“In this back-to-school season, college kids are buying Macs in numbers never seen before. A recent survey by Student Monitor, a New Jersey outfit that tracks the buying habits of college students, found that 13% of all undergrads expect to buy a new notebook this fall. Of those, 43% say they plan to get a MacBook or MacBook Pro, nearly double those who said they expected to get a Dell notebook, and seven times as many as those who plan to buy from HP, says Eric Weil, the firm’s managing partner. While students prefer Dell for desktop computers, that’s small consolation: Students favor notebooks over desktops by a factor of nearly 5 to 1,” Arik Hesseldahl reports for BusinessWeek.
“Back-to-school time has always been important for Apple. In 2007 the company sold nearly 2.2 million Macs in its fourth quarter ended Sept. 30, up 34% from the year-earlier period. Those computers brought in $3.1 billion during the 2007 quarter, half of all the company’s revenue,” Hesseldahl reports. “Another blowout quarter is in the offing: Analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray (PJC) wrote in a research note on Aug. 25 that the latest numbers from market researcher NPD suggest Apple could sell as many as 2.9 million Macs this quarter. That would mean a surge of 34% from the same quarter a year ago. On the iPod and iPhone front, NPD data, Munster says, suggest sales in the ballpark of 11 million and 4 million units, respectively. Add it all up and you have the makings of a quarter where Apple could beat Wall Street consensus numbers by 8¢, and report earnings per share as high as $1.19.”
“Moreover, Apple has of late been defying trends in the computer industry. It has been winning share of the personal computer market, reaching 8.5% in the U.S. behind Dell and HP, according to the most recent Gartner (IT) report. In the second quarter, it saw its year-on-year growth rate in unit shipments hit 38%. That’s three times the rate of growth at Dell, seven times faster than HP, and nine times faster than the PC industry as a whole,” Hesseldahl reports.
Hesseldahl reports, “Students want to buy products that are cool, and the perception about Windows at the moment is anything but. The iPod tends to entice people from Windows over to the Mac, and the iPhone will only add to that trend.”
Much more, including a bet that we guarantee (iCal us) that Hesseldahl will win, in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Matti” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Windows. It is your father’s OS.
iCal him!
Windows isn’t just your father’s OS; it’s your dog’s OS.
I work at the main library on the campus of UC Davis and about three or four years ago, most of the laptops that I would see the students using were Dells, HPs or Vaios. You could count on one hand the number of students using Macs (okay, maybe two hands). Nowadays, I see Mac laptops virtually everywhere. The presence of Macs have dramatically increased and I couldn’t be more pleased!
But PCs come with FREE PIZZA!!
Won’t these students be RIP-$*it when they see the new Mac touch going on-sale in October? We will be seeing how yummy MacBooks of all types are not long after. If! That’s the end of the salesperson the MacBook gets inserted into.
Big thing in favour of Windows PCs in the past was games (in spite of the Mac being called a toy). But with modern gaming consoles taking that market (with online options as well), this makes the Mac a more attractive proposition for your computer needs. Oh, and they are cool too! But I knew that years ago.
“College students buying Macs in record numbers”
In 33 1/3s, 45s and 78s? That’s pretty weird.
Whatever happened to Zune Tang?
This is highly disappointing. What has happened to these kids’ to so compromise their inability to think independently and make poorly-informed decisions?
Next thing you know, they’ll be voting outside the 2-party system.
“Next thing you know, they’ll be voting outside the 2-party system.”
Hopefully not this election. Barack Obama can’t win without them.
On topic, I wonder why writers pick and choose between researchers (IDC, NPD, Gartner) when citing Mac market share statistics? I remember one that said Macs are at 10.4% in the US, for example, while the figure Hesseldahl chose to cite is 8.5%.
Seems to me they should put all the numbers together and give us an average.
MacDailyNews Take: Windows. It is your father’s OS.
No, it is not. I am one of these fathers, but I left Windows after having tried it for only a very short time. I have been using Mac for years, and so have my children. (But I do agree, really).
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Peter in Norway:
You’re in Norway, so no wonder you’re a Mac guy.
It’s not your father’s OS and it’s not your dog’s OS. It’s your dogs dinner from the night before…
@Rover
You mean… after it’s been…
Oh.
@R2
“Hopefully not this election. Barack Obama can’t win without them.” Actually, 3rd parties have historically helped Democrats. Ross Parot stole around 20% of the vote from both George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole. He helped Clinton win big time.
If we all support Bob Barr (the only third party candidate with a chance of getting a measurable %) Obama won’t have a problem. 3rd parties only steal hard core voters.
This is truly the most important news on this site today. On my campus (25000+ undergrads; provincial university in Canada) last year at least 1/3 of computers in lecture theaters were Macs. This year I’m betting on 1/2 being Macs, possibly more. These kids (I’m only 19) are the future decision-makers for large companies and hold great influence on personal purchases not only in their own families but in others as well. If anyone thinks that 2% of these people will return to Windows EVER, I would be surprised. They will be all-Mac, for life, and so will most of their friends and family members.
I’m predicting 3.1M Macs this quarter, 8M iPhones. Next year, double those numbers. In a single quarter.
And MDN uses the bloodbath term in response to iPhone sales… the real bloodbath is going to be in the PC industry in the next 5 years.
It’s never been a better time to be a Mac fan, and I’ve been waiting 10 years for this wave.
Rock on Steve, bring on the new stuff this fall!
–mAc
Windows isn’t just your father’s OS; it’s your dog’s OS.
My dog is smarter than that!
As happy as I am about all this, I’m also happy that I switched nearly 5 years ago (and the same PowerBook is still running strong, every day!). My computing life is so much better, it’s almost unreal.
Macs are on a roll. Students are finally getting a great user experience and are educating their families in the process.
I make my own pizzas and by a Mac instead! ;D
correction : …and BUY a Mac…
Windows isn’t just your father’s OS; it’s your dog’s OS.
My dog is smarter than that!
I used to live in cool and beautiful Arusha, Tanzania. Day-in and day-out, I usually saw lots of dead dogs – run-over by even slow-moving vehicles. Now, it has dawned on me: >b>those dogs must have been using Windows, eh?</b> Chuckle, chuckle.
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Windows isn’t just your father’s OS; it’s your dog’s OS.
My dog is smarter than that!
I used to live in cool and beautiful Arusha, Tanzania. Day-in and day-out, I usually saw lots of dead dogs – run-over by even slow-moving vehicles. Now, it has dawned on me: those dogs must have been using Windows, eh? Chuckle, chuckle.