MetaFacts report finds that AAPL popular with the AARP crowd

I cant even begin to understand what goes on inside the mind of a potential mac buyer, or current mac owner. Its like trying to imagine being a schizophrenic, or having multiple personalities, from the constraints of a normal persons mind. Very difficulet to comprehend, if not impossible.

But seriously (only a baby-crawl forward that is), I read this article for some reason, and proceeded to read the obviously mac user comments that were the majority of what was posted. And I have a few things to comment on. Please keep in mind, I’m a computer hobbyist of over 14-15years, in my late 20’s, and most importantly and relevantly I have been in the computer/IT support field for nearly 8 years ranging from desktop support to network engineering and consulting. Here’s my take:

First, Apple computers, including their proprietary, over-priced, and software-limited systems, account for a mere 3.5ish percent of the market share of ALL computers (references at bottom). So most importantly, apple computers are essentially a dead platform, only still in mind and physical existence, because for some reason 3.5ish percent of the people that buy computers are for some reason either cohersed into their purchase by family, friends or “tech people” that are mac loyal, or, they are just die-hard mac lovers who don’t like PC’s, or, are mac users that are unwilling or unable to learn how to use a different operating system, or, a small percentage are driven toward their purchase by some other odd reason that’s unclassifiable.

There were a couple people that mentioned they couldn’t believe gateway is still thriving, however, Toshiba, outsold apple computers in 2005. And I have only seen a Toshiba laptop used in a business environment ONCE in my career (because they have a bullet-proof laptop for law enforcement). I don’t see gateways often in businesses. But here and there. Dell is most defenitly the first supplier most IT people look to when they’re looking for new computers (or servers, network storage, etc).

Edsel above wrote:
11. Just maybe, Apple should create a new .Mac page for us Seniors. We could share Widgets designed just for us (virtual pill minders, meal planning, memory games).

Perhaps some bright young whipper-snapper could develop a blood pressure machine with a OSX interface, or design a WiFi/heart pacemaker interface to make our lives more interesting.

Heck, I'd be thrilled for a program to simply tell me where I misplaced my wireless mouse. Oops, gota run, the Art Linkletter TV reruns are on.....

I cant say for sure the applications you wanted/hoped for are available or not for mac (doubtful), but I know for fact that there are blood pressure and heart rate monitoring software & sensor packages available for PC. I also personally use meal planning apps, and know there are pill minder apps and a vast number of memory “games” on PC. Since apple accounts for only 2.5ish percent of computers, there is very little reason or incentive for software makers to develop software for them. There’s just very little money in it for them.

I don’t work for Microsoft, but their PC platform is able to run on Toshiba, sony, dell, gateway, now even APPLE computer hardware! So the upper 90% of computer users are wanting to buy software for this platform, or operating system. If you were to create a product to sell to consumers and businesses, what would be the logical choice: a product that appeals to 3.5% of the population, or a product that appeals to 90% of the population? The answer to this, is why there is a VAST amount of nearly anything-you-can-think-of software available for the windows platform, and much of it is available for FREE or low-cost via the internet. Reason being, all that market share, means nearly all developers want to create product for that market share, meaning there will be much more competition for similar products, meaning lower prices for consumers.

Basically, buying a mac is stupid. I don’t mean to insult you mac users, but seriously, if you look at the facts objectively and compare capability, prices, choices, etc. Mac isn’t even a serious option. In addition to my computer/IT work, I also work on my own music, do a little programming, and even some graphic work (currently working on a 3d animation short film). So you cant say PC/windows computers are less suited to artistic types than mac’s. On PC’s you have dozens, even hundreds of choices between software applications to do your graphic,/modeling/rendering work, or music, or whatever. Macâ€

sure, but first someone here around has to be reminded that the (worldwide) web is not internet, and that such program browses the web, not the internet! :)

This is no surprise to anyone who's ever attended a Mac user group meeting. I know many Mac users that are either retired or close to it.

There are some funny numbers going on. Apple is #1 in the education market in UK, and #2 in the US (slightly behind Dell). Next place after Apple and Dell are HP and Sony. Now I could be wrong, but "education" buyers are usually in the 18-25 age range.

Now I *do* have at least 3 baby-boomer friends who have bought a machine for a college-aged kid, and who told me their kid wanted a Mac. So *maybe* this survey went by the age of the cardholder, as opposed to the age of the person who the machine is for?

The fact that Gateway (i.e. eMachines) is the one that has top place because this is the first time I've seen the word "Gateway" in years, never mind on a list that starts with the word "top" or "number one".

I guess it's *possible* that while most college students own a Mac or a Dell, 95% of all college aged kids who DON'T go to college buy Gateway, but that just doesn't jive with my having actually seen a "new" Gateway computer in the wild for quite a while.

So my question then is "who paid for this report?". They're either knowingly playing with numbers, or their source data is pretty mess.

Just maybe, Apple should create a new .Mac page for us Seniors. We could share Widgets designed just for us (virtual pill minders, meal planning, memory games).

Perhaps some bright young whipper-snapper could develop a blood pressure machine with a OSX interface, or design a WiFi/heart pacemaker interface to make our lives more interesting.

Heck, I'd be thrilled for a program to simply tell me where I misplaced my wireless mouse. Oops, gota run, the Art Linkletter TV reruns are on.....

"I say 'With age, comes wisdom.'"

Those pre-teen years are awkward, Laurie. Don't worry - you'll grow out of them.

Via the user manual for the mac mini, they're probably killing their wireless signal (if they have one) by placing a lamp on top of their mini--not to mention crushing the optical drive.

Do you guys seriously believe this crap?

Is almost HALF of the WHOLE Mac user base over the age of 55?

Just look at you friends, look at your work colleagues. Is half of them over the age of 55?

How could you guys believe in such bullshit?

After working in computing (or the beginings of it) for the RAF during World War 2, and then working for Ferranti afterwards, when the 'modern' world of computing came along my Grandfather stuck with Apple till the end.

In my opinion it shows the respectability of the Mac platform that someone who worked for Ferranti helping build the first commercial computers EVER could use it exclusively ever since.

AARP will be an American term, so I'll ignore that part ;-)

Two of my grandparents asked me for advise on (new) computers and though I'm always reluctant to tell people what to do, I advised them Apple.

The first one will buy a windows laptop, though. Because her friends use Windows and because Apple doesn't offer a 17" laptop for under 900 euros.
Oh, and a laptop because when the sun is too bright in her living room, she can move to the bedroom to see the screen better.

The second one mailed me an advert out the newspaper, for what basically is a thinclient with a really restricted menu and Firefox, OpenOffice, Evolution, Skype and aMSN. Instead, I suggested she'd buy an iMac and let me set her up with Gmail, saving her 10 euro a month on subscription.