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Macs: The Preferred Platform of Democrats?
Posted 10/07/2008 at 2:02:29pm | by Carol Pinchefsky

Don’t tell hardcore Mac user (and Republican) Rush Limbaugh, but Apple’s market share skews towards Democrats. According to Vincent Vizzaccaro, executive vice president of Marketing and Strategic Alliances, there “seems to be quite a strong correlation between typically Democratic voting states and higher concentrations of Mac usage.”

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Take a look at the 2004 electoral college votes and compare it to the this map of the Macs state-by-state market share. As you can see, the statistics are far more interesting than what you learned (and promptly forgot) in college about negative binomial distribution.

Vizzaccaro said, “I believe it comes from the masses of students heading back to school in September, and going from predominantly Windows machines at home to a much higher percentage of Macs at schools. This trend is blended with a general growth pattern for the Mac, but the September spikes are noticeable.”

“So, it appears from the data that Democrats and students do prefer Macs in greater numbers than the rest of the population.”

And then we have the applications. Both canidates have an inaguration countdown app, and either party can download their very own iDemocrat or iRepublican app. Unfortunately for McCain, Obama’s campaign one-ups McCain with a free app, the Obama 08 iPhone app, dedicated to campaign stats, news, events, and issues. It also organizes your friends by state (prioritizing the battleground states), so you can call them up and track who they’re voting for. The GOP might want to reach out to iPhone developers soon.

iPhone app developers aren't necessarily Democrats. Project director of the Obama 08 iPhone app, Raven Zachary said that he and his team developed the application because the Democratic Party asked him to. Zachary said that the Democratic Party may have been interested in the iPhone because, with the iPhone’s web browsing capabilities, it’s an excellent tool for communication. Also, he said, “Google’s phone won’t be available until days before the election.”

Voters can take a better look at the candidates when Frontline airs its biographies of the two presidential candidates on October 14, 2008 (also the rumored date of Apple’s announcement of a potential new notebook line); the biographies will be available online for free October 15 on iTunes, YouTube and streaming on Frontline's website.

Mac|Life wants to remind everyone to vote on November 4. 

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TAGS:  Election 2008
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