71% of students own or would prefer a Mac, claims survey

This topic, and its origin (Apple), reminds me of an article posted here a couple of years ago, the topic of which, what takes better pictures, a DSLR or an iPhone.

Apple skewed the results in their favor with methods patently transparent to me, but perhaps not so much to the general public.

The one standout example was a photo taken by a DSLR, of a bleak fall or winter day in a warehouse district, versus a portrait situation taken in warm light, in an indoor situation.

They them proceeded to ask, "which is the better picture."?

I deemed it immediately as an asinine comparison, based on emotional impact, as opposed to technical merit.

Basically, they were constructing the parameters of the study, to conform to the answer they wanted the participants to produce.

(I honestly wish someone here on staff could remember this thread, as I was unable to google its location or its existence. (I'm bad with names as well)).

My point being asking students which brand of device they would prefer, is tantamount to asking them, "which brand do you think is hipper"?

If any demographic is status conscious, it's college students, and I would venture a guess that their answers were largely based on how much, "street cred" they would gain by haveing an Apple device, as opposed to other brands.

In this case, Apple managed to word the survey in such a way, as to elicit the answers they wanted to hear.
 
Apple didn't conduct this survey.
My bad. I'm bad with names too, as I mentioned earlier.

It still seems predicated on a lot of the "hip factor", that Apple has managed to establish for itself

I'm going to stick with this part of my comment:
My point being asking students which brand of device they would prefer, is tantamount to asking them, "which brand do you think is hipper"?

If any demographic is status conscious, it's college students, and I would venture a guess that their answers were largely based on how much, "street cred" they would gain by having an Apple device, as opposed to other brands....[ ].....
That's based on my own son's behavior regarding a problematic Apple mini. The thing blew its HDD early in its career, He lost his receipts for the device and extended warranty. I gave him a windows desktop. He went right back out and bought another Mini, first chance he got.

His decision was, (IMO, of course), seemingly mindless, based on nothing more than brand recognition. He had just graduated college at the time.

I realize that's an awfully small sample to base such a strong opinion on, but I'm sticking with it. The reasoning being I assume he was representative of his peer group.

The Mini's speed at accessing the web always did astound me. But then, I had 1 Meg DSL at the time, (@$14.95 mo.) and he Comcast @ @$70.00 mo.

I do so wish someone could reference that photo comparison farce. The only conclusion I was able to draw from it was, "photos all look alike @ 4" x 6" ".
 
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Ha, I wouldnt use Crapple, what a joke, but got to love all of those people who are backwards and need the click icons reversed or like too many need their iPoop to tell them when to poop, guess they want that in a junky laptop.
 
Crummy reasons really. The conclusions in this article are also misleading. It's like saying "drives Honda prefers BMW" well duh. Most students would prefer looking hip and trendy with a slim yet expensive (read overpriced) laptop.

After all virtually any modern portable computer will suffice in achieving the requirements of a student. So they buy what they can afford merely as a status symbol.
 
Right, and I just conducted a one person study that evanescence is in fact the best band in the word. According to you, can't argue with facts. Fact is, who they asked and the methodology is the most important part. Are their questions inviting bias? Are they giving participants bias by revealing certain details? Is it a blind study or a double blind study? Given the company in question did have a vested interest, if it wasn't a double blind then the methodology is tainted and the results worthless. You can make a survey like this say anything you want by manipulating those variables.

So no, data collected incorrectly is garbage and most certainly not fact.

No need to be rude. And there's no need to lecture me on research methods, I'm well versed in them myself and I'm well aware that I was giving a subjective observation.

I'll ask you one question though - have you been to a university lecture lately and looked at what computers people are using? No really, have you though? Because if you did, you'd soon see that these figures are not ridiculous at all.

Ignore this study for a moment, and just look around you. Look at the laptops students are using. That's literally all you need to do. All I'm saying is that based on what I observe (at the university where I work), it's quite likely that their findings are accurate. There may be plenty to criticize about the survey itself, but I do still think they obtained data that is reflective of what students are using today.

Your approach seems to be this: "unless the research method meets ALL of my requirements I can disregard the study entirely", when in actual fact there is some truth here. By all means feel free to conduct a study of your own if you dispute the findings, I'd be genuinely pleased if someone found that more students were using Windows machines than Mac.
 
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No need to be rude. And there's no need to lecture me on research methods, I'm well versed in them myself and I'm well aware that I was giving a subjective observation.

I'll ask you one question though - have you been to a university lecture lately and looked at what computers people are using? No really, have you though? Because if you did, you'd soon see that these figures are not ridiculous at all.

Ignore this study for a moment, and just look around you. Look at the laptops students are using. That's literally all you need to do. All I'm saying is that based on what I observe (at the university where I work), it's quite likely that their findings are accurate. There may be plenty to criticize about the survey itself, but I do still think they obtained data that is reflective of what students are using today.

Your approach seems to be this: "unless the research method meets ALL of my requirements I can disregard the study entirely", when in actual fact there is some truth here. By all means feel free to conduct a study of your own if you dispute the findings, I'd be genuinely pleased if someone found that more students were using Windows machines than Mac.

You are well versed in research methods? No, clearly not. You don't even realize that you are boosting a very misleading survey based on subjective opinion by your own admittance.

The only thing this tells me is that you are willing to completely commit to anything that confirms even a single observation you have made, even if that observation doesn't represent the whole.

FYI those requirements aren't ones I had laid down, they are ones that are to be followed during any survey if the results are to be accurate. Or are you fine with getting inaccurate data as well so long as it agrees with your prejudices?
 
I’d rather have a MacBook than a windows machine because I prefer the OS and they offer the most colour accurate screens, especially for the money. For photographers they are second to none. The quality of Apple devices is outstanding, I don’t understand how people can say they are badly made. I’d you love tech then you’ll love a Apple product.

Not really, you will mostly use external screens that of NEC, DELL or LG. Again no one is saying they are badly made but have their own issues like heat. They are great laptops, but if you don't need to be on the move a lot and have an office, it makes 0 sense to get a Mac unless you like to eco system/OS, which is just matter of preference.
 
You are well versed in research methods? No, clearly not. You don't even realize that you are boosting a very misleading survey based on subjective opinion by your own admittance.

The only thing this tells me is that you are willing to completely commit to anything that confirms even a single observation you have made, even if that observation doesn't represent the whole.

FYI those requirements aren't ones I had laid down, they are ones that are to be followed during any survey if the results are to be accurate. Or are you fine with getting inaccurate data as well so long as it agrees with your prejudices?

Didn't even answer my question, so I guess we're done here. You sound like an extraordinarily rude person. Conduct your own research if that will make you happy.
 
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Didn't even answer my question, so I guess we're done here. You sound like an extraordinarily rude person. Conduct your own research if that will make you happy.

No pointing in answering off topic questions that would only yield subjective answers.
Your question

"I'll ask you one question though - have you been to a university lecture lately and looked at what computers people are using?"

You are asking for a single observation and insinuating that said observation would be equal to or greater then verified data. No, any answer I provide would add nothing to the conversation and this was an attempt by you to derail the topic.

I do not think pointing out how you are misrepresenting the facts is rude at all.
 
Not really, you will mostly use external screens that of NEC, DELL or LG. Again no one is saying they are badly made but have their own issues like heat. They are great laptops, but if you don't need to be on the move a lot and have an office, it makes 0 sense to get a Mac unless you like to eco system/OS, which is just matter of preference.
I think I know my use case scenario better than you do! And unfortunate when I’m on a trip out to somewhere like Indonesia I don’t have the baggage allowance nor the space to carry an external screen.

In fact in over 10 years of wildlife photography I think I’ve only ever seen one person on of these trips using something that isn’t a Mac. You have to pay so much more for a windows machine to get a colour accurate screen and macs software is much better.

If you took up photography you would understand.
 
I think I know my use case scenario better than you do! And unfortunate when I’m on a trip out to somewhere like Indonesia I don’t have the baggage allowance nor the space to carry an external screen.

In fact in over 10 years of wildlife photography I think I’ve only ever seen one person on of these trips using something that isn’t a Mac. You have to pay so much more for a windows machine to get a colour accurate screen and macs software is much better.

If you took up photography you would understand.

If you are talking portability, sure, it just comes down to preference as BOTH top Apple and top Windows OEM products are pretty on-par with each other and comes down to performance/size of laptops. Smaller, thinner will suffer performance and throttling while the bigger portables will be heavier and less power efficient. Nothing new here.

The catalogue production and retouching industry usually uses third-party monitors and not native iMac/Macbook monitors at professional level. These are monitors that I listed and then some. While the picture quality of an Apple device is great, it is not the peak and certainly there are many additional requirements from a monitor which Apple does not have.

I am not saying you cannot use an Apple device. Sure you can use a Macbook/iMac but it certainly isn't requirement and definitely you are no better of either way (unless workflow requires something extra).

Where GPU/CPU is a valuable asset to your production workflow, you will simply not get that with Apple, it's just the way it is. At least not in a cost efficient manner (Blackmagic eGPU).

Your last point is moot. You are comparing laptops/all in ones to desktop PCs. I can easily get high quality laptops to compete against the Macbook.

A £4,000 Windows based machine is going to mop floor with the £4,000 kitted out Macbook or an iMac. But, again it depends on your usecase and how much of brand loyalty you have.

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Mac Software runs better? Care to elaborate. What's Mac Software, Logic/FCPX?
 
If you are talking portability, sure, it just comes down to preference as BOTH top Apple and top Windows OEM products are pretty on-par with each other and comes down to performance/size of laptops. Smaller, thinner will suffer performance and throttling while the bigger portables will be heavier and less power efficient. Nothing new here.

The catalogue production and retouching industry usually uses third-party monitors and not native iMac/Macbook monitors at professional level. These are monitors that I listed and then some. While the picture quality of an Apple device is great, it is not the peak and certainly there are many additional requirements from a monitor which Apple does not have.

I am not saying you cannot use an Apple device. Sure you can use a Macbook/iMac but it certainly isn't requirement and definitely you are no better of either way (unless workflow requires something extra).

Where GPU/CPU is a valuable asset to your production workflow, you will simply not get that with Apple, it's just the way it is. At least not in a cost efficient manner (Blackmagic eGPU).

Your last point is moot. You are comparing laptops/all in ones to desktop PCs. I can easily get high quality laptops to compete against the Macbook.

A £4,000 Windows based machine is going to mop floor with the £4,000 kitted out Macbook or an iMac. But, again it depends on your usecase and how much of brand loyalty you have.

PS:
Mac Software runs better? Care to elaborate. What's Mac Software, Logic/FCPX?
I disagree, there are several scenarios where Mac is better than windows and vice versa.

You seem to talk about specs a bit much. I don’t think you understand why those specs don’t matter to a lot of people. For my needs a 10 year old i3 has more than enough power in it. So when I buy a laptop I’m not fussed if I’m not getting the latest machine. I value the software and ergonomics far more. And for my needs Apple is way better than Windows.

Also you seem to keep ignoring the fact that Apple MacBooks in particular are incredibly good value for money if you need a colour accurate screen. You often pay considerably more than you would pay Apple for that privilege from most other manufacturers. You seem to have based the bad value argument completely on the spec of components in the MacBook. I bought my MacBook because it was the cheapest colour accurate screen on the market.

A £4000 MacBook will be better for some uses than a £4000 windows machine. It’s not going to always wipe the floor. In fact in some cases the Mac will wipe the floor with the windows machine.

I urge you to try and see past the raw specs and look at why intelligent people including tech enthusiasts do buy Apple products. Because I don’t think you can see why we do right now.
 
This is a gamer website so a lot of people get wrapped up in specs as it's pretty easy to bump up your CPU, GPU, and memory specs and see the numerical improvement in game FPS. In that scenario, the specs are a good proxy for how valuable the tool is for the job.

As you point out those specs are mostly useless from a photography perspective. That screen is actually most important and all other "valuable" specs are a distant second place.
 
This is a gamer website so a lot of people get wrapped up in specs as it's pretty easy to bump up your CPU, GPU, and memory specs and see the numerical improvement in game FPS. In that scenario, the specs are a good proxy for how valuable the tool is for the job.

As you point out those specs are mostly useless from a photography perspective. That screen is actually most important and all other "valuable" specs are a distant second place.

They are certainly not useless. If you are an amateur sure. However, editing 8k+ resolution images, retouching them and or grading them can be quite taxing on the system. Often you have multiple programs opened up (Lightroom/Photoshop) with lot of containers/art boards.

So yes specs do matter. You might just prioritise different specs so instead of GPU you look at RAM/ssd/m.2/CPU etc.
 
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