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The current state of Mac use in higher education

by David Winograd Nov 15th 2010 at 10:00AM

Apple used to own the Higher Education market throughout the 80s and early 90s. Apple eventually took a back seat to the lower-priced Dell product line, but all of that is changing. According to a Group Logic Inc. survey of IT professionals at 125 North American colleges and universities, use of Macs on campuses has risen and will continue to rise. Between 2009 and 2010, Mac usage increased by 18 percent and is expected to rise by another 20 percent over the next five years. The reason most often given for the recent sharp increase was as a reaction to Microsoft's Vista operating system, which was considered problematic (to use the nicest word I could think of) by students and IT alike.

The survey was collected from fairly large institutions, averaging about 16,500 students. On average, 31 percent of students and 24 percent of faculty are currently using Macs on campus. An August report by Student Monitor stated that 27 percent of laptops found on campus were Macs, 24 percent were made by Dell, and 15 percent were Hewlett Packards, easily giving Apple the lion's share of the Higher Education laptop market. The study also found that nearly half of students in the market for a laptop said that they would buy a Mac. Compare that with a survey done in 2005, where only 14 percent of students queried were interested in a Mac laptop, and about half said they were buying a Dell.

Windows is still the most prevalent operating system, but the gap is closing. Student Monitor reported that in 2003, over 2500 institutions were using Windows, while only 200 used Macs. By 2008, the gap closed dramatically, with about 2000 institutions using Windows and 1100 using Macs; only a year later, 1700 schools were using Windows compared to 1400 using Macs.

What wasn't mentioned in any survey (and seemed a rather obvious thing to leave out): the "halo effect." A major motivating factor in students buying Macs is that so many of them have iPods, iPhones, or iPads and have been impressed by them, making Macs a much easier sell.

Global Logic Inc. survey data of Macs in Higher Education



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18 Comments

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Jason

Where did you get this picture? It's of one of our older labs here at Huntington University where I am their mac Tech Support...

November 15 2010 at 7:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to Jason's comment
waterloo.bob

At an Open House for The Institute of Quantum Computing I noticed a lot of Mac's and asked. The Institute is an all-Mac environment.

November 15 2010 at 7:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Zach K

At Ohio University there are a lot of Macs. I'd say like 60/40 split with Windows. I think it's mostly because of the Scripps College of Journalism and Mass Media, but the Comp Sci students swear by their Windows laptops.

November 15 2010 at 11:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Zach K's comment
Rico

Fellow Bobcat here, in Russ College of Engineering. I see a few Macs in the EECS dept. Professors love them too, I have several that use all Macs.

Go down to the library, and all you see are Macs. I was strolling around last night, trying to find a place to study, and I saw a sea of MacBooks on the 2nd floor.

November 15 2010 at 12:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mortonmanor

Here at the University of Washington, we see about 25% of all devices connected to our Wi-Fi network as Macs. Compare that to 44% that are running Windows and a whopping 27% that are running iOS (iPhone, iPod touch and iPads).

You can see the charts and stats here: www.freshlymobile.com click on the UW Mobile Usage stats link.

November 15 2010 at 11:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
torrentmylife

I'm a computer science student, and I'd agree with @knell.thomas - most use windows, but I've also found there are several who dual boot between linux and os x (hackintosh style). What this study failed to mention/examine is the use of boot camp - almost all of the iMacs here, at my university, dual boot between OS X 10.6 and Windows 7.

November 15 2010 at 11:03 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jbuth

I am at the university of Minnesota, and about half of the computers I see are macs. As for teachers, I have only seen one using a pc, and he complained about vista refusing to connect to the wifi today

November 15 2010 at 10:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
knell.thomas

I'm a computer science student, so my fellow students use mostly linux and/or windows (mostly lenovo laptops) but there are also about 10 - 15% OS X users. But like 80% or even more of the students of the architecture department use macs. They even got several rooms full of iMac 27"... which makes me a bit jealous, but my mbp + 24"acd is enough for me atm.

November 15 2010 at 10:50 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jcps

Not higher education, but in my high school, every student and teacher has a MacBook and our documents folder synchronizes with a server. It's really nice being able to do papers, reports, ect. on our own computer that we can take home.

November 15 2010 at 10:45 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Randy

I have no idea what our stats are for students, but I see about a 50-50 split when walking around campus.

For faculty & staff, the past couple years have seen more move from the Dark Side when given a choice of platforms. It's not a huge shift, but a definite trend.

November 15 2010 at 10:31 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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