Slashdot Mirror
Apples Are For Grannies?
RoboJock writes "So much for Justin Long — the young, hip 'n' trendy face of the Apple Mac (as seen in the 'Mac vs. PC' ads) is even further removed from the average Mac owner than everyone suspected... By three or four decades. According to research discussed at Silicon.com, 'nearly half of Mac owners are 55 and older — that's almost double the share for average home-PC users.' It seems the young guns don't have the extra cash to stump up for smooth shiny aesthetics." From the article: "For the digital youth, high-street box shifter Gateway is the brand of choice, taking the number-one slot among PC buyers aged between 18 and 25. Dan Ness, principal at MetaFacts, said in a statement: 'Apple can claim long-time loyalists but its future among the young technoliterati is an interesting dynamic.'"
In Korea only old people use Macs on the internet.
55 and up? You think that ads targeted toward "Young, hip people" are more effective toward actual young hip people, or older people who are desperately craving to be young and hip?
Couple that with the fact that that demographic has a hell of a lot of disposable cash, and Apple looks fricking brilliant.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
My mother is in her 60s and my dad in his 70s and they can handle it a LOT better than their old XP machine. I actually like XP and I run both OSX and XP, but the ease-of-use factor with OSX and the $500 mini price tag (especially since they could keep their old monitor, printer, etc.) made it worth getting. Now they aren't only into it, but my dad has gotten himself a Macbook Pro too! They used to hate their computer when it was XP because they had no idea what they were doing. They still don't really have much of an idea, but this time they can actually get things done.
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
What does "high-street box shifter" mean?
More on topic, it doesn't seem to me like Apple has much to worry about here, if the problem is not anything intrinsic to Macs, but rather the price. As the 18-25 year olds graduate from college, get jobs, and get promoted, the difference in price between a Mac and a cheap PC becomes less and less significant.
I'm a lawyer, but not yours. I wouldn't represent someone who thinks taking legal advice from Slashdot is a good idea.
I would have guessed HP, as the vast majority of my highschool and college classmates have HP systems, usually purchased for them by their parents at Walmart, Staples, OfficeMax, Sears, etc. The hip youngsters machine seems to be Alienware, for those who can afford it. Dell is also common for students whose parents work in an office environment. But Gateway? I assume they are including eMachines into the Gateway equation, but it still doesn't add up to me. eMachines systems are sold at many stores around here, but I just don't see them in many homes or dorm rooms.
For youngsters, Apple seems to be a high-end "mall-brand", but often times no more expensive than other brands when you start to compare features and software bundles.
And Gateway is their client. Suprise Suprise...
s _background.htm
http://www.metafacts.com/pages/corporate/metafact
Like a Grannie Smith apple? Those are good cooking and baking apples. Don't knock it.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
CBS has long been the butt of jokes due to its geriatric-skewing demo. Looks like Apple now knows where they should concentrate their ad dollars.
Of course, with Justin Long leaving. I'm waiting for the commercials where they have Wilford Brimley saying "hi, I'm a Mac."
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
Young people use P2P, play video games and use readily available pirated software and are generally have education expenses and loans to pay with start-of-the-career budget. As a result expensive system that emphasizes aesthetics, hardly has any games, up until recently had problems with various P2P and is limited in readily available pirated software (due to lower market share) does not appeal to such demographics.
From TFA, it appears that the halo effect (sales of Macs because of iPod fans) is supported by this survey. So, to get this straight, we are postulating huge numbers of geriatric iPod users too? Methinks that the survey, at least as presented in TFA, is even less useful than your average market research survey.
Virtually serving coffee
Maybe the next generation is learning it is not the tool, it's how you use the tool. Hammeacher Schlemmer makes a cool looking tool kit of screwdrivers and wrenches, but I don't see many actual handyman with the set. People use what they have at the office (windows) for practicality, and their kids are learning to use it, for better or worse. They don't see the need to get a Mac, when they've learned to do what they want (tweak their MySpace page) from the PC.
Its 50 year olds that are gay. At least Justin Long fits one of the criteria.
nearly half of Mac owners are 55 and older Meaning that more then half are young and hip?
:P
That's a very good way of playing with numbers
During the 80s, Apple inundated the public schools with cheap computers in the hopes of getting us young, impressionable children use to the idea of using Apple PCs. It was a good idea but, sadly for them, most of our parents bought IBM compatible. For me the idea of a good Apple computer that I enjoy using is an old IIe that I played the Oregan Trail on in elementary school. Many of those teachers from the 80's, however, are still die-hard Mac fans. That's what they used in their work environment and they have often been hesitant toward changing even if they are now 20 years behind. Now, those teachers are 40+.
"It seems the young guns don't have the extra cash to stump up for smooth shiny aesthetics."
So what you're saying is that they have the money to spend on rough, ugly aesthetics?
Yeah that about describes a PC running the two majour operating systems.
Don't have the cash? Actually Mac laptops are now quite competitive for the same feature set with other offerings. And, at the speed new models are coming out, there is a pretty brisk discounted trade of owners selling off their older models to discount new purchases.
I think the biggest factors behind this rather meaningless stat are that there are a LOT of boomers out there who are computer literate and Apple has done a fabulous job making a lot more value easier to use on the Mac. Also the message is sinking in and sinking in to more careful older folks faster that there are a lot less viruses on the Mac. That the Intel Macs can dual boot windows is also a significant factor. Besides, Microsoft with its Vista madness and other idiocies seems to be determined to self-destruct.
The baby boomers! The most self-absorbed generation of Americans who largely continue to live in denial about the fact that they are very close to being "senior citizens" instead of the "hip youth" they were back in the 60s and 70s!
...Real Men (TM) fabricate their own microprocessors and bootstrapping code.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
...young people prefer cheap little cars to Jaguar, BMW, and Mercedes. What do they know that people with money don't?
Sleep is for the Weak
Dunno why this is surprising...
My mom got her first Apple computer 24 years ago. When her current Compaq PC finally dies I know she will replace it with a Mac; she only switched over to the dark side because it looks like Macs were going the way of the dinosaur.
Also remember: Macs are ancient. If you started using one the year they came out and you were 30 that year, you would be 53 now.
Old people just want their computers to work. No driver loading, virus scanning, malware removing... just plug the camera in and press a button to publish it on the web yadda yadda.
Shit, when I get home I just want my computer to work.
This
One reason is the Macintosh's dramatically declined role in education. At some point Apple got tired of eating computer loans and made them a lot harder to get, so students bought less of them. Around the same era, maybe a little earlier, Apple slipped in performance and Microsoft introduced educational pricing that made their operating system and office suite practically free, so the Apples aren't used much in classrooms either. Another good reason is that today there is very little important Mac-only software. Most of it is in the form of multimedia applications which have direct equivalents or even superior replacements on the PC.
In addition, of course, there is the pricing, which is only now achieving anything like parity with the PC. For the most part it has achieved it, which is a huge accomplishment for Apple, having been so much more expensive than the PC for so long. However, Apple computers are still more expensive and difficult to upgrade in most cases, and like Linux or the other non-Windows OS of your choice, driver support is still a sticky issue. There's lots more hardware supported on Windows than on OSX.
Finally, for people in the age range we're talking about, the lack of support for games is a killer. Of course, today you can use boot camp... But if you're just going to boot windows anyway, why not buy a PC clone?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Need I say more?
If price were the only issue I'm sure you'd see Linux based cheapo boxes in this demographic as well but I doubt they have any greater marketshare than other markets.
Apple's major selling point many years back at the start of the Windows Vs. Mac wars was user friendliness.
Windows was still relatively primitive and its major appeal was just to have a graphical shell on top of the then commonly-used MS-DOS. Mac OS was already graphical from the ground up, without the daunting command-line. Plus, Macs already came with the OS installed, so you didn't have to worry about first learning text commands and then installing the OS from a series of floppy disks.
That appeal still lives on with Macs as being user-friendly. The age range of 55 years and above is not as abundant with technoliteri (I LOVE that word!) as the younger ~25 year old group. Us younger people are, as the article says, budgeted. I myself wouldn't touch Gateway (bad experiences with them), but the point stands.
But to be honest, and not to be troll, I found Mac OS X to be relatively stupified in comparison to other OS's that I've used. OS X is pretty and all, but I prefer 'functional' over 'shiny' and I like to really dig into the inner workings of the OS that I use. OS X doesn't entirely appeal to my demographic for that reason, which is why it appeals to people who just want to use a computer and have it work without having to mess with it any more than they need to.
/* No Comment */
There is no fscking way I'm inflicting Windows on her. System administration aside, she knows nothing about the social engineering hazards out there -- email scams, phishing scams, the vast cornucopia of malware...
Linux is an option, but it would take me weeks to build and tweak a configuration to the point that I'm happy with it and feel it would serve her needs, and I don't have that kind of time (although Ubuntu out of the box is darned close). Further, she has little interest in exploring computing for its own sake.
So that leaves Mac/OS-X. And, frankly, of the three, I think she'd be happiest with that.
So I don't think it's economic factors at work. I think it's because seniors have highly-developed bullshit filters, refined over decades of experience, and have figured out that Macs Just Work.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
I tried going to support our local Mac Users Group. (which I won't mention for obvious reasons). My friend and I (40 & 35, respectively) were the youngest people in the room. The second youngest was at least 55. Half were on legacy (pre os x) macs. I'd estimate something like 50 people were there. I was astounded. "where were all the younger mac geeks?" At first we thought that our age group & younger just doesn't get together in person, that perhaps it's all virtual these days.
We left after 15 minutes (whilst the group was planning a pool party.. shudder...) and grabbed a beer.
Is that most of the people who buy them are their sons, daughter, or grandkids.
I bought a Mac for my mom, cause I was sick and tired of doing long distance support calls at 2 am for free.
I bought a Mac for my son, because he wanted it.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I call BS on this.. Looking from a personal perspective, I bought my first mac myself when I was 13... iBook 500 g3.. set me back $1800.
I'm currently the owner of a Core 2 Duo 2.33GHz MacBook Pro. I'm a 19 year old college student. My two 18 year old roomates have macbooks; one has a white one, one a black. My brother (16) has an iBook g4, as does his roomate, my cousin. One of my other cousins (14) has a black macbook.
Looking at sales figures, my school, which has educational purchase partnerships with dell and apple, is currently selling 50% dells and 50% apples to students (Waaay up from the 75/25 split it has been closer to for previous years).
And, subjectively, I'm seeing more and more macs amongst my peers. Apple's sales figures recently support this. It wasn't long ago when apple was having a tough time selling a million macs in a year. They're now well over that (1.6 or so million) in a QUARTER.
appleguru.org
It seems to me that this would have a lot more to do with when people were coming of age with computers, so to speak, than with actual age. A lot of these people most likely grew up (computeratively speaking, not literally) in a time period when the big computer manufacturers were Apple, IBM (too expensive for most people in the day), Compaq, HP (dont get me started on old HPs), and possibly young Dell (im leaving out a lot of older models, I know. please forgive me/fill in the gaps). I remember when I was in middle school, most of the computers WERE Apple. By the time I got to High School, this was completely different, and a Mac was a rare thing to see. Also... not to be *too* stereotypical here, but I know a lot of older people (not elderly, just older), who still have old computers and outright refuse to upgrade, or accept the fact that there are newer, better models out there for less than a thousand bucks. I know of at least one friend whose parent have an old pre-OSX mac still, and adamantly maintain that it does everything they need it for, and dont need to upgrade.
My point is, I dont think it's fair to say that Apple's primary audience is actually older people. I would guess that a lot of these "Apple owners", which are not defined as "Apple buyers", arent actively seeking the next new upgrade, and *probably* dont represent the staple of income Apple should be trying to target with their next generation of devices.
I'm getting my mom a laptop for Christmas but am not really considering Mac... despite its ease of use, I think famililarity from work ultimately matters more for her. (And frankly, having an iBook for a while, I didn't think OSX was all that easy. Maybe I've been warped by Microsoft, but I think, say, the interface to navigate to an arbitrary folder in the standard "save as" dialog is just dumb)
That said, I'm thinking about buying a cheapish G3 iBook replacement... half just because I'm sick of PC laptops that take 5 minutes to unsuspend...
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Lots of sissies and rich film students I know use apples, too!
...but I can't help but say that everytime I see Mac zealots and ads they claim one thing and stats say the other. Color me surprised that they don't actually have a foothold in the "young and hip" crowd, next up sky blue, water wet....groan, more than half the things the Mac ads claim are reasons I stopped using a Mac. Personally I like gaming, so in that I find a Mac pretty dull and lifeless compared to a Wintel machine I can custom build for a 1/3 of the price. Personally when I see the Mac ads I think the young and hip guy...
1. has a social problem because he can't stop comparing himself to windows, it's called self-esteem buddy, get some. doubly funny in that the ads now claim Windows is the one who keeps comparing himself, but I've personally never heard of MS talking about Apple as realistic competition.
2. has a small amount of features that he sure has gotten good at cause he hasn't expanded his horizons to do other things
3. pretty boring in that he isn't capable of a lot of tasks I would find useful
4. Is convinced he knows security even though the company keeps releasing security updates and is this month's record breaker
5. Is no fun at my LAN parties cause he sits there saying I'm not compatible with that game, let's play solitaire or use the way back machine to play Marathon, or play the game of sit and wait 2-5 years for a developer to release a new to Mac game (which is usually too old by pc standards)
6. Well he is pretty. Unfortunately a bit vacant (see 1-5) so he ends up in the Mimbo category at parties
Rant off and thank you for browsing at -1 to see my lame commentary.
When I was 18-25, I ate a lot of ramen and PBJ, drove the piece of shit truck I could afford, slept on a mattress on the floor of a group house, and had to go in with 3 other guys to get cable. I was poor and frankly didn't give a shit about most of that stuff. I knew there was better stuff out there, but it was more important to me to spend my money on fun stuff. These days I drive a reliable station wagon, eat healthy and I'm saving up for a house.
Newsflash: youngsters don't have a lot of money, and don't really care about long-term quality. They are more impulsive and spend money all over the place because their interests have not settled down yet. They're more likely to want a hot new computer/iPod/phone/jacket etc long before their current one wears out. That means buying often, which means buying cheap.
Not many youngsters own new cars either, but I'd hardly say that spells doom for the car companies. People grow up, and coincedentally when they can afford nicer stuff, they tend to become more interested in quality.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Whether or not you are a die-hard windows user, anyone who has _ever_ complained about providing computer support for family members should get them a mac. A used G4 on ebay is plenty for grandma's email and word processor needs.
My dad uses an "R2 unit" imac, OS 10.2, and the only helpdesk calls I get are when he forgets how to invoke the printer or he's accidentally collapsed a folder in his email client--he assumes things will be more difficult than they are, but is easily talked through the tasks.
Contrast this with making sure the virus and spyware protections are still working and up to date; the inevitable virus scrubbing anyway; driver re-installations; occasional format/reimage in extreme cases; and of course the "how do I print" and "my emails are missing!" you still get with a mac.
Spending a few hundred on a mini or used imac is well worth the piece of mind.
More music, fewer hits
Dan Ness, principal at MetaFacts, said in a statement: 'Apple can claim long-time loyalists but its future among the young technoliterati is an interesting dynamic.'"
In other words, Apple is dying.
30 years they've been dying, it's almost over!
Walking around my college campus I would say that a good 60-70% of the students here (myself included) are using Macs. A lot of these kids have Macs at home and have been using them their entire lives, but a significant percentage (myself included once again) opted for a Mac when it came time to buy a laptop for college. I realize this might say more about the kind of students my particular school attracts than it does about Mac use and adoption nationwide, but it's got to mean something that most everyone I know is already sick to death of Windows at 19.
But literally ever grad student I know has a macbook, numbering about 15 people, in physics, biology, art criticism, comp sci, english comp, and chemistry.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
"high street" "kit" who the hell talks like that? oh yea those guys from the UK!!! I am thinking in the US where people have a bit more disposable income the Mac demographic is much different. What this article is really saying (in light of the fact the new intel macs are competitively priced compared to comparable Gateways Dells HP's) is that young people in England can only afford lower end systems (on average).
that the MAC users are getting older. It happens.
Maybe they need an ad that makes kids feel inferior to Grandma due to his use use of his cheap toy Gateway. I mean, they should try this instead, or in addition: PC's are inferior to MACs, and so are the people who use them.
This could also backfire as some people don't like to be insulted. I think those people are just pansies.
I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
Ten years ago, Apple was marginal both in image and market share. Who would have said how successful it would have been 10 years later? This is to say that making predictions of the next future 10 years (and worst, 30 or 40 years) is plain stupid. Tech market is very volatile. For what matters I can say that by then 90% of computers will run Linux. It may be not true, but it is still equally possible.
They should open source Mac OS X, or at least let Dell sell it. That would fix everything.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
I earnestly yearn to meet the guy who coined this word so that I might punch his stupid face.
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
My mother finally had to break down and get high speed internet and a computer. Since I am my family's tech support, we of course chose a Mac with OS X. She has been able to pick it up without a hitch, and I am not bothered with the quarterly "My computer won't boot" emergency phone calls I get from the rest of my MS windows based family.
:)
Now if I can only get the rest of them to switch
Is it just me or do there seem to be more and more stories on Slashdot who's aim seems to be to change our perceptions about a particular product or company, often in a negative way.
Today we seem to have had two stories aimed at changing perceptions of Apple - one about security, one about the type of person who uses Macs. We've had others about the Zune, the last one of which seems to have the aim of changing the perception of the launch from one of failure to success.
Something about the way these stories are written makes me think they are a subtle kind of astroturfing.
While its true that the 55+ demographic has a lot of disposable income, there's a reason the 18-25 demographic is the most coveted. Young people buy more junk and we're probably less immune to fads. Older people have generally lost interest in these things, or maybe they have the wisdom required to not get caught up in the marketing bullshit.
I'd wager a guess that 55+ demographic is the one that has the most people using old iMacs or some Dell box from 1997, because "its good enough for them" or "it still works great!" Its that 18-25 demographic that wants the latest and great.
Other big markets are publishing, graphic artists and office types in film. Go to any film set and you'll see people with Powerbooks. It's a nitch market with effects but I have known a number of effects companies that were primarily Mac. The irony is Mac seems to attract the high end market and the low end, non computer types, but not the middle so much. A lot of powerful 2D graphics apps run on Mac but other software is dicier. Mac native software is very stable, much more so than PC, but ported software is less so. Also most software still isn't availible for Mac. Older people have fewer needs and if they do gaming they are less demanding. The Intel shift may help the numbers but it's always been a nitch market product.
old macs use you!
Except it would completely break how OS X tends to Just Work. In either example, there's no longer the vendor in control of the hardware, so driver hell would almost certain ensue.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
Some of the Mac ads have felt like they are from some parallel anti-universe.
Like the one where the new Japanese digital camera chic could talk to the Mac but no tto the PC. Huh? Show me one digital camera available at the time of that commercial that did not work with a PC. Seriously...
Or how they make the PC into some business-only thing that isn't any fun. Come on, show me how to run HalfLife 2 on a Mac... OK, I've seen Quake 4 and WOW retail boxes for Macs at the store, but that shelf is a great deal smaller than the PC gaming shelf.
I'm not against Macs or anything, in fact I just got an iBook a couple months ago to find out what they're like. Yea, it's a couple years old, but that's what I'm willin got pay up for to do an evaluation of the platform. I'm not going to pay for a brand-new MacBook to evaluate the platform... What can I do with it? Well, there's all those iDVD, iPhoto, etc. apps that I haven't had reason to try. iTunes, well, I already had that for my PC. Same for Thunderbird and Firefox and OpenOffice. I got one of the later Myst games which runs well enough, and the PCB layout software I'd like to use is available for it as well. I played my free demo of WOW on the PC for 3 days and never logged back in, hopefully they aren't charging my credit card since I'm not actually playing the game, and so don't see much reason to get that. The DVD player works well enough, but I had to get some 3rd party hack utility to change resolutions to extermal monitors connected such as my 720P projector. I had to get powerstrip for Windows to do the same thing though, and Windows still messes up somehow, the projected image seems OK but it appears to be scaling the framebuffer to something larger than 720P and only showing the top-left 720P portion of that larger framebuffer, which sucks so the Mac is better for that. (Yes, I do have a box that I intend to install MythTV on if the kubuntu installer ever manages to complete without hanging, but it's not usable yet)
Anyway... I think some people who might consider a Mac are seeign some of these ads and not believing them. Yes, PCs ARE fun. Yes, cameras work with Windows. Why are you fibbing to me? I don't think people like hearing things they don't believe to be true like that. Besides, most younger people are coming into PCs looking for the new games. That leaves out Macs, Linux, Amigas, QNX, BSD, and a number of other alternatives to Windows. Of course most sales for that age bracket will go to Windows.
That's why those ads appeal to them. They are far more concerned with youth than actual youths. AND yeah apple products have always come with that extra "sexy tax". Kinda like Manhattan rents.
buy a mac.... and of course those who want to look cool with their matching ipod accessory.
That's a British site, isn't it? Terms like "high street" and "granny" are not used much in American English. Was the study done in England or the U.S.? It wouldn't surprise me if Apple's penetration among the young is much less in the U.K. and Europe. It's always been something of an American phenomenon.
Granny Smiths :-)
...grandparents buy great gifts.
...dementia has clouded their idea of an Apple-a-day.
...the Apple store guys sympathize with the elderly and are good at adding the larger display, iPod docking station to the sale.
... which is a lot more useful^W fun than a Mac, because us old farts questioned the sexual mutilation that has been practiced in this country (usa) for about the last 150 years; no offense to our Jewish brothers. Sorry if you lost your's in spite of our efforts.
Oh, and I'm not a frigging 'baby boomer'. I was born during WWII and those bastards have been nipping at my arse for over 60 years.
I guess the old adage is true after all.
The bits on the bus go on and off... on and off... on and off...
"Besides, Microsoft with its Vista madness and other idiocies seems to be determined to self-destruct."
The PC industry has always been more about who was last to shoot themselves in the foot than it was about who had the best product. Lucky for Microsoft all of their real competitors had died of fatal wounds before they could hit themselves. Everyone except Apple that is, but they were in intesive care, barely hanging on when MS really started to hurt themselves. Of course now, Apple has recovered nicely, and there is a new fresh kid on the block in Linux, so when MS shoots themselves with all this disable-ware, they might not be as lucky as before.
'Apple can claim long-time loyalists but its future among the young technoliterati is an interesting dynamic.'
Shenanigans!
technoliterati isn't even a f'ing word...
For my 65+ year old inlaws, it only took me about an hour to setup the various proprietary codecs and plugins (thanks Adobe, Apple and Microsoft!) as well as decss so they could surf the web and play DVD's. OS X is great in its own way, but Ubuntu on a $499 Lenovo laptop makes for a sweet "simple" system for computer-phobes.
STFU about slashdot bias.
I am an avowed techie, and I own a variety of PC machines from Linux to Windows, however my primary computer is a Macbook Pro. I work in tech support removing spyware and viruses all day long. When I am done with a day of work, I love coming home to a virus and spyware free computer, that's easy to use and I get everything I need done. If I want to muck with an OS I can play in the Unix terminal, or just work on my AD domain.
I work in tech support for my university. Four people I work with have recently purchased Macbook Pros. It's a very fast computer , for not a huge premium. It's much lighter and thinner than any of my friends Dells. At a general education private university, we probably have 20% apple usage, however only 1-2% of our support calls involve them, and 90+% of those involve setting them up for 802.1x authentication.
Um, while I thoroughly agree with you on the income tax being far too high, I think you're off on the cost of college. $100,000-160,000 for four years seems about right; $100,000 per year is ridiculous. A lot of colleges are up in the high $30ks or low $40ks per year in tuition right now.
Unless you meant the $100k figure as a per-student cost inclusive of what colleges receive from alumni donations, government funding, etc.; basically just dividing their total budget by the number of students. I suppose at some places you could arrive at $100k+ per student per year by doing that.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
While maybe most of those young hipster types aren't able to afford Apple computers, they are definitely buying scores of IPods. This feeds a brand loyalty and interest in Apple as a whole and then can lead towards them eventually purchasing Apple hardware.
The reality is when you do an apples to apples comparison (pun unintended), Apple's are not expensive. Go out and buy a dual woodcrest workstation from random PC vendor and see what kind of price they are charging you. What makes Apple seem expensive is that the average person will compare that against a desktop PC with half the power and think it's a valid comparison.
Generally speaking Apple systems are more of a long term investment and so it costs more. Overall you're probably getting better quality for your dollar, but if you only have a few dollars, that doesn't matter much. While the other PC vendors are fighting for every little cent on sub $400 PC's, Apple is selling $2500 PC's and making enormous margins.
I'd rather be in Apple's position than Gateway's.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
A good friend of mine has two kids in high school in Greene County NC. They have had free Apple iBooks since middle school. The kids seems to love them and use them all the time not just for school work. I don't know if they are creating Apple customers, who knows what they will buy when they spend their own money. But I have not heard any of them complain about not having Windows.
= /GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=18580&Section =Local
http://www.kinston.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template
so driver hell would almost certain ensue.
Not if there was stringent driver certification. The problem with Microsoft is they have let a lot of stuff slop through.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Again, there isn't enough information in the article to tell much of anything, so I'm just guessing here. Usage numbers (as opposed to marketshare numbers) are, however, notoriously hard to collect and interpret, so when I hear a market research organization talk about numbers of users (rather than marketshare or sales numbers) I get very skeptical.
just a ghost in the machine.
I'm absolutely ancient by Slashdot standards (46), and I just started using Macs about 3 years ago. Maybe some of these "older" folks, like me, are switching because we've experienced the Windows way, and figure there has to be something better out there?
#DeleteChrome
The poll of the day, in response to this article, asks mac users about their age. The majority of people are 18-34.
Of course, these polls are completely unscientific and worthless, yadda yadda. Still interesting.
I recommended my parents get a Mac for various reasons. Maybe the ease of use factor of the OS is attracting older users?
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
It seems the majority at work here (Telecom switching software group) that I speak with are thinking mac for the next computer, or already have one now. I could care less what the demographics are, but the tide is certainly changing. It is not just for old folks who don't understand computers. I assembled almost every PC I owned from part I researched to get best bang for the buck. Installed many flavors of Linux/Windows and have migrated from HP/UX to Windows, to Redhat as my main workstation at work.
I am no clueless granny, but a Mac is now something of serious interest. If Apple would only build a decent headless midrange machine. The mini is too cold(underpowered) and the pro is too hot(overkill, overpriced). I need something just right.
I still find linux clunky, and I am weary of Microsoft. OSX may represent the perfect mix with UNIX and monolithic controlled interface.
The mac value equation has improved and I can install WinXP if it comes to that.
I am watching, waiting and ready to jump to Mac.
Not just for grannies anymore.
With the exception of malware, Apple is going to do nothing to help these issues (email/phishing scams) over windows.
Not so - in Leopard they are addressing this with anti-phishing stuff in Mail.app and Safari. In the meantime email/phishing scams are not going to catch her a nasty virus just by visiting a web page by accident.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
...that Macs are like email in Korea?
I just bought an iMac for my 4 1/2 year old. Now it all balances out, right?
Need I say more?
Well why not. If you are a gamer today almost all of your gaming needs can be met perfectly well with a console, especially with modern consoles offering 1080p support - higher resolutions being the domain of the PC until now. I went Mac a few years ago and was perfectly happy shifting to consoles for games.
But even if that doesn't float your boat, many Macs now are perfectly suited to playing games with Bootcamp and soon Parallels will offer a solution that supports games as well. So you can get everything else done and have a dedicated games partition to screw around with.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
just make sure they're Granny Smith!
bah-dum
(I can't believe no one came up with that one yet)
with the iPod so popular among youth -well everyone actually, it seems odd that they would be strongest amongst older users with the PCs.
However, as mentioned before price may have something to do with it.
I think that eventually they will sell some sort of docking station or base station for the iPhone that will include network and KVM connectivity and that's all the computer most folks will need.
-What's the speed of dark?
Have a look at the "Upcoming stories" section of Digg, that place is littered with similar stories!
There does seem to be more of an attempt to put forth stories that are supposed to look like news yet alter the tide of a prevailing opinion. Basically we are entering an ideological war phase were people compete to introduce the strongest memes, or kill growing ones they do not like.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Like the one where the new Japanese digital camera chic could talk to the Mac but no tto the PC. Huh? Show me one digital camera available at the time of that commercial that did not work with a PC. Seriously...
It's not that it can't talk with a PC but that it's sometimes easier to hook a new camera into OS X and get images off it simply.
Or how they make the PC into some business-only thing that isn't any fun. Come on, show me how to run HalfLife 2 on a Mac... OK, I've seen Quake 4 and WOW retail boxes for Macs at the store, but that shelf is a great deal smaller than the PC gaming shelf.
A mac user can play Half Life 2 using bootcamp (if they must have PC games) or get a console version when they come out. Fun does not equate only to gaming; it's also about creating things on your computer. I hardly believe that new users are looking to PC's for games, the trend has been to look for consoles for that for some time now (and growing).
he DVD player works well enough, but I had to get some 3rd party hack utility to change resolutions to external monitors connected such as my 720P projector.
That seems wierd - perhaps it's the age of the iBook you got or the projector you own. My old Powerbook 667 MHz has never had problems with any projectors and I know my current Macbook can hook right into 1080p displays from experience.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Forget Justin Long -- whatever happened to Ellen Feiss??
Does that mean I'll be lusting after 18 yr old girls when I hit 45?Duh? Although, I'd like to think when I'm 45 I'll be going after 21-25 year olds. 18 is a tad young sometimes.
What's that honey? [ducks]
Now stop it!
Think of the children. Or the old folks in Korea. Or the Sharks with Laser Beams. But think of something else!
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
HA! Ha!
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
Genrally younger people have more disposable income.
They need the computer that will run what they need for work/shcool.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"For the digital youth, high-street box shifter Gateway is the brand of choice, taking the number-one slot among PC buyers aged between 18 and 25. Dan Ness, principal at MetaFacts, said in a statement: 'Apple can claim long-time loyalists but its future among the young technoliterati is an interesting dynamic.'" I was young and dumb once too.
remembering that Macs and PCs have been around for 20+ years, it's not surprising that people have stuck with the machine or bought the machine that was easiest to use in the long run. And there is a PC culture that buys Macs for their parents for the same reason. I do tech support for a small company and the boss (60 yo) has a growing list of older people that end up with a Mac and he takes the time to support. It's a growing market that needs someone that is in the same age group and not some 'nerdy' guy/gal.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
Microso$t just can't win around these parts. Can you imagine the hue and cry of MONOPOLY MONOPOLY if MS required hardware and driver certification in order for the product to run under Windows. 'Poor little so and so can't bring his new joystick to market because he can't afford the $25,000 cost of the "Microsoft Hardware Certification" - Isn't MS evil??!' and so forth.
At least 10 of my close friends from my graduating class of 2005 all have macs, and no one I went to high school with has a gateway.
I run Linux on all my stuff. But I'm so sick of spyware and windows vulnerabilities and especially FIXING them for people, every time someone asks me for a recommendation (which is fairly frequent) I recommend mac to them. I recommend it mostly because I feel like I won't be cleaning their machines up for them any time soon.
I put Linux on my step father's PC long ago and showed him how to use the apps he uses. He has been fine with it because he doesn't do anything other than email and web browsing. Linux or ANYTHING is plenty easy for that once configured. It's just a question of vulnerability.
I see a lot of Apple powerbooks around the UVic campus. At least 1:1 versus PCs.
Hard to say what the dorm room percentage looks like though.
The silver surfers enjoy the bible software that comes bundled. It is the only software that won't need refurbishing with locked in hardware.
Where's the 0xBEEF
fuck being young (and broke and ignorant.)
I feel that everything in my life has prepared me to enjoy life and to live well (the best revenge.)
And if some snot-nosed little git can't stand the pace, tough.
The characterization of 'granny' applies to everybody who kid has had a kid. I knew woman who was a granny at 32 (one oops after another.)
She wasn't old but the WAS stupid and so was her daughter, (and they were both very fertile.)
Eat my dust...
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Yeah, I recall that phrase from my time in Sydney.
That's as stupid a characterization as I've ever encountered.
Today's iPod listener are tomorrow's Mac owners.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Let's stick with the "British" theme here. You'll get one for your Mum cause she smacked you on your Bum. But you can't get one for Granny because she whacked you on your fanny... that means something else over there!
One it is the gaming demographic. Until Apple catches up on games it will be behind in the youth market. Most people I know that use Macs art 35+....Second Macs are probably the computer of choice in Churches. Almost every church group I know of (the directors, not youth) all use Macs.
I once read a statistic that said the creative markets are #1 for Apple and Church groups are #2 in terms of percentage of users (not shear installed numbers)....hmmmm maybe Apple can bridge the red/blue divide.
That was indeed probably the problem he fixed. I have an old Powerbook which does support a second monitor and therefore a specific resolution on a projector...
I'm glad they ended that with the new models.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
God, I hate these stupid buzzwords. Also, the assumption that everybody young is technically literate has no basis in reality. Some of the most technically proficient (even brilliant) people I know are in their 50s or 60s. Meanwhile, I work in a University, and it is just staggering how many youth are technically illiterate. They grew up never having to know how to program anything, not needing to know how stuff works. They come from a generation of consumers - where you press the "magic button" and things happen. Where technology is a product you buy, not something you get involved in the creation of.
Of course, there are a few exceptions to this generalization. But on the whole, their solution to technical problems is "buy a new one." I wonder how long some of these people would survive without their magic tools. If there was an apocalype that wiped out civilization, how many would be able to think of solutions and rebuild?
One thing's for sure - technophiles don't buy Gateway computers!
... and then they built the supercollider.
The Apple Deathwatch is back!!!
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
There's a big reason why the 55+ crowd would be attracted to a Mac: It Just Works. These people don't have the desire to fight with a computer to get something done. The Mac is the system you choose when you want to get real work done. A Windows PC is a machine you pick if you're a hobbyist and want to muck around with the system, or if you're in an IT department and want the job security that comes from managing a system that people who have to get real work done don't have the time to deal with.
Driver review wouldn't need to be expensive, if the source was open.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
At the Apple Store where I worked, we called them our iSeniors :)
A high percentage of ProCare customers are 40/50/60-something upper-middle-class women who need something to keep them busy. In the home market, we saw a lot of people who had been Apple customers since the Apple II or 128k days.
Just an anecdotal point of reference...
In Soviet Russia, Macs use old people on the internet.
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Just throwing it out there....maybe your folks are retarded...could be a problem there.
I installed different Linux flavs on 2 dozen cpus this past year...SUSE and Ubuntu mainly, for mainly retired people and out of those, half never saw a computer in their lives. As well my dad and his friends who are in their 70's switched from XP to Ubuntu.
All use the main function of computers: email, surfing, watching DVD's, listen music, rip mp3's, write letters and so on.
DO they 'know' what they are doing? Only that if they click on button A, a certain thing will happen.
Yet all have managed to work fine on their Linux stations (more than half were older pc's and going Linux made sense financially too).
I really have problems with people who claim that such and such interface is harder to use.
You may like or not like an interface but your claims are idiotic.
Its a family thing I guess.
"It seems the young guns don't have the extra cash to stump up for smooth shiny aesthetics."
How do you conclude that? Feature match a Gateway laptop to a MacBook 2.0 and you've got an $11 difference. iMac? $45 bucks.
A tag line on the other side of the see-saw could be "Apple doesn't make the stripped machines that these kids will settle for."
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Microsoft damned if it does and damned if it doesn't on /.?
Unpossible.
...I knew I was getting there when one day we were hanging out in the living room and I am thinking "go outside, take the dogs for a walk, or go try to chase the old lady around?" hmmmm....ponder.....went for the walk.....
:p
Official geezerhood!
man, I even got an AARP card in me wallet
It seems the young guns don't have the extra cash
More likely, the older users have a bit more experience and make wiser choices...
Join the window installer's union, where prosperity is a brick throw away!
No, I will not work for your startup
Well clearly you aren't a huge fan of FPS.
How the fuck can you play Quake/UT/etc without a fucking mouse/trackball
You cannot, which is why I've never really understood the draw of Halo (on consoles). I have played it but like you say the control is just not there.
However what you are forgetting is that both the 360 and PS3 support standard USB mice and keyboards. Heck the PS3 supports Bluetooth keyboards and mice. Even with the PS2 (which also could use USB keyboards) some programs supported mice for control (Unreal Tournament was one I think) - I would look for Half Life 2 on the PS3 to do no less, and I would hope Killzone would also feature that as an option. I know for sure Unreal Tournament 2007 for the PS3 plans to support keyboard and mouse.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"Feature match..."
...), the Mac Tax is on average in the 40% range. There's exceptions, but that's the overwhelming trend.
Feature match a Mac to a Gateway minitower and you have to fork out around two grand for a Mac Pro to get a Mac that has any expansions slots.
Feature match a Mac to any laptop with an ATI or nVidia GPU, and you're in the two grand range again.
You can always shade a "feature match" your way. The fact is, if you're playing the "feature match" game and you can't make your preferred side half the price of the competition, you're in trouble. If the best you can do is make it "only a little more expensive"... face it, you're lost.
Comparing Macs to PCs by speccing out both to satisfy some set of requirements (a game machine, an entertainment console, office automation,
As a card carrying comp-sci geek actively attemping to gain a degree. I Disagree ! Most of the students I see have an Apple Macbook of some description so this idea of only oldies having macs is bunk. I could easily produce PhD students with mac skills, numerous comp-sci geeks and happy students that love their Macbooks.
As a comp-sci geek I want a stable portable system that allows me to use open source software that doesn't take 20 hours to configure the correct kernel parameters to make work. At the moment I use Linux 80% of the time, and the other 20% in Windows to update my iPod or do some recording (Pro Audio type stuff). Linux is great most of the time, but it's still a monumental pain if it goes wrong. I don't like the look of the new Windows Vista (Give me your all money edition) and cannot stomach the fact that buying another PC wil force me to buy a copy of an operating system that.
With a Macbook I get the best of both worlds, a great GUI and good ol' trusty unix underneath. I can use my pro-audio software and update my iPod while still hammering out code and documents. I dunno how much they charge you people accros the pond but here in jolly ol' England we get our macs cheap if your a student, usually the equivalent of tax free. I can get a decent macbook for much less than the cost of the equivalent VAIO lappy. As for games, I don't play them on a laptop, It doesn't tend to work that well running games on windows laptops even when you have a top of the line CPU, 2 Gig of RAM and a graphics chipset with dedicated graphics ram and all the trimmings.
Add to that the inescapable fact that Macs are COOL! Doesn't matter what you think about tech specs, there are very few PC laptops designed with the attention to detail of the macbooks. They feel nice and look stunning. And remember that most cheap laptops are not upgradable. The prices here in the UK are very reasonable, especially when you take the student discount into consideration.
Needless to say I hope to find a Macbook under the xmas tree, but if that fails I'll be spending my own money on one.
Ford: $5.8 billion loss so far in 2006, making high markup profitable trucks.
GM: $3 billion loss so far in 2006, making high markup profitable trucks.
Honda: 4.8 billion profit in 2006, making those allegedly low markup high-MPG cars you disdain.
And Toyota, #2 after Honda for high-MPG cars, is the world's most profitable car company.
Oh, those poor Japanese. If only they were as smart as American manufacturers in going after profit margins, eh?
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Toyota sells well to the older generation too (relatively), and it doesn't seem to have new customers who were attracted by Pontiac when they were younger.
There's not much different. When people grow older, they have better things to do, and they just want something that works. Mac seems to fit that description.
A sig is redundant.
> Actually Mac laptops are now quite competitive for the same feature set with other offerings.
Except the most desirable feature is now PRICE. Any new laptop is powerful enough to do what 90% of prospective users need. Go to store.apple.com, read em and weep. Starting at $1099 is starting about three hundred dollars out of the ballpark.
And I'd even dispute the competitive part. Go price out a Thinkpad R60 with roughly the same specs as the Mac and notice the there is a pretty brisk discounted trade of owners selling off their older models to discount new purchases.
Who cares, I certainly don't want a second hand laptop that I don't know the history on. You damned near can't repair one so unless you KNOW it has been treated gently you can't go used unless the price is REAL CHEEP and even then it is a gamble. And if you are talking second hand PCs are going for next to nothing because of pressure from falling prices on new gear.
Democrat delenda est
Slashdot ate part of my post because I used a less than sign..... Here it is again fixed. Should have used preview.
> Actually Mac laptops are now quite competitive for the same feature set with other offerings.
Except the most desirable feature is now PRICE. Any new laptop is powerful enough to do what 90% of prospective users need. Go to store.apple.com, read em and weep. Starting at $1099 is starting about three hundred dollars out of the ballpark.
And I'd even dispute the competitive part. Go price out a Thinkpad R60 with roughly the same specs as the Mac and notice the $1000 pricetag. And the Thinkpad comes with an an internal modem, which is still useful if you travel out in flyover country. And while you are there notice how much customizing you can do on that ONE model of laptop from ONE vendor. Compare and contrast to the six choices you get if you opt to join the Apple Cult.
Notice I compared to a Thinkpad, a brand known for quality hardware as is Apple. Comparing to Dell wouldn't have been very fair on the one hand, but on the other it is. Millions of people opt for the pieces of crap after all.
> there is a pretty brisk discounted trade of owners selling off their older models to discount new purchases.
Who cares, I certainly don't want a second hand laptop that I don't know the history on. You damned near can't repair one so unless you KNOW it has been treated gently you can't go used unless the price is REAL CHEEP and even then it is a gamble. And if you are talking second hand PCs are going for next to nothing because of pressure from falling prices on new gear.
Democrat delenda est
I'm a little skeptical of someone's numbers here. According to this article: http://www.macworld.co.uk/education/news/index.cfm ?newsid=16335
Apple is #1 in European education market.
According to this they're #2 in the US:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/10/25/macs
HP is a distant 3rd with Sony trailing... and Gateway is supposed to be #1 for college aged kids? Something just doesn't add up here.
In terms of total market share Apple is slightly below Gateway (which I guess includes eMachines, right?):
http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2006/10/20061019104 418.shtml
So maybe Gateway(eMachines) is the over whelming choice of the non-college bound college age kids?
... To do a "match" you have to make *both* parts as equal to each other as possible. You can't just select "nVidia GPU" as the criteria, you have to "match" all the other parts of both models. This is usually fairly easy.
Mac users don't argue that you can buy cheaper elsewhere. They argue that once you have "matched" your two machines, the "Mac tax" as you put it, is nowhere near the 40% you mention. In some cases the Mac is cheaper. A lot cheaper. I saved some $2000 buying my Mac Pro rather than the equivalent Dell...
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
I've been saying this for years. Give your grandma something easy to use. She won't need to worry about viruses and spyware. She can just enjoy receiving emails with pictures of her grandkids attached. She'll love you for it.
Toyota doesn't like to talk about it, but the Scion line is very popular amongst retirees. They are economical, comfortable, and low maintainence. They pitch the things to the youth crowd who supposedly "pimps their rides" (although I've never seen a custom scion on the road) This is much like Apple's overstated claims that basic things "just work." This appeals much more to easily frustrated practical seniors than tech-savvy kids.
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
Yeah?
Well, howcum you sign yerself GWBASIC?
Still bootin' your Dos 6.22 from a 5-1/4 diskette?
You old guys give me the creeps.
I totally agree and the only TV I watch now is over the rabbit ears! Seriously, that's true. Part of growing up for me was realizing a) TV is mostly a time waste and b) I'll watch a shitload of it anyway if I have access to enough channels.
/., so how much have I really gained??
Of course now I spend more free time on
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I can't say I know anyone here in NYC who uses a PC at home.
How about SOFTWARE? No, not the shovelware that Dell and Gateway shove up your ass, slowing your 3+ GHz machine to sub-megahertz levels (McAfee and/or Norton, anyone?)
I mean useful stuff - Mac haters always forget this. Yes, the younger set want more software than the basics, but at least with Macs you GET the basics - and most of it's actually pretty damn good too! And please, while you're thinking about money, how about the year upon year fee you'll pay for a good AV/Anti-Spyware/Firewall solution - money that you save with the Mac.
And when we talk about software - what are we really talking about? Games? Been to an EB lately? Have you seen the incredibly shrinking PC section? Do you really think that trend is going to change anytime soon? Gaming companies are increasingly saving the best for the consoles. No, I don't like it either, but it's the way it appears to be going.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Uhm, no. That't not the reason. Lots of old people own Macs because people recommend Macs to people who don't have lots of technical knowledge. If your granny asked you what computer to get so she can send you mails, you'd probably recommend a Mac, too, if only so you don't have to go there for tech support every week.
As far as I can tell, younger people are more likely to buy Macs now than 5 or 10 years ago. Many of my friends have switched to Macs - most of them students.
Whilst travelling through the departure lounges of the world, most people seem to clutch their office issued Dell/Thinkpad/HP machine. I also am a mere cog in the corporate machine, clutching my nylon Dell bag.
There is a definite type of person who pulls out the Powerbook (from the Crumpler bag), opening a screen so big it pulls small asian travellers into it's orbit.
This guy is about 50, he has a bit of stubble, ill-advised facial topiary, maybe his shirt is unbuttomed a bit too far. He looks affluent and well fed and I think he may be a partner in an ad agency, or possibly an architect. Quite often he will be accompanied by an attractive younger colleague and they'll look erm quite friendly.
The other typical user is the younger traveller/student. They'll have a nice little powerbook, or the white plastic one (I forget the name). They won't care much about computers. They needed a laptop, they got a Mac and they're happy as it does what they want.
2. Do Macs have more "older buyers" because they always knew what we know now? haha that Macs are easier to use and better??
3. If their kids are buying their parents Macs (i know it does not say that in the article... ) what does that say about Macs?
4. If older people are using Macs, what does that tell you about the inherent design of the GUI!! Thats its intuitive!
5. I think in some ways PCs are definitely more hands on (in the I like to tune my engine kind of way.. ) thats why "kids" like PCs?
6. Maybe its an "how do thinbs work" kind of thing.."kids" want to know how thinsg work so like the hands on side of the PC.. while older people (and other not so old people) just want it things to WORK!
Enough from me.. in theend these are just numbers.. they can be twisted and we do not really know how the sample was taken and how..
(I was trained in what has become IT by IBM starting in 1965, have used Macs almost exclusively since 1984, and chosen to pursue mostly non-financial rewards, so I won't be getting my 24 inch iMac until after Easter, though I will be getting a MacBook as soon as they get around to shipping to Australian dealers.)
We are also the demographic that has no intention of giving up dominating the world.
-- Our systemic servants do not good masters make.
You are a computer geek.
Your mom asks you what computer to buy.
You *know* you will be on the hook for free tech support.
What computer you recommend depends on your personality.
Suicidal : Linux, custom install
Masochistic : Windows
Sadistic : Windows
Realistic : Mac
My mom (late 60's) has been on Macs for years, and is now at the point that she installs firmware updates before breakfast, and nags her neighbors to secure their WAPs. But then, she's my mom, so you'd expect that of her. The only problem that's defeated her lately is getting and old XP craptop (needed to do accounting for her church) to connect to the wireless network, but I couldn't get it working either!
"World Domination - a fun, family activity"
So all those young people I see using Macs in most of the TV Shows are really over 55. Man I have to find out who their plastic surgeon is :) My son is a Mac user he's under 55 I'm a Mac user over 55 who was frustrated by having to spend so much time just trying to get my PC to work. I just wanted something to use when I wanted to use it and not worry about why the damn thing won't boot or trying to find the latest drivers for my hardware etc. My other son uses a Mac as does his wife and my wife. Since two of us are over 55 and 4 of us are under 55 this survey says 1/3 of the Mac users are over 55 :) Isn't it great the surveys are so flexible.
Funny we feel the same about you young whippersnappers :)
signed
Assembly Language 8086
"most 18- to 25-year-olds not as hip and trendy as they think". Film at 11.
Last September the hard drive my mother-in-law's 300MHz Thinkpad died for a second time. Since replacing the hard drive entails removing the keyboard, the fact that the machine ran Windows 98SE and the idea that I just didn't feel like screwing with it any more we went to the Apple store and she bought a 17" iMac.
;-)
Once I configured it she had no problem doing email or web and I threw a copy of OpenOffice on it so she could read any Word stuff she received.
I've had zero complaints and zero calls for support from her after about the first week she had the iMac. I'd recommend one to anybody who needs a computer and doesn't wanna be a geek.
But - I still run Windows and Linux at home
we see things not as as they are, but as we are.
-- anais nin
You are, or just woefully ignorant.
Buy a $20 802.11b USB dongle and quit whining. It is possible have a preference in computers without having to bash the competition to justify it.
"It seems the young guns don't have the extra cash to stump up for smooth shiny aesthetics." I thought we'd pretty much established that Macs were as cheap or cheaper than equivalent Dells, but I guess the "Apples are overpriced" meme ain't going anywhere. It's kind of funny that the Apple stereotypes seem to live forever, even when they blatantly contradict each other. Hurray for granola-eating hippy trendy yuppy artsy Unix-nerdy wealthy Mac users!
The Mac was dying out in the '90s, so its choir got older and older. Now it's on the rebound, so it's gaining all kinds of customers, and all kinds of capabilities. It's gaining market share hand over fist. Doubled in the past year. So some of those guys are young, right? But added to the cost, and younger people not having that extra couple hundred to spend, and the aged original users from 1984, there are factors to skew the user base older. If it keeps growing, as Wall Street definitely thinks it will, the gap will disappear. So take your shots now, boys. Different political parties boast about this or that majority -- soccer moms or security moms, NASCAR dads and latte drinkers -- only to see that statistical anomaly fade away later on. So, bore on, Apple-haters. Your worm will turn.
In Soviet Russia, Macs use the Internets on You Old People!
One sentence in a lame press release has been published up and down the industry from Yahoo to cNet. Checking MetaFacts website I can't find a meaningful data point to work with or justify buying their report. - Is it a flawed methodology? We can't tell anything from the quote... My wife and I have Macs (we're over 50), our three teenage daughters have Macs - how did they assign the units from my household? 5 owned by a 50+ ? - Is one data point relevant... then I'd pick University bookstores in the US (not ownership because it doesn't reflect a changing market share**) Apple and several Windows manufacturers provide great discounts. An anecdotal study (as my senior high school daughter and I visited over twenty campuses in the last 18 months) determined that 20-25% of the computers bought on campus are Macs, mainly not by engineering students. Those kids made their own choice, not the one required by an IT department, and they bought 4x-5x more Macs than Apple's market share (last I saw it was hovering around 5%) would indicate. That survey would say the future is bright for Apple. (I'm a skeptic though) - I've been in tech marketing for 20 years, have never bought a report from (or even heard of) MetaFacts - I spend more time laughing at the Gardner and Forester reports. I'm sure they are a reputable company, but their press releases make me wonder what they are thinking with their choice of subjects. Cheers, Flack ** Today's news said Toyota passed up Ford in unit sales last quarter. A comparable auto ownership survey would only indicate that a lot of old people own Fords and cast no light on the changing market share of Toyota.