Mac vs PC People
Mac users are more politically liberal, more urban, younger and more educated than their PC-using counterparts.
That is according to a new survey by affinity aggregator Hunch. Among the more interesting findings:
• 58% of Mac people are “liberal,” as compared to 38% of PC people
• 67% of Mac people have completed a four-year college degree or higher, as compared to just 54% of PC people
• 52% of Mac people live in a city, while PC people are 18% more likely than Mac people to live in the suburbs and 21 percent live in rural areas
• Mac people throw a lot more parties than PC people
• Mac people are more confident about their verbal abilities but less confident about their math abilities than PC people
• Mac people are more likely to see random people as “similar,” whereas PC people are more likely to see them as “different”.
There is a great infographic on this, from Hunch and Column Five:
click for ginormous graphic
>
Sources:
I’m A Mac, You’re Sarah Palin
Damon Poeter
PC Mag, April 22, 2011 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2384001,00.asp
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April 25th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Maybe this really ought to be “I’m a Windows user versus a Mac user”. To me, PC indicates the hardware, which would make me a PC user. However, I use Linux and BSD as my OS’s (outside of work-supplied Windows machine). So what would “neither” be? (I do have some Sun hardware at home. . .)
Then again, MacOS is loosely based upon BSD, so. . .
April 25th, 2011 at 3:16 pm
So, in effect, the only *real* statement they are making about Mac and PC is that it is a generational thing. At least in the US, all the others seem to be dependent variables.
I could have gathered that much just looking at the 2 guys from the Mac commercials.
April 25th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
It is as meaningless a comparison as apples to walnuts.
Mac represents 90% of the market.
Thus, the results show Mac users vs the broadest of American demographics.
April 25th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
You left out that 90% of Mac people are more likely to wear berets, sip (not drink) espresso and smoke gitanos.
April 25th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
and 100% of mac users pretty much paid too much for their personal computer :)
April 25th, 2011 at 3:53 pm
This is like comparing the demographics of people who use toilet paper vs. people who use those Japanese toilets that clean your backside like a turbo-powered Bosch dish washer. Chances are if you’ve taken a load off then you’re probably using toilet paper for the sheer practicality of finding the lowest cost of hygiene. Sure I’d like a Japanese toilet but why pay more. Just take a proper shower for crying out loud. You don’t have to spend another $10K and hire an expert plumber.
p.s.
These are also the types of studies that make….. err ecourage, people to hate Apple people.
April 25th, 2011 at 3:59 pm
@Bob A
“and 100% of mac users pretty much paid too much for their personal computer :)”
in all seriousness, can you name anything that the top 5% don’t overpay for?
To be clear, cost is one thing, value is quite another matter completely.
It’s like I’ll sell you a Swiss watch with a $500 automatic movement for $6,000.
Sure you got a better watch than the Japanese Seiko with a $20 movment but how much did the marginal difference cost you? The facade of “better” usually means a little better but at a huge margin.
April 25th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
I’d wager Mac people are younger and more “artsy” on the whole also, which is why they throw more parties.
But eventually, Mac users grow up and realize they need a real computer, which is when they switch to a PC! [lol]
April 25th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
I wish they would have added what these users have in discretionary spending. I don’t think Mac users are the best at seeing the value in what they are buying. Mac users pay for that sophisticated feeling. This is all just great branding on Apple’s part.
I’ve owned both, I work on a Mac and I own a PC at home. It makes no difference when I use the same software.
April 25th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
Since MACs are more expensive, is this just a reflection of wealth demographics?
April 25th, 2011 at 4:22 pm
90% of PC people are to busy running the world to answer a vanity survey.
April 25th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Really a silly analysis. I have both. Does that make me a Schizophrenic, Macaholic or PCrudup?
~~~
BR: heh — I have both also~!
I’m just a sucker for good chart porn
April 25th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Yeah, I thought of you as I read that and wondered if it would show up on your blog.
It’s interesting to see that Mac people seem to say “I love my Mac; it just works.” Mac evangelists say “The water’s warm, come join us!” PC defenders seem to say “I love my money; I don’t care if I have to fiddle with the machine all the time and resolve conflicts, etc.” They don’t actually have much to say about how great PCs are, except that they are cheaper.
So one bit may be about how people value money versus time. If you figure that the average information worker is spending upwards of 6 or 7 hours on these things every day, I personally think that you’d want that time to be as productive and pleasant as possible, in the same way that an expensive mattress is worth investing in, when you consider that you may spend 1/3 of your life lying on it.
As for the cost, I’ve found that I need to replace my Macs about once every three years (though I can go longer if needed). I tend to need to replace windows machines about once every two years. So that can justify nearly a 50% price premium before one truly considers Macs more expensive.
In other news, I just bought a (used) Mac Pro: 2.66 GHz, 9GB, 750GB HD. Runs Windows great when I need it. I recommended that in the earlier thread “What PC should I buy,” and stand by my recommendation. Hey, Barry, what did you end up deciding on that?
April 25th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
IPhone, Android Phones Transmit Location Data to Apple, Google, WSJ Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-22/iphone-android-phones-transmit-location-data-to-apple-google-wsj-says.html
iPhone = LIBERAL INTRUSTIVENESS!
… and the WSj doesn’t want you to forget their rival, the data-scraping, non-evil-doing, Obama-supporting, pro-science, non-dividend payers at Google who, implement back-door Fairness Doctrine but putting their article right there next the people who mock us at New Republic, Salon, and MSNBC
iPhone = LIBERAL TRANSDUCERS!
and for good measure…
Rolls-Royce 102EX Electric Car: The Face of Green? – Rumble Seat by Dan Neil
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703789104576272960862728104.html
Subtext = LIMOUSINE LIBERALS!!!
April 25th, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Bruman, any advice for buying a used Mac? I’ve always heard buying a used PC was a shot in the dark, but what was meant by that was buying a used COMPUTER, generically speaking. What should I look for and stay away from? Is the price of a used Mac that much better than buying a NEW PC? I’m needing a new home computer REALLY bad. It’s literally losing it’s parts!
April 25th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Round 1 – @number2son wins against strawman.
April 25th, 2011 at 5:29 pm
this one still has me thinking…
• Mac people are more likely to see random people as “similar,” whereas PC people are more likely to see them as “different”.
and reminds me of the article posted by another TBP poster
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/05/19/fanboyism-and-brand-loyalty/
“Branding builds on this by giving you the option to create the person you think you are through choosing to align yourself with the mystique of certain products.
Apple advertising, for instance, doesn’t mention how good their computers are. Instead, they give you examples of the sort of people who purchase those computers. The idea is to encourage you to say, “Yeah, I’m not some stuffy, conservative nerd. I have taste and talent and took art classes in college.”
Are Apple computers better than Microsoft-based computers? Is one better than the other when looked at empirically, based on data and analysis and testing and objective comparisons?
It doesn’t matter.
Those considerations come after a person has begun to see themselves as the sort of person who would own one. “
April 25th, 2011 at 5:40 pm
No way are you dudes more smarter than us PC guys. Weez way smarter than u”s.
April 25th, 2011 at 5:40 pm
Ashpelham2, it’s easier to buy used Macs because there arent as many variations to choose from, and they are less likely to come with viruses, and it is easier to reinstall software and do a clean wipe of data if you want to.
Basically, there is laptop vs desktop and consumer vs professional grade, and you choose from those. Of course, you still have to keep track of generations. Apple products tend to hold their value well, partly because the hardware tends to be constructed solidly (in a literal sense), so as long as the user hasn’t completely whacked the thing, it preserves well. Apple prices also tend to stay constant right up to the next iteration, and they don’t seem to go down all that far when new versions come out.
As for prices, just look ar craigslist in cities like New York and San Francisco, and LA. These markets are fairly deep, and you can see what different specs are selling for at any particular time. After you’ve followed them for a little bit, you can hold out until you get a good deal.
Obviously, buying used involves some risk, but I’ve bought at least 5-10 machines of various types used over the last decade (computers, PDAs, phones, etc) and have never come across a true lemon (touching wood).
April 25th, 2011 at 6:11 pm
Starting religious wars again, Barry?
The numbers clearly don’t add up. Despite growth of Mac users always touted by Apple, they still are less than 5% of computer users, i.e. about 50 million out of a billion pc users. Yet they made up 25% of the survey. Not statistically nice. You are bound to have a different demographic if you take the few percent who can/are williong to pay for expensive machines v. the other 95%, but I don’t know that this survey captures it.
The answer that’s really puzzling is the one about how Mac users are more likely to see people as similar. If there was ever a group that drew distinctions between people…. They are even worse than the Linux guys :)
BTW, looks like MSFT is really on the way out:
http://www.winsupersite.com/article/paul-thurrotts-wininfo/microsoft-sells-350-million-copies-windows-7-18-months-135955
It’s an interesting article on the history of MSFT’s OS sales throught the past decade and debunks some of the myth of XP as being an instant hit when it really started out badly. I remember not adopting it until early 2005 because of it’s early problems. Win 2000 was a lot simpler and more stable.
BTW, Barry, what did you ever do about a workstation?
April 25th, 2011 at 6:35 pm
It’s not a statistical problem that 25% of the survey is Mac, as long as you are not mixing the two samples to make inferences about the combined population (even then, you can weight the samples). As long as you are comparing these populations against each other and not pooling the data, you can use this data without trouble.
The two big issues would be 1) if the populations are representative of Mac users and Windows users separately, and 2) some of the differences might not be statistically significant (though I assume that they’d check that before bothering to publish).
April 25th, 2011 at 6:39 pm
OK, your kid wants a computer, well, since she’s only three years old, it’s a ‘puter which scares you because that’s what you called your Commodore way back when.
Since you’re 60 years old, on your second marriage, and finally have the kid of your dreams, what ‘puter do you buy? Why, it’s an Apple, of course. So you get the $2500 laptop Mac something or other. She giggles.
15 years later you’re dead and she’s pumpin’ away at that thing everyone’s hated since the dark ages. The friggin’ cellphone (or whatever it’s called) which is voice activated, brain controlled, vision directed, eats your homework, has your babies for you (no scars) and teaches you Latin in your sleep.
The curve is not even a curve anymore. I don’t know the shape but I’m not sure anyone else does.
April 25th, 2011 at 7:09 pm
I would suspect that many people are simply issued a PC of some sort by their employer.
Does this mean they have to change their education, intelligence, and political leanings?
Interesting repercussions, this.
April 25th, 2011 at 7:10 pm
p.s. I’ve have (or had) at one time or another almost literally one of everything, including four IBM mainframes. In hindsight, God knows why.
April 25th, 2011 at 7:15 pm
What’s this “hunch” thing anyway? Isn’t this yet another self-selecting survey?
April 25th, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Bruman: Checking before publishing an article like that? You gottat be kidding.
April 25th, 2011 at 7:25 pm
I’m a PC, you like to waste money.
April 25th, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Based on personal experience, Mac users are also more likely to be left-handed. Make of that what you will…
April 25th, 2011 at 7:34 pm
Livermore Shimervore@5.29.
Good commentary there…that was somewhat lucid.
April 25th, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Hackintosh people rule!
They have a left and a right brain, build their own Macs from cheap and dead reliable parts and run a cheap and dead reliable OS.
April 25th, 2011 at 8:19 pm
hypno – I’m a lefty and not. All that I know are righties. It may have been true for the early Mac users to want to be different. Now thinking different is being part of the borg.
April 25th, 2011 at 8:31 pm
I am a member of the KKK and I use a Mac and an I phone, I am a left wing member of the KKK however.
April 25th, 2011 at 8:50 pm
As I pondered the next machine that I would use in my business, I recall that
the network computer ideas of Larry Ellison & Scott McNealy really seemed to
be ahead of their times. With cloud storage and cross reading OS systems, it
seems like a logical progression at this time. What else do I need except a
machine that runs and can do what I point to? Why do we really need an OS
for most of the common man operations?
April 25th, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Linux is the future. As programming becomes more widespread more open source programs will be created and more people will be willing to go for more aggressive innovation. Moreover, because of new platforms (netbooks and mobile devices) with different OS, Windows and Mac will lose their “standard” status and users will become more accustomed to try new OS, this will lower entry barriers. Finally, because processing power is reaching a limit (at least as far as the classical microprocessor is concerned), OS will not be able to grow by gobling additional hardware ressources, and thus the way to grow is to lighter, more simple OS, such as Linux. Last, but not least, since the future is in the cloud, the key to compatibility is in browsers, more than OS, again reducing the competitive advantage of standard OS. So enjoy the religion war while it last, because the future is agnostic.
April 25th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
Dam-outed by wine preferences, yep love the reds, but I don’t mind Pinot Grigio. Zinfandel? Clearly a PC thing…..
April 25th, 2011 at 10:06 pm
It is probably a demographic of higher income people having the choice to choose a mac, you need a bit more disposable income, because not only do you want to buy a Mac, you want the 3 year protection plan.
So, if you can’t afford an extra dollar in cost, you’re not going to buy a Mac.
However, if you do, you do get a better more reliable machine, with none of the standard windows glitches.
Before I owned a mac, I had 5 PC’s and not one of them went into hibernate mode successfully. I’m on my third mac and it’s never had a hibernate glitch. It seems to me PC manufacturer are down spec’ing hard drive reliability and other components to save a buck, thinking the typical consumer will only use his laptop for say 1000 hours. I’ve not seen evidence Apple is going down that road.
Plus, I’m constantly scanning my machine for a virus or trojan, nothing.
A friend of mine was looking at an HP quad processor laptop, but then, he read the user comments.
April 26th, 2011 at 12:02 am
arogersb – you had me until Last, but not least, since the future is in the cloud, the key to compatibility is in browsers,
Browsers are dying. Everything is moving to apps.
BR – get off your butt and have an app made for the site! ;-)
April 26th, 2011 at 1:12 am
@JimRino
A curious theory, the actual componentry between PC’s and Macs have never been more similar. ie. Intel, nVidia and the various RAM and HDD suppliers.
April 26th, 2011 at 8:51 am
Well, since I like computers, but-not-Microsoft-no-thank-you, and I’m too cheap for Macs, I became Linux full time 4 years ago both at home and at work. Never looked back, and fittingly enough, this survey has got me right on both sides 50-50.
April 26th, 2011 at 8:52 am
Move it to the cloud, let someone else control your data, bigger cluster f^*k than MERS.
April 26th, 2011 at 11:49 am
Mac users tend to buy Macs because they are chasing a shared self image they want to project. PC users buy a PC simply to run software.
PS – I’ve only ever bought 1 desktop PC, a Dell, all the rest I’ve ever had I built from scratch to my liking from whatever components I wanted to use.
April 26th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
I suspect it is just a matter of what you have to most time and money invested in. I bought a copy of MS Office long ago, and learned MS Access. The new version of Access might be better, but I have no need for it: The version I have works fine.
The same argument holds for operating systems.
April 27th, 2011 at 5:42 am
I have a feeling that the only people pushing this useless bit of nonsense from Hunch are the Mac folks who like to see themselves as somehow superior people because they use a Mac.
There is no real information to be gleaned from this survey. It’s simply not a valid sample of anything.
April 27th, 2011 at 9:08 am
idaman you are now some great drugs 90% of air maybe,Bruman, i work with both also and for someone who lives by the dell credo of early replacement then fine, but i still have a very large group of customers who are still running win xp and will not be changing until it blows up, and guess what they run fine.Bruman, as for the value thing it is still driven from false ideals, the OLD macs did have different guts but that it is true anymore, for about 6 to 8 years the guts are the same, as for a remount or redo i find both the same. Jack what are you trying to say?Thomaspin and the world is square on tuesday.arogersb people for now about 20 years have been trying to get people to believe this, when i was in computer school some students went through this issue and guess why windows won, the core of any of the OS’s is not that much different, it is only after all the goodies most people what are added dose it grow in size, and for all the people who are jumping on the band wagon about the cloud why do you not look at what happen to amazon and ask all the people who are jumping off the cloud now.JimRino, and so what happen to the hp quad (using one now) and what about all the people lined up at the apple store every day whit there machines, i have had many of my mac customers get a virus on their mac and take it into apple service only to get a call to come back and purchase a new computer because it will be too EXPENSIVE to fix!Thor apps will not be the end all because there are too many that are not reliable or updated enough to keep people happy if they need to app every day!
This issue will keep the blog world going and going it is like the fit over (ford or Chevy) people will fight for what they think is the only way to go, as for the pc or mac issue to me it is just VALUE and mac does not have it, they both have good and bad points but money should always win!