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.'"

Comments

Obligatory

[RealSurreal]

In Korea only old people use Macs on the internet.

Psssh.

[SatanicPuppy]

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.

Re:Psssh.

[eno2001]

Well I think the same can be said of something like the VW Beetle. When the new Beetle debuted in the late 90s, it was being pushed as the trendy hip-mobile for young urbanites. But when you actually looked at who owned and drove these things, it was the 45-55 crowd. Hell my own mom (in her 60s) wanted one because it reminded her of her 20s when she wanted the original VW Beetle. I think this is laregly planned on the part of these companies. Just like the Mustang is all the rage now with the 45-55 male set. It reminds them of when they were 18 and they used to lust after the original Mustangs.

Re:Psssh.

[dubiousmike]

As someone who uses a Mac and a PC daily, I think some of the commercials are funny but a couple of them are a bit misleading. I think that implying that Macs are for certain stuff and PCs are for other stuff is pretty annoying. I'd rather they use blatant sex to sell stuff then try to mislead people.

Re:Psssh.

[LurkerXXX]

I'd rather they use blatant sex to sell stuff..... period. ;)

I got my parents a mac mini.

[FlyingSquidStudios]

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.

Re:I got my parents a mac mini.

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly! It's not so much the advertising, it how many parents and grandparents ask someone savvy in the family what computer they should get. You say what most of us say: "Get a Mac." Nobody wants to clean an exploit out of a relative's XP machine.

The opportunity here is getting to the point where it's as easy to give them Ubuntu.

Re:I got my parents a mac mini.

[soft_guy]

The opportunity here is getting to the point where it's as easy to give them Ubuntu.True. For just web browsing and email for a non-techie, Linux is pretty close. The problem is when they call you and say "how do I do this [digital photography] thing I've heard about"? Where [digital photography] could be GPS mapping or digital movie making or DVD burning or something else. My elderly relatives can figure out things like iLife (iPhoto, iMovie, Garage Band, etc.), but if they were using Ubuntu I wouldn't even have any idea what to tell them. Plus, I wouldn't have an answer for "you setup my computer for me and now you tell me I can't use iTunes/iPod with it?? The clerk at the store said that iTunes works on all computers (Mac AND PC)."

I have a dumb question

[KiahZero]

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.

Look at Metafacts clients...

[Anonymous Coward]

And Gateway is their client. Suprise Suprise...

http://www.metafacts.com/pages/corporate/metafacts _background.htm

Dunno why this is surprising...

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

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.

Well Of Course They Do

[ellem]

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.

Probably lots of reasons

[drinkypoo]

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?

What Would You Give Your Mom?

[ewhac]

My mom doesn't own a computer, and is starting to notice. Things that used to be handled by newsletter or phone calls are now handled by email, and she's being left out. So a computer is in her not-too-distant future.

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

Re:What Would You Give Your Mom?

[earnest murderer]

she knows nothing about the social engineering hazards out there -- email scams, phishing scams, the vast cornucopia of malware...

With the exception of malware, Apple is going to do nothing to help these issues over windows.

I think it's because seniors have highly-developed bullshit filters

Perhaps that is why I keep reading about seniors giving their life savings away to scammers over the phone?

"My bastard kids don't ever vistit. This is bullshit. You can have my money."

Re:Gateway?

[MBGMorden]

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.Except that most "PC's" are available without lots of extras that youngsters don't want.

I'm sure than when you consider the onboard GPS, the heated cup holders, high-end surround sound, leather interior, etc, that a BMW stacks up rather well compared to a Kia of comparable features (if Kia made such things :)). Bottom line though is that a lot of us simply don't want all that stuff.

Indeed

[sterno]

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.

Don't worry, this is already out of date

[geekwithsoul]

I just bought an iMac for my 4 1/2 year old. Now it all balances out, right?

Re:Well, it's all about User-Friendliness

[pr0nbot]

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.

I've not the foggiest what you're on about. It's a freakin UNIX box with an open source kernel, that ships with a DVD full of developer tools! How much more functional do you want?

Even more Obligatory

[cHiphead]

In Soviet Russia, Macs use old people on the internet.