Survey: 60 percent of back-to-school PC purchases are Macs

The macbook air has a lot of computational power for its size and mass. For productivity for most students, the air is more than powerful enough to compose word documents, connect to black board, read and publish PDF files, edit presentations, images and video clips ect ect ect. Sure, the same $1100 to $1600 will get you a much more powerful macbook pro, but that said, students already have lots of heavy books/ paper ect to carry around. Yes, for that price $999, you can go get 2 Dell M5030's at bestbuy and still have a few hunded bucks left over for an external backup drive, usb key, and laser printer.... but that solution is far heavier, far bulkier and far less well polished then the svelte Apple experience offered in their newly revise macbook air's and macbook pros. Apple never claimed to sell budget PC's aside from that $600 puck...... the haters can bash and condemn Apple all they want but the free market votes how it does. Let the chips fall as they may and watch APPL stock perform accordingly. Microsoft on the other hand gets downranked by end uses because of things like Vista.... and the kin!

158? Can't possibly be wrong. How did they find the time to poll that many students? Someone only took a 4 hour lunch that day.

That's might be because of the student likes little eye-catchy PC's rather than old PCs...and Starting at just $999...i am amazed!!!

wow - this brought out the anti-apple trolls, and to an apple website. Clueless as they may be. Starting with the twit named twinturbo... Actually, you can get a mac mini for far less than $999. Plus it has been proven time and time again that Apple's computers provide great value when you compare them to comparably equipped computers, the superior OS, lack of viruses, more reliable, easier to use, much higher satisfaction levels, free included software, best customer service and support, etc. etc. etc.

And to sammyk, your snide remarks like, "invested in Macs, whether it's necessary for class or because they picked it without considering other high-end options" as if they didn't weigh their options. They actually picked the platform with the best overall value and ecosystem for managing their digital lives. And "alienware"? Are you serious? That's a computer popular with high end gamers - is that why their parents sent them to college?

BTW, 158 is a statistically valid survey depending on how the survey sample was selected. It would have a higher potential error rate in the +/- 10% range than a larger sample.

As to tablets, these numbnuts put the ipad and the kindle in the same category. Not too smart. Two totally different categories.

Starting at just $999. Are you freaken kidding me? -.-

158? That's hardly indicative. "That's not a huge sample, but it is a representative one, as more and more students are going with OS X-driven computers rather than the old desktop PC"

So I guess this is the new way of doing science? Have a small sample size, claim its representative because it fits a non-verified assertion. Oh, and apparently OS X doesn't go on the desktop either. Those iMacs must be mythical.

Plus at my campus, yes there are a fairly good amount of people that invested in Macs, whether it's necessary for class or because they picked it without considering other high-end options. But I've also seen other smart students take into consideration the value of a quality computer and are also buying other high-end brands like Alienware, Sony Vaio, etc. If anything, it seems college students are getting a bit smarter in picking laptops that last and actually work.

Not trying to rain on your math parade... but it's not really "almost double" -- it's a 58% increase. Still great, though!