Microsoft Losing Big To Apple On Campus

destinyland writes "Apple is closing in on Microsoft's share of operating systems among the computers of incoming freshmen at the University of Virginia, confirming earlier reports of an ongoing trend. A yearly survey shows that among 3,156 freshman who own computers, Microsoft's share is just 56% (down 6%), with Apple's share rising to 43% (up 6%), continuing a six-year pattern. In 2004, it was Microsoft 89% vs. 8% for Apple. 'It seems likely that the Mac-using students will outnumber their Windows cousins this school year,' notes one technology blog, citing a new study showing that 70 percent of college freshman are choosing the Mac. Other interesting data from the Virginia study: In 1997, 26% of incoming freshmen said they didn't own a computer, a number which has now dropped to 0. Laptops now comprise 99% of the computer population. And Linux use has dropped from a high of 2.5% in 2004 to a rounding error this year."

Comments

Re:LINUX rounds numbers fine

[Anonymous Coward]

Well you're either lying or simply mistaken.

http://apple.com/store

Choose the macbook. Add all the internal upgrades (RAM, HDD)

And it's not even close to $1,500. Not to mention as a teacher (and with her daughter being a student) they'd be entitled to a fairly big discount, at least 15% when I bought mine.

Re:Maybe it's the hardware..

[uglyduckling]

I don't know if you're trolling or just inept. There's at least three different ways to do what you describe. In three column view (selected with the [ | | ] button at the top of the Finder window) the picture thumbnail will show in the right-hand column. The second option is to use Coverflow (the button to the right of the three column button) and preview your pictures that way. The third is to select all the files (cmd+a) then open in preview, and use the next/previous buttons in there. Not identical to Windows, but three very good options, all of which seem pretty intuitive to me.

The real reason students and rents are buying Macs

[Anonymous Coward]

I answer help desk phone calls at a large research university that brings in about 10,000 freshmen a year. It's very common for them, or their parents to ask "Which kind of laptop should we buy, PC or Mac?". It's not that they don't like one or the other, or they don't know the difference. It's not that they care which is cheaper, or which looks prettier. It's not that there's a particular processor that's better than another, or the graphics chipset is faster, or any of the geek stuff that we argue about.

They just want to know, for this campus, which machine will give them or their kid the least amount of hassle while doing everything they need to get through four years of classes. Will it run MS Office? Does it work with the on-campus apps (online class material, email, calendar, etc)? Is it going to break and cost me more money in two years? If it *does* break, how much of a PITA is it to get it fixed?

When people, incoming students or parents, ask which they should buy, I tell them honestly that I have a 13" white MacBook with OpenOffice that does everything I need for all of my classes, works with all of the on-campus apps I need to deal with, and generally causes me no grief, and I like it.

When people ask me which is better for dealing with viruses, I answer that 100% of the calls I receive for malware/virus infections are from PC users; I add that I still run antivirus software on my Mac, and the university requires all Mac users to run it, but I've never taken a Mac virus call. I am enough of a hacker to know that Mac OS X is not perfect, and that it has security holes. But I've yet to take a call that dealt with the results of one, and I've taken plenty of calls for Windows machines whose end resolution was a complete reinstall.

After that explanation, people go next door to the store and buy a Macbook, and I never hear from them again unless they have forgotten a password.

That, friends, is why Apple is kicking the crap out of machines running Windows.

What study actually shows this?

[Megor1]

I went to all the links and the only one with actual information (The University of Virginia) shows the majority of students are using windows. The analyst that is cited as the source provdes zero information.

I did a quick search and it appears I am not alone in thinking this guy is making up these numbers.

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/08/07/big-macs-on-campus/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+fortuneapple20+(FORTUNE:+Apple+2.0)

I wager he just shorted the stock and knew apple fan boys would parrot his lies.

Different populations

[je ne sais quoi]

You know, if you're going to call bullshit you might try getting your own facts straight first. The study in the summary states very clearly that it's a survey of incoming freshman only. The study in your link is of all students. In fact, if you take the link the summary and take the last four years of students (= all students like your study), you get that Mac ownership of that body is 32%, which is DAMN close to the study in your link showing 27% of the laptop owners of the total student body owned macs.

So is it my turn to talk about how you probably shorted the apple stock and new that the apple haters would parrot your lies?

Re:LINUX rounds numbers fine

[commodore64_love]

>>>you are missing an important detail: quality.

Toshiba is rated #2 in long term reliability,
Apple is rated #4.

http://voyager8.blogspot.com/2010/04/most-reliable-laptop-brands-are.html - But of course you will now come back and tell me why thee FACTS should be ignored, in order to bolster your religious belief that Apple is better quality than Toshiba. It's like debating evolution with a Christian... you never get anywhere.
.

>>>Windows laptops, unless they happen to be a Mac, are good for about a year and a half. Then they get pretty annoying. After 3 years, they are nearly unusable. By year 5, lets be honest, they collect dust and prevent papers from blowing away, and nothing else.
>>>

My Winodws98 laptop is over ten years and works just fine.
An OS 9 Macbook? Not so much.
Won't run Opera, won't run Safari, won't run iTunes, won't run IE. (They all require 10.4 or higher.)