“Dude, you’re getting a Dell! Well … maybe not any more. According to the Office of Information Technology (OIT), 45 percent of computers purchased [at Princeton] this year were Macs, more than in any previous year. In 2003, when this year’s seniors arrived on campus, just 15 percent of them chose Macs. The next year, a quarter of incoming freshmen did, and the year after that, 38 percent. These statistics aren’t comprehensive, because some students choose not to buy their computers through OIT. Nonetheless, the upward trend is real. Macs are where it’s at,” Doug Eshleman reports for The Princetonian.
“The upswing is not limited only to students. ‘A relatively high percentage of faculty use Macs,’ said Steven Sather of OIT. ‘And that percentage has also increased over the past couple years.’ Many faculty members in the Engineering School have adopted Macs despite the fact that some engineering software programs only run on Windows,” Eshleman reports.
“Why is it that Macs have recently become popular and PCs less so among Princeton students? One possibility is the comparative reliability of the systems… Mac converts Andres Moreno ’10 and Katherine Sanden ’09 cited earlier PC and Windows problems as a significant motivation for the switch. Both of them had a Windows machine that performed slowly and had been subject to several viruses and spyware programs,” Eshleman reports.
“Dave Morreale, senior manager of OIT support,… bought his Apple online, also appreciated Apple’s unique website. Moreover, he has always been impressed with Apple stores, in contrast to their PC counterparts. ‘Apple stores are well-organized, the people are knowledgeable and they are passionate about their work,’ he said,” Eshleman reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: 45% is a remarkable number. Now, some people quoted in the article don’t seem to realize that Macs can run Windows, too, for those pesky few programs that are Windows-only; that sounds like the only thing keeping them from switching. Once they learn that Macs can run Windows, too, we expect Mac to overtake OS-limited Windows-only PCs on the Princeton campus. Apple needs to do a better job “embracing” Windows, so the Mac can begin “extinguishing” it in wider numbers. Apple should sell the Mac to the general public first and foremost as able to run Windows. They need to know that they can have their “Windows Insecurity Blanket,” so they will make their next PC purchase a Mac. Once Apple gets Macs into their hands, the Mac will do the rest of the work by itself.
Let’s face it, Windows-only users have no idea what they’re missing and most are not inclined to do a several hundred dollar “test” to see if they really like Mac OS X and the Mac platform. Imagine if they could feel “safe” in buying a Mac that can run their Windows that also happens to let them run Mac OS X. And we all know what happens once someone really gives Mac OS X a try—Windows quickly falls by the wayside. That’s why these Intel-based Macs will help expand Mac market share, if average people can be made to understand that the machines can run both Windows and Mac operating systems natively. Remember, it’s a good bet most of these average people (we’re probably talking somewhere around 70-80% of personal computer consumers) don’t even know what an operating system is; they think Windows is a personal computer; you know, the ones who think the “blue e” is the “Internet.” For most people, Macs will become the “2 for the price of 1” computer. Even for the nearly illiterate personal computer buyers, with a little Apple-supplied education via marketing, it would make little sense to buy a limited Windows-only machine from the box assemblers like Dell, Gateway, etc. Give them their “Windows Insecurity Blanket” upfront and they’ll throw it away themselves after they realize how tattered and threadbare it is in comparison it to Apple’s Mac OS X. – Stevejack for MacDailyNews from the article “Intel-based Macs running both Mac OS X and Windows will be good for Apple” – June 10, 2005
Apple Macs Do Windows Too:
Related articles:
Apple Boot Camp’s ‘Windows Insecurity Blanket’ helps buyers decide to switch to Macs – May 19, 2006
Research firm: Intel, Boot Camp powering huge Apple Mac sales surge – May 19, 2006
Needham: Apple Mac sales could surge due to Boot Camp, newfound ability to run Windows apps – April 20, 2006
Cowen & Co survey shows strong Apple Mac sales prospects, Boot Camp impact ‘broadly positive’ – April 18, 2006
Apple’s Boot Camp vs. Parallels Workstation for running Windows on Intel-based Macs – April 14, 2006
Baig: Boot Camp works so well it reminds me why I prefer Mac OS X to Windows XP in the first place – April 13, 2006
Pre-Boot Camp report: Apple could double market share on Microsoft defections – April 13, 2006
Mossberg: ‘Every mainstream consumer doing typical tasks should consider Apple Mac’ – April 13, 2006
Boot Camp could be big win for Apple Macs in schools – April 12, 2006
Thurrott: Apple’s elegant Boot Camp opens up a world of possibilities – April 11, 2006
Apple’s Boot Camp is first step towards Mac OS X Leopard’s inevitable support for virtualization – April 11, 2006
IT specialist: Apple’s Boot Camp ‘definitely makes the Mac more attractive’ – April 10, 2006
Apple trying to steal customers from Windows with Boot Camp by letting people try superior Mac OS X – April 09, 2006
Apple reseller: Boot Camp could sway a ‘huge percentage’ of PC users to go to the Mac – April 07, 2006
Analyst: Apple’s Boot Camp may bring ‘significant benefits’ beginning in 2006 holiday quarter – April 07, 2006
Analyst: With Boot Camp, Apple has removed another barrier to switching – April 06, 2006
Analyst: Apple Boot Camp could be an opportunity for Mac market share gains – April 06, 2006
Enderle: Apple’s Boot Camp allowing Windows on Mac ‘could change PC landscape as we know it’ – April 06, 2006
Apple’s ‘Boot Camp’ a watershed, could dramatically expand Mac market share – April 05, 2006
Apple’s ‘Boot Camp’ is bad news for Windows-only PC box assemblers – April 05, 2006
Reuters: Apple’s new ‘Boot Camp’ could draw millions of new Mac buyers – April 05, 2006
Apple introduces Boot Camp: public beta software enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP – April 05, 2006
Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! – April 05, 2006
Intel-based Macs running both Mac OS X and Windows will be good for Apple – June 10, 2005
It’s because you bit that I had a bad experience last night!
That 45% is all Apple. The other 55% is shared with the Windows PC companies. That’s pretty good, and it’s only going to get better
…with Vista.
It will be the master of disaster.
I’m a grad student at Saint Louis University and a good half my classmates use Macs. Our GIS software is Windows only, though.
I would like to request that college student MDN readers write in to let us know the purchasing statistics at their schools – this year vs. previous years.
Unfortunately, my school is 111% Microshit. Out IT idiots think thatthe sun rises from Bill Gates’ ass, and sets in steve Ballmer. On the other hand, our IT director makes Steve Ballmer look like a freakin genius. They actively discourage Macs in the literature they send out to incoming students.
On the other hand, I am on the local volunteer fire department. Every now and then, someone invites us in to search every room in their dorm, by falsely setting off a fire alarm. I’m noticing more and more Macs in the dorm rooms the past few years.
When the people lead, the leaders will follow.
Hey god….what couldn’t get into Princeton? It helps if your dad is an important person or if you have high marks and have done community service.
If you write your programs properly, porting them from c for win to c for mac os x is not a bit deal, fucking lazy piece of shit programmers!
In August I got talking to a personable, young American student from Berkeley here in Berlin.
He had a Dell laptop and there was a bit of Mac vs. MS rivalry between us – but all very pleasant – and then I asked what propotion of his fellow students had Macs.
I was hoping to hear something like 30% or even 35% and was quite stunned when he answered: ‘Oh, about half of them’.
lobo said: “Apple should sell Macs with windows preinstalled for those who want it and don’t already have a Windows licence”.
I think this would send out the wrong message – far better for Apple to include Crossover Mac, so that a copy of Windows isn’t required. Or, one of the long-standing rumours about Leopard is that Windows applications will be able to run on Macintosh computers without a copy of Windows being present.
Now, that’s what I call embrace and extinguish.
There is one, overwhelmingly obvious reason why Macs do well at Universities. Large campuses generally strive to have nearly completely open networks that are relatively poorly protected by firewalls and overworked IT staff, etc compared to corporate environments. As a consequence, there is a constant flow of viruses coming from hundreds (thousands) of poorly-protected computers that become drones, trying to infect all the other computers on the network. The IT staff try their best, but if a PC gets infected their solution is just to “image it” – completely erase the hard drive and re-install Windows plus a standard collection of software packages they support. They just don’t have the staff or time necessary to do anything else.
Students and Faculty can’t put up with having their computers “imaged”, since all their data would get lost. The best alternative solution is to get a Mac and avoid all the security problems. As more and more people figure that out, Macs spread and there is a snowball effect.
___________________________
Sent from my virus-free Mac running OS X
But that technical instistute in Texas that claimed that no one uses Macs anymore! I guess the Ivy League didn’t get the memo. Maybe they should give them a call.
w00t!! go tigers
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Happy to say that while at Princeton I both worked for OIT, and converted 5-10 friends to Mac, hehe. On top of that, many friends plan on buying Macs when they are up for a new pc 😀
OIT was pretty Mac friendly when I was there as well, and I’m sure it’s only improved with the number of students buying Macs.
It should be noted that all computers sold by Princeton are laptops.
Mac users breed more Mac users. Think about it: Weren’t all of us turned onto Mac users by friends? My circle started out with one Mac user. Now there’s six (pretty much all of them, I think). This phenomenon should result in a steady acceleration of the upward movement of the market share, a little bit faster every year. The tipping point will be when the mainstream media takes full notice, and the upsurge in Mac sales becomes big news. Then every Tom, Dick, & Harry will want one, whether or not they have a Mac-using friend.
Apple has some cure computers but they are unreliable in enterprise environment. I’m the director of IT for a school like princeton and we have had major problems with Macs login into network, crashing, slow(network home folders suck!!) and cross platform compatability issues with Word/Entourage. We met face to face with Apple engineer who confirmed what we discovered: a) OS has major flaws; memory manager, DNS lookup service b) Windows Active Directory Integration is a joke – Crashes all the time, looses binding, sends wrong username to server (Apple can’t figure out why). c) Work group Manager can not handle more than 1000 users d) Apple Remote Desktop crashes, freezes frequently.
I challenge anyone to make our networked Macs work correctly!!
Overall, it’s a cute toy for making movies and music. You want to get work done and centrally manage your system in large IT environment.
“Mac users breed more Mac users. Think about it:”
The diving market share over the last decade from a high of 15% or so to the current low of 2% shows the opposite, Mac users breed less Mac users.
There is a tipping point, but that tipping point will be when most Mac users run their Mac as a Windows PC. Great for Apple, not so great for Mac OS X devotees.