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College students seem to prefer Classic instead of unibody

DoNoHarm

DoNoHarm

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 8, 2008
1,138
46
Maine
Just a totally unscientific observation... I live in a college town where somewhere like 50-75% of the people I see in cafe's and class have Macs. I have thus far not seen a single unibody MB or MBP. Everyone I've met who has purchased a Mac since the new unibodies came out seem to prefer the value presented by the MBP Classic....

Who's buying the new MB and MBP's? Is Apple currently manufacturing both models? The old ones seem to still be on clearance.
 
Well it's cheaper to pick up a refurbished model, so I think the only preference going on there is cost.
 
It's cheaper. Students don't have much money and the plastic MacBook offers them all they really need at a lower cost.

The vast majority of machines that we've sold since the MacBooks were refreshed have been the new Aluminium MacBooks - specifically the 2.0GHz model.

You should expect to see more and more of them as time goes on.
 
When you can find a classic 2.5 GHz MBP for 1200? Yea i would hope to see more of those.
 
You should also note that the unibody Macbooks were released in October. Most students tend to buy new computers between semesters (mostly during the summer, though perhaps also during the winter break).

I've spotted up to 5 or 6 in one of my lecture classes (about 75-80 students), which is honestly more than I expected.
 
DeaconGraves said:
You should also note that the unibody Macbooks were released in October. Most students tend to buy new computers between semesters (mostly during the summer, though perhaps also during the winter break).

I've spotted up to 5 or 6 in one of my lecture classes (about 75-80 students), which is honestly more than I expected.
Click to expand...

I think your right .... students usually buy computers in July-Aug (or the beginning of the school year). Or some lucky students have parents that purchase one for them. :D
 
I would have been a college student unibook user if it hadn't been for the crappy screen on the MacBooks and the impossible to resist deal i got for my MBP Classic. Also im not really a fan of the new design...too PC looking for me. But the main reason for me not getting a Unibody was cost and crappy screen.

I got a fully maxed out MBP classic for less than the cost of a stock high-end GlassBook

EDIT: I haven't seen a unibody in my Uni either...majority are sporting WhiteBooks and 1 Lecturer, a MBP Classic.
 
I'm a college student with a new unibody MBP. I sold off my MB and with some extra financial aid money I had was able to pick one up.
 
University student with a unibody MBP reporting in.

Friends of mine who went to uni this year bought either the unibody MB or MBP, none opted for the plastic MB.

I think that it'll take time for the number of unibody MBs to rise, the white plastic look has been out for years and students are unlikely to buy a new laptop every year. So really, you should be looking at how many of the people you see in the library (or wherever) with the plastic MB are new customers vs old (even less than 6 months ago the plastic was being sold).

Most opt for the unibody because how much more it offers for not that big of an investment. If you want the machine to last you your undergrad an extra $200 to get all the extras isn't that much.
 
I've been through 4 laptops in college.

Core Duo BlackBook, upgraded to 2GB Ram and 160GB HDD and 802.11n

Core 2 Duo BlackBook Penryn, warranty replacement of above

Unibody MacBook (top model), also warranty replacement of above

Unibody MacBook Pro (2.4/2gb/256mb/250gb), above + cash trade-up.
 
i'm a college student, and I hate the look of the old MBP its outdated. I like the new unibody MBP way more, its so sleek looking, the old one was just square I dont like square
 
I am a college student also and purchased mine on-campus at an Apple store and got an incredible deal/student discount on the new unibody.
 
well I am effectively a student and I go to a London Uni (UAL) and i see loads of unibody macbooks and macbook pros allthough more whitebooks but still... i also have a unibody MBP see sig.
 
I work at my school's bookstore. A lot of people prefer the classic over the unibody because we're selling the Classic at MacBook prices. That's all there is to it. There are people that go in knowing the price difference and still opt for a new unibody instead, though.
 
So far I think I'm pretty much I am the only student that got a unibody Macbook (neither pro or consumer) at my college. I did found someone over bonjour that had a unibody pro, but I'm sure it was a teacher.
 
University student who wanted a 17", and wanted matte. Classic's a beautiful design.
 
People just have different wants and needs, and if a classic fills them for a cheaper price, I would be amazed if they bought a Unibody one.

Some people just need *a* computer, not the top of the line everything and would be perfectly content with an 'older' machine for a cheaper price.
 
I got a Classic because I needed a new machine (Macbook Pro 15" 512Mb VRAM) but I wouldn't have bought one of the unibodies anyway. Needed one for Work and School, have no monitors with mini display port and aren't going to shell out 99 bucks for an adapter on top of that. Plus I hate gloss (and yes i've seen it and used it in our work lab). The trackpad also doesn't do it for me.

I saw one person with a unibody macbook .
 
So you see more people with a MBP design that's been around for 3 years than one that's been around for a month?

NUH-UH!

As about everybody else said, college students will get the older one to save a few hundred bucks. That buys a lot of beer...I mean books.

I would also wager that most college students are buying the MacBook line and not MacBook Pro. What I could've used a notebook PC for in college was taking notes and writing stuff on the fly, not to mention general Internet use. I used a major POS machine that didn't even have a CD-ROM on it at the end of my college years (early 2000s), so something as rockin' as the MacBook would've been gravy.
 
Eddyisgreat said:
I got a Classic because I needed a new machine (Macbook Pro 15" 512Mb VRAM) but I wouldn't have bought one of the unibodies anyway. Needed one for Work and School, have no monitors with mini display port and aren't going to shell out 99 bucks for an adapter on top of that. Plus I hate gloss (and yes i've seen it and used it in our work lab). The trackpad also doesn't do it for me.

I saw one person with a unibody macbook .
Click to expand...

The 100$ adapter is for 2560x1600 displays only... otherwise both the VGA and DVI one will do.

And no display has Mini DisplayPort besides the Apple 24" one, but they're letting other companies license it for free.
 
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