(Images courtesy of MacRumors)
College students have the same choices the rest of us do when it comes to picking a good notebook computer, but a recent survey shows that the majority of them are picking Apple -- and even more of them plan to in the future.
MacRumors is reporting on a study by research firm Student Monitor, who recently surveyed 1,200 college students in the United States. According to Fortune, the firm discovered that Apple holds the top spot among manufacturers, with 27 percent of student-owned notebook computers. Dell came in second with 24 percent, while HP and Toshiba were a distant third and fourth at 15 and 10 percent, respectively.
The news also gets better for Apple: When looking ahead to the future, 47 percent of the same students are planning to buy a Mac for their next notebook, with a full 87 percent of those surveyed wanting a laptop instead of a desktop for their next computer.
Not surprisingly, 95 percent of the college students interviewed own at least one computer, with 83 percent owning a laptop, 24 percent a desktop and 15 percent having both. Apple’s desktops appear to have a way to go, however -- the desktop owners are only 14 percent Mac, while 45 percent own a Dell or HP.
The most telling part of the survey, however, is that the Mac is quickly catching up to Microsoft Windows as the operating system of choice with students. One such example is the chart above from the University of Virginia, where a full 43 percent of incoming freshmen in 2009 owned Macs -- up from 37 percent the previous year. The red bars show the amazing growth of Mac OS X on the campus, as Windows shows a gradual decline.
Would the results be the same if Apple’s now-defunct “Get a Mac” ads didn’t make owning a Mac look so cool? We think not.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
