as it did in the past.

That's actually a funny thing. Colleges are pushing Macs because of incentives but are they serving their students well? Once out of the college, 95% of the students will have to use Windows for their work (Yeah, it's not 90% as businesses in general avoid Macs. I do not know exact numbers though).
 

alent1234

macrumors 603
Jun 19, 2009
5,688
170
Actually it's 1 in 10 computers SOLD that are using OSX. - but way to go Apple.

From my experience MacOS is slowly making it's way in cooperate. Most of my colleges bought over the last couple of years macs for at home (thanks to Intel Chip people figure that worst case they install Windows) - but they all loved MacOS and how much easier their life became. Now whenever one of them gets a new machine, they ask for a MacBook (with exceptions of those who have to do windows development). There was resistance from IT department at first, but after the CEO wanted one, there are getting approved more and more.

our CEO uses one as well but for the peons it's $600 lenovo's. if it breaks the help desk just orders another one and scavenges the parts. don't even bother buying an extended warranty.


i did see a car dealership that went all iMac's though.
 

mcmlxix

macrumors 6502a
Mar 10, 2009
516
1
Here come the Trojans.

So, am I reading it right that IBM/Lenovo are clumped with other? That surprises me. My company has approx 200,000 employees and IBM was the preferred vendor. Only recently has that changed to HP. Only select testers get a Mac.

I know everyone that I know is now on a Mac. Even my mother-in-law got a new MacBook Pro at over 60 years of age and loves it. Once you go Mac, you never go back, it appears. I know that's how it went for me! :apple:

Kind of true. Kind of not.

I started with Mac in 1988, but switched to Win/PC in 1998, because I could only afford under powered Macs, so Win/PCs made more sense for getting more power for my buck, and I had enough the wonky OS 7 & 8 by then. I even had brief stint with Linux.

But then in 2005 I went back to Mac, and by then OS X was brilliant, and unless something new comes on the scene and blows everything out of the water, I’ll stay with Mac.

I’ve even converted a couple people. They were always asking me to “fix” their Win/PC. Finally I told them that I didn’t know how to do it anymore and they should get a Mac. Next up is my mom…she gets an iPad for her birthday.
 

HLdan

macrumors 603
Aug 22, 2007
6,383
0
i see a lot more macbooks than 10 years ago as well but the cost is the big issue.

I don't see cost as being a big issue, there are several people on this very forum along with a few other forums that buy Macs for the form factor only and then end up installing Windows on them only to use Windows exclusively. What does that tell you? Why the heck would anyone be willing to spend money on a Mac just to run Windows when they can save a lot money (according to you) and buy a physical Windows machine? That tells me that money isn't the issue you think it is.
 

TomaxXamot

macrumors 6502
Jan 15, 2009
312
344
Vancouver, BC
the only person i know with a Mac, found it after it was lost at his place of work and never claimed. it's a macbook from 2007 or so.

everyone i know won't buy it due to the cost. in 2011 no one wants to spend more than a few hundred $$$ on a computer unless they are building a gaming PC.

Ha, well just to chime in, what I see is very, very different. I don't think I know anyone with a gaming PC.
There are Macs everywhere in my life. 2 years ago my siblings and I went in together to get our parents a laptop. We all wanted to get them Mac, but one of my bros that was in charge of it decided to get a Toshiba. From the first time my Dad booted it up on Xmas morning it was just terrible, with alerts and messages giving us warnings about BS. Anyways, we returned it, got him a MacBook and now he has that (which from the first time he booted up, was a simple, elegant pleasure), an iMac and is buying another MacBook for his business. This year my family all rented a chalet at a B.C. Ski resort and there were 4 MacBook Pros and a Toshiba laptop between us.
My sister has a MacBook, her boyfriend, her ex-boyfriend. My brother has a 27" iMac, his wife a MacBook Pro. I have at least 12 friends with Macs, not including people I stay in touch with from college years ago. I have an iMac and MacBook Pro. Every time I go for coffee there are MacBooks everywhere. Even at nightclubs, most DJs have a Mac in their setup. Also, many people I know that plan to buy a new computer keep talking about Macs.
So I guess there must be areas in North America with 'dead zones', but where I am in Vancouver and the surrounding areas, there are Macs everywhere- not just at Starbucks.
 

HLdan

macrumors 603
Aug 22, 2007
6,383
0
I've also observed that about 2/3 of students at cafes use Mac. How many students are rich? Unless they have rich daddies.

Don't make this out to be something it's not, please? It's ridiculous. You don't have to be "rich" to buy a Mac. If you can't spend $1000 on a tool that will be instrumental in your production then you don't to be spend crazy money on an expensive college either. Yeah, I guess those same college kids are either rich or have rich daddies when they spend outrageous money on keg parties and useless sporting events.
 

Eddyisgreat

macrumors 601
Oct 24, 2007
4,851
2
I've also observed that about 2/3 of students at cafes use Mac. How many students are rich? Unless they have rich daddies.

Free Money Student loans are a wonderful thing. Right after the student aid $$$ disbursed at my school I saw about twenty new 11" MBAs.
 

Yamcha

macrumors 68000
Mar 6, 2008
1,825
158
Great I guess, Apples marketshare seems to go higher every year, but still only 10% while, the rest are still using Windows machines..

I never understood why Apple doesn't make more affordable macbooks & mac minis.. $749 (CAD) is not cheap, they should make a lower end Mac Mini priced between $400-$500, I think the primary reason people don't make the switch to mac is because of how expensive it is to move to a Mac..
 

AAPLaday

Guest
Aug 6, 2008
2,411
2
Manchester UK
Great I guess, Apples marketshare seems to go higher every year, but still only 10% while, the rest are still using Windows machines..

I never understood why Apple doesn't make more affordable macbooks & mac minis.. $749 (CAD) is not cheap, they should make a lower end Mac Mini priced between $400-$500, I think the primary reason people don't make the switch to mac is because of how expensive it is to move to a Mac..

The only way i see them doing this is if they remove iLife from those machines. But again wouldn't this ruin the mac experience? Maybe the MacBook needs to be changed slightly to a more cost effective version. I mean the 13" pro is very close to it in price and the 11" Air is the same. I feel the current MacBook is a bit in no mans land.
 

BaldiMac

macrumors G3
Jan 24, 2008
8,760
10,888
That's actually a funny thing. Colleges are pushing Macs because of incentives but are they serving their students well?

I have to ask, what "incentives" are causing colleges to "push Macs"?

Once out of the college, 95% of the students will have to use Windows for their work (Yeah, it's not 90% as businesses in general avoid Macs. I do not know exact numbers though).

That's amazing reasoning. Of course it assumes that 100% of college graduates are going to a job that requires significant computer skills. And that the computer skills for the 95% are unique to Windows. And that because you use a Mac as your primary computer, you can't use Windows. :rolleyes:
 

HLdan

macrumors 603
Aug 22, 2007
6,383
0
Great I guess, Apples marketshare seems to go higher every year, but still only 10% while, the rest are still using Windows machines..

I never understood why Apple doesn't make more affordable macbooks & mac minis.. $749 (CAD) is not cheap, they should make a lower end Mac Mini priced between $400-$500, I think the primary reason people don't make the switch to mac is because of how expensive it is to move to a Mac..

This doesn't make any sense, the purpose of the article is to show Apple's market share growing. Obviously more people are switching than you think.
Do you really need an answer to your question or was that just rhetorical? I'll answer it anyway, a company who has over $300/share in stocks and has several billion of available cash in the bank and has increasing better quarterly numbers in computer sales than it's competitors has no reason to lower the prices of their products. Would you?
 

mcmlxix

macrumors 6502a
Mar 10, 2009
516
1
Don't make this out to be something it's not, please? It's ridiculous. You don't have to be "rich" to buy a Mac. If you can't spend $1000 on a tool that will be instrumental in your production then you don't to be spend crazy money on an expensive college either. Yeah, I guess those same college kids are either rich or have rich daddies when they spend outrageous money on keg parties and useless sporting events.

Perhaps "rich" wasn't the best choice of words, but neither is so much emotion.

And saying students necessarily actually pay for their expensive educations (at least at the time and not deferred by loans) or spend their money on parties, sports, etc is just a broad brush distraction. I spent nothing on my education (at the time) and any extra money I had after working 40 hrs/week while taking 12-16 credits/quarter was spent on such frivolities as getting my teeth fixed.

I think that Mac is superior hardware/software than a Win/PC, but for the overwhelming majority of students, the Dell, Compaq, etc “tool” is more than sufficient for their needs, and at half the price, why not spend that extra money on kegs and games as you suggest? I think all they know is that Morgan and Jayden have a Mac, and they want to look cool too.
 
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alent1234

macrumors 603
Jun 19, 2009
5,688
170
Great I guess, Apples marketshare seems to go higher every year, but still only 10% while, the rest are still using Windows machines..

I never understood why Apple doesn't make more affordable macbooks & mac minis.. $749 (CAD) is not cheap, they should make a lower end Mac Mini priced between $400-$500, I think the primary reason people don't make the switch to mac is because of how expensive it is to move to a Mac..

the apple asthetic is thin, good display and battery life

i had someone ask me about a MBP a few weeks ago and i told him you buy it for the battery life since any wintel laptop with the same battery life will cost as much or more. the person ended up with a dell desktop

iMac's sold because the same spec PC was the same price or more depending when you bought it and they had a better monitor

apple has a target revenue/profit for every computer they sell and they aren't going to get it selling cheaper models to compete with acer. the Mac Mini sold because it was tiny and quiet

but with sandy bridge CPU's and wintel laptops getting 6 hour battery life now we'll have to see what apple comes up with. my guess is that all laptops will go with big SSD's to justify the price.
 

Mattie Num Nums

macrumors 68030
Mar 5, 2009
2,834
0
USA
This is great and all but apple has castrated the computer line. The technology isn't up to snuff and corp. who want to adopt huge numbers are left to wonder how they heck they are going to manage them. We are replacing all our Xserves with Sun servers (running JAMF Casper.)
 

alent1234

macrumors 603
Jun 19, 2009
5,688
170
This is great and all but apple has castrated the computer line. The technology isn't up to snuff and corp. who want to adopt huge numbers are left to wonder how they heck they are going to manage them. We are replacing all our Xserves with Sun servers (running JAMF Casper.)

the worst thing in the world of IT is to be an Oracle customer
 

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,107
1,345
Silicon Valley
No, one out of ten computers sold today run OS X. If OS X started outselling Windows 2:1 it would still take years for OS X to have more than 50% overall marketshare.

Yes, however, the fact that Macs tend to be given a longer service life than PCs (on average) means that the installed base of Macs is a bit larger than just proportional to the numbers sold in prior years.
 

smiddlehurst

macrumors 65816
Jun 5, 2007
1,228
30
Apple isn't going to touch terminal services. (Fast User Switching hacks aside.) Otherwise in higher education, I've already encountered and deployed thin clients with a Sun backend and Windows Terminal Services. They're not really that much cheaper than a fat tower upfront but the maintenance costs are extremely low.

The majority of troubleshooting is just killing a hung session.

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear, I don't think it'll be Apple providing those services. It'll be companies built around that concept providing very low cost hardware with smartphone-like internals for very low margains but shipping very large quantities. My point, really, was that investing heavily in general business use right now with a desktop OS is a bit of a dead end. By the time you make significant inroads against the incumbent (aka Microsoft) the market will be moving away from you anyway.
 

bobr1952

macrumors 68020
Jan 21, 2008
2,040
39
Melbourne, FL
The Apple display is certainly impressive at Best Buy compared to the other displays. No Apple store here so I have to settle for that unless I go to Orlando. I have to say the new Macbook Air is mighty impressive to behold. I'm certainly not surprised that others are impressed enough to buy. :)
 

Eidorian

macrumors Penryn
Mar 23, 2005
29,190
386
Indianapolis
Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear, I don't think it'll be Apple providing those services. It'll be companies built around that concept providing very low cost hardware with smartphone-like internals for very low margains but shipping very large quantities.
Believe me, the current internals on a thin client are barely more than a barebones ATI Rage 128 level GPU, DDR2 RAM, an ethernet controller, and some USB 2.0 ports. You'd get more computing power out of the smartphone to be honest.
 

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,107
1,345
Silicon Valley
...
everyone i know won't buy it due to the cost. in 2011 no one wants to spend more than a few hundred $$$ on a computer unless they are building a gaming PC...

In some cities, I see lots of recent model Lexus's, BMW's and Mercedes. In other parts of the state I see almost none. Same difference with computers.

People with money aren't distributed equally geographically. At a nearby expensive private U, most of the laptops I see are MacBooks. Maybe over 50%.

Apple sells products to people who can afford their stuff. In some parts of the country and world that isn't a high proportion. In other parts, there are more than enough customers to make up the difference, given their market share growth.
 

PeterQVenkman

macrumors 68020
Mar 4, 2005
2,023
0
I have to ask, what "incentives" are causing colleges to "push Macs"?

I would imagine the incentive is the ease of use and lack of viruses (virii?). ;)


Yes, however, the fact that Macs tend to be given a longer service life than PCs (on average) means that the installed base of Macs is a bit larger than just proportional to the numbers sold in prior years.

Oe perhaps people spend more on macs and therefore upgrade less.
 
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firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,107
1,345
Silicon Valley
I never understood why Apple doesn't make more affordable macbooks & mac minis.. $749 (CAD) is not cheap, they should make a lower end Mac Mini priced between $400-$500, I think the primary reason people don't make the switch to mac is because of how expensive it is to move to a Mac..

Easy. Dell makes more affordable laptops and small desktops... and also a 10X smaller profit !! If you want to win in business, you should learn from your competition's mistakes.
 

alent1234

macrumors 603
Jun 19, 2009
5,688
170
In some cities, I see lots of recent model Lexus's, BMW's and Mercedes. In other parts of the state I see almost none. Same difference with computers.

People with money aren't distributed equally geographically. At a nearby expensive private U, most of the laptops I see are MacBooks. Maybe over 50%.

Apple sells products to people who can afford their stuff. In some parts of the country and world that isn't a high proportion. In other parts, there are more than enough customers to make up the difference, given their market share growth.

that had me going as well until i figured out why i see so many average people driving a luxury car. a lot of them lease. the others probably have a high trade in value.

when i first got married 7 years ago my wife and i had a civic LX. we're now on our fourth car which is a CR-V EX-L with 4WD and the car payment is the same or a bit less than 7 years ago even though the car costs twice as much. and i never put a cent of my money down and finance all the dealer charges and taxes

same with all the lexus people. most of them are middle aged which means their kids are older or gone and they probably have a lot of equity in a car they can use as a down payment. once you get that first lexus or acura, the value retention is so high that it's easy to buy a new one every 3 years or so. and i've seen idiots lease used lexuses so there is a market for them
 

SandynJosh

macrumors 68000
Oct 26, 2006
1,652
3
the only person i know with a Mac, found it after it was lost at his place of work and never claimed. it's a macbook from 2007 or so.

Was it white? I think that was mine.

If that was the only Mac owner you know, the new "Find a Friend" function in iOS 4.3 was made with you in mind. You probably need a hug too.
 
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