Princeton University Students Switching?

[MacRumors]

A Daily Princetonian article reports that the number of Princeton University students buying Macs has increased substantially over the past 3 years.

According to their Office of Information Technology, 45% of computers purchased this year were Macs. While this statistic only represents on-campus sales, it does represent a significant trend of the past 3 years. In 2003, only 15% of computers sold were Macs, with steady increases to 25% and 38% in 2004 and 2005.

Years ago, Apple had traditionally been well represented in higher education, but this market-share had suffered alongside the general consumer marketshare over the years. Businessweek had predicted in 2003 that Apple's higher education sales were seeing a significant turnaround, and Apple's most recent Quarterly results showed a 31% increase year-over-year for Higher Education sales.

 

[MattyMac]

Nice...my Uncle is a head professor of Chemistry at Princeton and he said that he used to use Macs all of the time there back in the day, but no one uses them anymore. I'll be sure to let him hear these statistics

 

[arn]

Obviously, this only represents one small population... but it's still an impressive gain over these past few years.

arn

 

[cherrypop]

Totally makes sense

Apple's decision to develop Boot Camp, and to support openly Parallels will prove to be brilliant in converting Win users, where ad campaigns in the past simply failed. Not just at Princeton, but everywhere.

BT and P provide a Win user with the illusion that they're not giving anything up. They can always have the security blanket of Windows if they need it, right on their Mac, while Apple finally gets the opportunity to expose Win users to the Mac OS in a meaningful way.

Everyone wins, but Apple wins bigger.

A Daily Princetonian article reports that the number of Princeton University students buying Macs has increased substantially over the past 3 years.

.

 

[spicyapple]

My sister switched to Mac. She bought herself a MacBook. In our household, this would be Page 1 News. Unfortunately, she's running Parallels so it's my job to slowly wean her off Windows.

 

[amoda]

I can testify!

It seems to me that this trend can be seen in most universities. A friend of mine works at the campus computer store, which is an offical apple reseller, and he sees this at work. He says that out of the stores notebook sales approx. 1/5 to 1/4 are macs.

On another note i'm in my first year now and i, as well as some of my friends, bought laptops this year. A good 10 out of 15 or so are macs, 3 mbps and the rest mbs.

 

[amols]

This is only the beginning. Wait for second quarter 2007 with all UB apps, iTV, True video iPod and Leopard (and maybe Merom Macbooks )

 

[Adurbe]

these students will then leave uni and when in employment feel more comfortable on macs, maybe influencing purchasing decisions

 

[nevir]

It's the same here at the University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign, particularly in the computer science department. Powerbooks, MacBooks and MBP's everywhere - and while I heard a lot of Mac hate, even from myself, a few years ago - that's almost completely evaporated.

We also just got a second (well a real) Apple Store/resaler - and for only being a 10x10' store, I rarley see less than 4-5 people in there browsing.

 

[narco]

The only problem with some switchers is that they're so used to doing things the complicated way. I've had most of my friends go out and buy iTunes, some to switch to the Mac, but it seems like they're not used to the fact that their OS works for them rather than the other way around.

For instance, one friend organized his entire iTunes library in playlist. For each artist, each album -- he wanted one click access to every album. I then told him about the "Browse" feature and he was pretty pissed. It also seems like people aren't used to the fact that iTunes organizes your music files for you -- they want to go into each folder and name things themselves. SO DIFFICULT.

Fishes,
narco.

 

[kansast]

The only problem with some switchers is that they're so used to doing things the complicated way. I've had most of my friends go out and buy iTunes, some to switch to the Mac, but it seems like they're not used to the fact that their OS works for them rather than the other way around.

For instance, one friend organized his entire iTunes library in playlist. For each artist, each album -- he wanted one click access to every album. I then told him about the "Browse" feature and he was pretty pissed. It also seems like people aren't used to the fact that iTunes organizes your music files for you -- they want to go into each folder and name things themselves. SO DIFFICULT.

Fishes,
narco.

My boss is this way.. he was a mac user WAY BACK in the "Quadra" series day and before that, but he switched to windoze back then.. And he too is used to doing things the 'complicated way' change is hard for some people, and even when I laugh at him for doing things that seem so complicated to a 'mac' way. He continues to think 'this is how it's supposed to be'. So now I just shake my head and don't say anything

Kansast

 

[coumerelli]

My boss is this way.. he was a mac user WAY BACK in the "Quadra" series day and before that, but he switched to windoze back then.. And he too is used to doing things the 'complicated way' change is hard for some people, and even when I laugh at him for doing things that seem so complicated to a 'mac' way. He continues to think 'this is how it's supposed to be'. So now I just shake my head and don't say anything

Kansast

Wow. were we separated at birth? That sounds like ME talking!

 

[drumpat01]

This effect can also be seen at my college, the University of North Texas (fourth largest college in TX). When I first got here in 2001 there weren't any macs anywhere besides a few computer labs that were still running OS 9 iMacs. Now you can see MB and MBP all over the place. Most computer labs now have a good number of G4 PowerMacs and the music building lab has about 10-15 G5 iMacs.

And on a more personal note, my roommate got his first mac about 3 days ago, a MB, and my mom is about to get her first mac Its either going to be a iMac or Mac Mini, depends on how much money I'm willing to pay for it. Its her wedding present from me.

 

[spicyapple]

It also seems like people aren't used to the fact that iTunes organizes your music files for you -- they want to go into each folder and name things themselves. SO DIFFICULT.

Say what!? PC users enjoy self-flagellation.

 

[IlluminatedSage]

lets hope that this is a good sign of the shift happening soon at universities everywhere.

of course i bet that there is a great apple program at the school, ie store on campus that has a very good person running it. no better pricing prob than regular student pricing.

but the better program they have... the more macs they sell

 

[hechacker1]

I work for UCSD's Resnet department and I have also noticed a sharp incline of mac users this year. A little under half the support calls/appointments I get now are for macs (which says something about their ability to "just work").

Personally, if I were to buy another computer atm, it would also probably be a mac. The decision is quite simple now that mac's are reasonably priced and can run windows just the same.

 

[SMM]

My extended family numbers 11 households and 6 students. Over the past three years, only one new purchase was not a Mac. None of them run anything except OSX. Some purchased Office:Mac, and that is because they wanted Excel.

If the new version of iWork contains a good spreadsheet, it will be a big deal for the business community and their sales. Most people only use the basic functions of spreadsheets and formatting of a word processor. An all Apple solution brings their cost lower than a comparable PC.

 

[stephenmckeague]

LOL @ Princeton - A mere 10th in world university rankings. Far from the impressive 9th of Imperial College

 

[Some_Big_Spoon]

I think this is the #1 reason people don't switch; They think that the difficulties of windows are how computing is supposed to be, namely, complicated, expensive, and time consuming.

I have to fight tooth and nail at my company to use a mac because, and I quote my "IT Professional"; "Macs are too expensive, they get too many viruses, and they're too hard to network and support". Now, granted, this woman isn't bright and was "promoted" to network admin from some receptionist job at some point, but this is how most companies think.

When she sits down at my mac to "fix it" (break something), she spends minutes looking for the complicated way of doing something instead of checking a box or pushing a button. The Principals of my company are the same. I'll do presentations in Keynote or make marketing movies or DVD's that the rest of the company loves, but since it's not supported on windows, the initiatives go nowhere. It's a mixture of ignorance and IT weasels looking to hold on to their jobs. If we had macs at work, she'd be out of a job and she knows it.

I hope Princeton's policies are platform agnostic, otherwise all the new mac users could find themselves in a difficult situation.

The only problem with some switchers is that they're so used to doing things the complicated way. I've had most of my friends go out and buy iTunes, some to switch to the Mac, but it seems like they're not used to the fact that their OS works for them rather than the other way around.

For instance, one friend organized his entire iTunes library in playlist. For each artist, each album -- he wanted one click access to every album. I then told him about the "Browse" feature and he was pretty pissed. It also seems like people aren't used to the fact that iTunes organizes your music files for you -- they want to go into each folder and name things themselves. SO DIFFICULT.

Fishes,
narco.

 

[MrCrowbar]

I happen to be in Princeton right now an I can confirm that there are a lot of young people with apple laptops there. When you go to starbucks, you see quite a lot of people with laptops (starbucks has wifi), and 90% of them are Macbook Pros, Macbooks, or 12" Powerbooks. I felt so at home when I pulled out my Macbook. And that one guy with his old dell was so ashamed

One reason could be that there's only one computer store in this little town, and this store only sells Macs and iPods.

 

[Bye Bye Baby]

Don't get cocky

LOL @ Princeton - A mere 10th in world university rankings. Far from the impressive 9th of Imperial College

What bugs me is that I am now at Oxford, which by the way is number two or three in the world, that Macs are under represented. In fact there is no store, virtual or otherwise in the whole of Oxford!!!!! How smart is that????

How about a nice big juicy shop on High Street!!!!! Or even next to the Bodleian!!!

Bring it on apple

 

[krykert]

Ugh!

Princetonians, in my experience, are fratboys, prudes, and associated squares--by far the worst of the Ivies. Not a creative bone in the entire student body. They wouldn't know Macintosh if it bit them in their collective beige butt.

So tell me, how on earth is this good news? Unimaginative folk like these don't belong on our platform. Much better to celebrate the longstanding prevalence of Macs on progressive, independent-minded, and artistic campuses such as Brown and Columbia. But Princeton? Give me a break.

 

[goodmacman]

solution

Does anyone remember that back in the day's of mac classics or maybe it was the performa lineup. When I was about 10 years old. There was a little program where you went diving and it was designed to teach you how the mac interface worked. With Drag and Drop etc.

Now I too have experienced windows friends getting very stressed that the mac is rubbish because it doesn't work. You walk over. Show them how it works and due to their pride they then won't admit that it is great because they feel stupid for not trying your solution.

What if there was a nice program that just helped them into the right mode of thinking. A sort of quick intro for ex windows users. We could call it iRehab?

 

[rwalk]

hah

Princetonians, in my experience, are fratboys, prudes, and associated squares--by far the worst of the Ivies. Not a creative bone in the entire student body. They wouldn't know Macintosh if it bit them in their collective beige butt.

So tell me, how on earth is this good news? Unimaginative folk like these don't belong on our platform. Much better to celebrate the longstanding prevalence of Macs on progressive, independent-minded, and artistic campuses such as Brown and Columbia. But Princeton? Give me a break.

Give me a break. I'm sure your "experience" is vast, and you know every person at Princeton. You are the kind of person who should not be on the Mac platform.

 

[krykert]

Give me a break. I'm sure your "experience" is vast, and you know every person at Princeton.

I happen to have the displeasure of knowing a good many more than I'd like to, and I'm telling you there's no way that a full 45% of that student body are blue-blooded Mac users. Princetonians are a people lacking utterly in subtlety and charm, and even poorer in aesthetic intuition. They're the people who pose with upturned collars! I can't stress strongly enough: These people aren't Mac users. They're switcheurs.