A recent study released only yesterday has revealed that most students who are on the look out for a new laptop are shunning Macs.
The “Gadgetology” survey by California based company Retrevo Incorporated was conducted from a random sample of Retrevo’s 4 million monthly visitors.
The results showed that around 34 percent of students who are shopping for a new laptop are drawn towards the ultra portable low cost Netbooks and approximately 49 percent are looking to purchase full size PC laptops.
“While Apple has done well historically in the education market, 2009 marks the dawn of the netbook,” said Retrevo chief executive officer Vipin Jain.
“Students told us they wanted longer battery life, smaller size, and a lighter laptop. 58 percent of them plan on spending less than $750.”
It’s true; most people are drawn towards Netbooks because of the low cost, some of which you can buy for under $200.
“In contrast, Apple laptops start at $949. At a time when many people are experiencing economic hardship, having a new Apple laptop isn’t a necessity.”
It’s also true that Apple products tend to be priced at the higher end of the price spectrum and in today’s’ economic climate, most people just cannot afford to spend more than they need to, particularly hard up students.
With back to school time upon us right now, there is a bit of a battle going on between vendors, as each of them are naturally trying to grab a share of the available cash that accompanies the inevitable shopping spree that is typical of this time of year.
Students are going to be faced with a barrage of offers from some big names in the industry.
“Wal-Mart expanded its laptop selection by 40 percent and partnered with Hewlett-Packard Co. to make a $298 Compaq Presario,” Jain said. “Best Buy introduced the Next ClassTM laptop line.”
No doubt there are many more examples.
Apple may fare a bit better though with their much speculated about new touch tablet which is rumoured to be like a large sized iTouch with a price tag of around $600.
Well so says leading research analyst Gene Munster from Piper Jaffrey who believes that the touch tablet would compete well with netbooks “even though it would not be a netbook”.
Personally I don’t see how something three times the price could compare but then again I could be wrong.
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Its true that students are opting for the netbooks than Mac but its not that they are shunning Mac, as netbooks are more pocket friendly so they are opting whichever is the best buy for them. Although MAc is considered more for the professional purpose. It has a advanced technology whereas normally for a student the use of laptop limits to the web searches, making presentations,projects and working on certain softwares which can be easily installed.
Allan,
you are forgetting that non-apple netbooks (macbook air IS a netbook) have one additional major advantage over macs: They can run windows applications without having to resort to virtualisation.
Amir.
Amir,
Not that it matters, but I wouldn’t call a macbook air a netbook. It’s an ultraportable laptop, which is different. Netbooks generally have smaller screens (say, 8-12 inches as opposed to 13 on the MBA), are underpowered (atom vs. core 2 duo), and have smaller keyboards (MBA has a full-sized keyboard).
Now, on to your main points. First of all, macs don’t need to virtualize anything to run windows applications. Macs with intel processors (every computer they’ve made for the last few years) can run windows natively through boot camp. Having said that, of course you need to purchase a copy of windows in order to run it, but that’s really a moot issue when you consider your other main point, that a computer that runs windows applications somehow has the advantage over a computer that doesn’t. While this may have been true years ago when OSX was still a novelty OS, it certainly isn’t the case today. There are few windows applications that haven’t been replicated or improved for OSX, especially software students would use. And please don’t bring up games, because I guarantee no one is doing any serious gaming (or even causal for that matter) on a netbook.
The bottom line is that students are choosing netbooks over macs because of price, and with good reason. If I wanted a budget laptop I wouldn’t even consider a mac, I would get a netbook running linux, and in fact, I have!