Apple is a leading US computer manufacturer that brought a lot of innovative products to the market throughout the past few years. Their iPhone smartphone has been the leader in sales for the last years, completely changing the way consumers look at mobile phones today. The iPhone also managed to inspire other mobile phone manufacturers and somehow forced them to come up with innovative products of their own if they had any intention of keeping up. In a weird way, you could say that Android is so popular today because of the iPhone. Next on the list of Apple’s achievements comes the iPad, the tablet computer that also made us think twice about what we really need from a ‘portable computer’. As some companies recently revealed, sales of the iPad boosted Apple all the way to spot nr. 3 at US portable computer sales, but the company may have done just fine without the iPad’s help.
The University of Virginia’s Information Technology and Communication has provided some info based on which 43 percent of its first year students were using a Mac computer in 2009. Information was gathered over the past 12 years by student employees of ITC. The study also shows that in 2009 most students switched to laptop computers, compared to back in 2002 where nearly half of the students owned desktops. This result is not surprising at all. The fact that Mac computers score well amongst first year students is also not surprising. Most ‘best laptop for college’ guides name Macbooks amongst the top choices.
Up to 2004, Windows was clearly the chosen operating system for school use. In 2009 this has changed dramatically and MacOS has almost surpassed Windows as popularity amongst students. Before 2004 Mac usage amongst freshmen was under four percent. Ever since then the Mac computer recorded an increased user share. So why are college students actually buying Macbooks? First of all owning a Mac computer has become cool. A well executed design combined with good advertising turned the Macbook into one of the most desirable laptops on the market. Secondly, the security is much better than in the case of Windows laptops from other brands. Mac OS X is somewhat harder to hack and a little less used than Windows. Anyone attempting to spread malware is still focusing on the Windows operating system.
On top of all that, Windows Vista was probably the number one reason why so many students chose Macbooks in the past few years. Vista has been getting a lot of negative reviews and was truly a nightmare to use on laptops that don’t offer a lot of performance. Aiming to avoid Vista, the best choice would be to switch to Apple’s side. As Apple figures out how to make computers easier and more pleasant to use, and also gives its consumer something nice to look at, it won’t be surprising if 100 percent of freshmen will be bringing Macbooks on the campus.
