Posted on 07/13/2002 8:16:19 AM PDT by Dallas
Those who surf the Web using a Mac tend to be better educated and make more money than their PC-using counterparts, according to a report from Nielsen/NetRatings.
The study also said Mac users tend to be more Web savvy, with more than half having been online for at least five years. And the Mac faithful are 58 percent more likely than the overall online population to build their own Web page and also slightly more likely to buy goods online, according to the report.
"With above-average household income and education levels, the Mac population presents a very attractive target for marketers, both online and offline," the research group said.
TS Kelly, director and principal analyst at NetRatings, said that his company decided to publish the study after noticing the differences between the demographics of Mac owners compared with overall PC owners. Kelly said Apple Computer is a client, but he said Apple did not commission the study nor was it made aware of the results prior to the report's publication.
Kelly said the greater affluence and education level of those who surf using a Mac is attributable in part to the company's comparatively pricier machines, as well as to their perception as a status symbol and their greater market share among those in the publishing and design industries.
"Any time you lower a price point you always see a broadening of the audience that is probable to buy it," Kelly said.
"Apple customers may be educated, but our customers are smart enough to have chosen Gateway, which offers the best value," said Brad Williams, a spokesman for the PC maker.
Apple has been aggressively targeting PC owners in its latest ad campaign.
Although Apple sales typically represent less than 5 percent of the overall U.S. personal computer market, 8.2 percent of Americans who surf the Web at home do so using a Mac, according to the study. Nearly all the rest of those who go online--89.4 percent--do so using a Windows-based PC.
Nielsen/NetRatings said that 70.2 percent of Mac users online have a college degree, compared with 54.2 percent of all Web surfers. That, combined with their longer surfing histories and their greater willingness to buy products via the Web, makes Mac consumers a prime catch for marketers, Kelly said.
"In many cases that is a market advertisers are looking at when they are promoting new products or upscale products," Kelly said.
A representative for PC maker Dell noted that it doesn't seem to be lacking for customers and that half of those customers buy their PCs over the Web--a sign that Windows users are also adept online.
The study notes that although there are clear benefits to marketing to Mac owners, it can be tough to target them specifically.
Once upon a time, marketers could target personal computer users as a whole to reach a more-educated, higher-income base, however the demographics of those with a personal computer have become more similar to the demographics of the overall population as personal computer penetration has grown. Kelly said advertisers can still reach upscale crowds in other ways, such as targeting those who have a broadband connection.
Salon 21st | Is Bill Gates a closet liberal?
Gates Gives Millions to Planned Parenthood
Hope you're not using Windows and contributing money to all that leftism...I'm not; I use GNU/Linux.
Steve Jobs Gives $100,000 to Democratic Party
No need to wonder whether Jobs is a liberal. Clear as day, as it is with the majority of Mac users.
B) Generally speaking, games and graphic design programs tend to be the most system intensive things you can run on a computer. This is especially true the farther back you go. Frankly, I don't think a person knows squat about computers until they have spent an hour trying to edlin a system file to get 2 more Kb of base memory by forcing a driver up into extended memory. DOS really required some serious knowledge and tweaking...
Thomas Sowell pointed out in his Knowledge and Decisions that the function of technology is to reduce the amount of knowledge that an individual has to have in order to perform a certain action. Macs exemplify this. Boris was right when he called the PC users tinkerers. I liken it to the choice between manual and automatic transmissions in cars. If you want ease of use, you go with automatic. If you want performance and control, you go with manual. If you don't want to know anything about computers, get a Mac. If you want to get the best performance out of one, get a PC...
O'Reilly disagrees. From their Mac OS X conference page:
One thing that's been overwhelmingly clear this year is that the alpha geeks are choosing Mac OS X. Why? Mac OS X is one of the most exciting things happening in the industry today. It's the confluence of three great traditions -- Unix/open source, Java, and the Mac -- and the best of all worlds.
For some reason many people assume that "easy to use" is equivalent to "less powerful"; this is most definitely not the case with Mac OS X.
Jobs and Gates are both liberals, so don't give either of them money.
Don't you agree?
The correct spelling is "piddle".
Poodle is correct in the singular form. Piddle is the plural, defined as at least two poodles and a fire hydrant.
I gotta take issue with this statement. Word macros are not evil and dangerous in and of themselves. The ability to embed a malicious macro onto an e-mail or an attachment that is read by an OFFICE product (Outlook, Outlook Express) and then take advantage of the (yawning) cracks in software written in one big hurry by those under the bootheel of oppression by Bill "Cracking the Whip" Gates to get the product into the marketplace is the problem.
I write and use macros all the time in Word and Excel. Gets the keystrokes for a specific entry or function down to a couple. I find them a real timesaver.
Perhaps you should upgrade them to Mac OS X. If a bug in a running application causes a program to lock up, there is a command under the Apple menu labeled "Force Quit...". This will bring up a window allowing the user to select a process to kill. (Alternately, the Command+Option+Esc key combination can be used to bring up the Force Quit window). It works fine.
"The final point: OS X is a Unix clone."
No, Linux is a Unix clone. Mac OS X is certified UNIX.
"Stick with Linux, as the Linux community will quickly surpass the Mac community, if they haven't already. All Mac users can look forward to is less and less software, and the inevitable migration of these "smarter" Mac users to the PC world prior to the Mac's final gasps in the market."
Once again, you are misinformed. Mac OS X can compile and execute Linux applications, SoftPC is available to run Microsoft Windows in emulation mode, and there are thousands of native Mac OS X applications and older Mac "Classic" applications.
Mac OS X is a much better choice than Linux for dissatisfied Window users.
8.2 percent of home web surfers is statistically significant - especially considering the above-average income and education levels of that group.
8 people out of 100 isn't very significant at all. Not when compared to the nearly 90% who use a Windows based system.
And considering the "above-average income" Windows has produced for it's investors, far above anything MAC could ever dream of, they are obviously the much smarter group.
Thanks! I will use the key combos. I tried to install OS X, but the true Mac users didn't like it. Go figure. Maybe they will come around.
"The final point: OS X is a Unix clone." No, Linux is a Unix clone. Mac OS X is certified UNIX.
Point taken, but the bottom line is that it isn't really Mac anymore, hence the Mac boxes and the need to upgrade your software. Of course, Microsoft does this with every version change! ;-)
"Stick with Linux, as the Linux community will quickly surpass the Mac community, if they haven't already. All Mac users can look forward to is less and less software, and the inevitable migration of these "smarter" Mac users to the PC world prior to the Mac's final gasps in the market." Once again, you are misinformed. Mac OS X can compile and execute Linux applications, SoftPC is available to run Microsoft Windows in emulation mode, and there are thousands of native Mac OS X applications and older Mac "Classic" applications.
Fine with me! I personally couldn't care less who uses what. Why are Mac accessories etc. more expensive? There must be a reason, or is it like the eternal mystery of why women's clothes cost more than men's clothes?
Mac OS X is a much better choice than Linux for dissatisfied Window users.
Could be. I think I just like the ability to tinker with and tweak my machine, which doesn't seem to be as big a priority for Mac people. I like the ability to build my own PC out of parts I choose as well.
I will always loathe Mac mice though!!
I understand, man. That's why I use the Logitech mouse with two buttons and a scroll wheel. They're great to give Christmas gifts too.
I understand, man. That's why I use the Logitech mouse with two buttons and a scroll wheel. They're great to give Christmas gifts too.
That is exactly what I did. After using the "blue pill" that came with the G3, I refused to use it anymore. Nothing more annoying than a mouse that you have to look at to orient, and is invariably 45-90 degrees out of normal orientation when you first grab it. I sent a letter to Apple politely suggesting the designer be horsewhipped.
Funny, I never got a response.........
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