by Apple Facts with Sources
Cost Efficiency:
The higher percentage of Macintosh computers, the lower the technical
support costs.
Gartner Group The study
--------------------------------------------------------------
When NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston switched from Mac to Windows,
help desk calls grew consistently from 68,000 calls to 142,000 in two years.
Ultimately, Congress decided the switchover violated the government's "open
procurement" law, but it was too late to switch back.
--------------------------------------------------------------
PC support costs are 8 times as high as Mac support.
(McDonnell Douglas Corp.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
PC support costs are 4 times higher than Mac.
(Gartner Group)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Numerous case studies from The Aberdeen Group, a Boston-based consultancy,
have shown that companies migrating to Windows NT suffer greatly increased
costs and user dissatisfaction.
(Michael Kucsak, Information Systems
Coordinator)
Gartner Group's study on dual platfrom
support.
Gistic Group's study on platforms
-------------------------------------------------------------
Mac OS X Server outperforms both Windows NT and Sun servers at all tested
load volumes; for 100 users, the Mac served over 3 times more pages than the
Sun (using a Solaris server), and over 7 times the NT (using a Pentium III
server).
(NewMedia, 6/99)
------------------------------------------------------------
Industry Use:
In a 1999 study by Roher Public Relations, at Least 70% of respondents in
each category (print and on-line consumer magazines, trade magazines and
daily newspapers) want to receive disks readable on Macintosh. Fewer than 5%
of all respondents said Windows PC disks were their first choice.
In a nationwide survey of 22,000 creative firms, 77% of them plan to purchase
additional Macintosh computers in 1999, outselling both Windows and Windows
NT by an astounding margin of over 3 to 1. The research company stated,
"Apple continues to dominate the creative and scientific markets."
TrendWatch 1999 Creative Atlas Guide
Apple's market share in video editing is at least 58%.
(MSNBC, 6/97; the most popular digital film editing system in Hollywood is
the Avid, which is a souped-up Mac.)
An estimated 80% of all professional music production involves an Apple
computer. (MSNBC, 6/97)
72% of the alumni of Rochester Institute of Technology - arguably the world's
oldest (1830s), largest and best school of photography and printing in the
world - own Macs.
("Contact Sheet", the RIT alumni news
letter)
Among U.S.-based professional website design firms, 64% of all sites are
created using the Mac OS, more than any other platform.
(thessaSOURCE, 1997)
63% of all multimedia applications development is done on Macintosh, per
Dataquest
A Westinghouse study showed that engineers doing design work are about twice
as productive using Macintosh as those using a PC.(Westinghouse, 1992)
Mac users are 50% more accurate and 44% more productive than Wintel users.
A.D. Little
The report
The Software Publishers Association "Ultimate Mac vs. Windows Challenge"
pitted a senior technical editor from Windows Sources magazine and his
assistant against a 10-year-old Mac user. In a series of real world tests
(assembling the computer, connecting a printer and a Zip drive, connecting to
the Internet, etc.) the youngster finished in HALF the time taken by his
adult opponents.
"Market acceptance non-withstanding, Windows is far, far behind the Macintosh
in technical performance, and in the capability to allow users to perform
their jobs."
(Computer Reseller News, 1998)
US News and World Report: "From a software publisher's point of view,
releasing a Macintosh version makes good business sense. Production costs for
Mac software are lower than those for Windows titles; less testing is
required because there is a single standard for Mac hardware and software.
And Macintosh owners buy 30 percent more software than their Windows
counterparts, probably because they find more time to use it and less time
getting it to work right."
Macintosh software comprises over 18% of all software sold, and 32% of all
Microsoft software sold, even though their hardware market is half that.
Macintosh users actually use more applications than Windows users, citing
ease of installation of Mac applications as one of the reasons.
(Software and Information Industry
Association, 1999)
79% of all Macintosh computers ever shipped are still in use.
(Apple Computer, 1999)
Education:
As of 3/18/99, Apple continues to lead in K-12 computer purchases (64%).
Apple ranked number one brand in education study July 12, 1999, 1:45pm ET
(Gartner Group)
Other Universities:
In 1997, Yale University's University Director of Information Technology,
Daniel Updegrove, attempted to make the same bad decision U.T.'s
administration is currently making. It didn't work. (Business Week : Yale
reverses decision, 1997)
University of Michigan -- Fortunately, enlightenment still prevails at most
schools. "It is not in the interests of a leading institution to dictate
computing platform, we will continue to support the Macintosh platform in a
big way," says Jose-Marie Griffiths (Updegrove's equivalent at the University
of Michigan). "To limit choice of selection limits opportunity, limits
student capacity and, ultimately, limits achievement."
Miami University School of Education and Allied Professions' answer to the
multigenerational technology challenges was nearly 100 new Macintosh
computers (52 iMac computers and 43 Power Macintosh G3 systems) on faculty
and staff desktops. All administrative and support personnel and a majority
of the full-time faculty have a new iMac or Power Macintosh G3. All other
faculty have received an upgrade to their computing capacity through
reallocation of recent generation computers.
Everyone in a faculty or staff position in the School is working from a Power
Macintosh platform~a reduction from six platforms (five PC) and eight hardware
generations to three on the Macintosh platform.
Cost Effective, Reliable Solution for Administrative System Access:
By combining the WinFrame client with the speed of the Macintosh G3
processor, Dr. Perry states, "a cost-effective and reliable solution was
achieved that provides School of Education and Allied Professions faculty and
staff with universal access and exceptional performance for accessing the
SCT/Banner 2000 systems."
The Rochester Institute of Technology in New York State. Adjunct teacher
Marcus Conge says RIT has dumped all of their DOS machines throughout the
administrative section of the school, such as the Bursars Office, in favor of
switching to the Mac. They run the database for the whole school on Macs. All
figured, Conge says the school has over 500 Power Macs. "The Art and Design
school just made its biggest purchase last year filling the school with
Macs," he adds. "These are all tied together on the campus network and the
Internet as well."
UT Austin. Over 70% of the installed computer base here is still Mac. And the
school has no plans to abandon them in the future either, in fact they are
adding. The University Health Services uses Macs in about 90% of its day to
day operations.
East Carolina University. This is an all-Mac school; even all but one of the
office staff uses a Mac. There are two computer labs (36 Mac stations total)
and almost all of the 65-member music faculty have Mac systems. The main MIDI
lab of 18 computers will be upgraded to all G3 systems over the summer. The
university has a faculty workstation program that allows upgrades every three
years, and faculty have a choice of a Mac or PC system. The School you work
in usually determines the platform you choose. The School of Art, Music,
Theatre/Dance, Physics, and English all use Power Macs. The School of
Education is about half and half Macs and PCs. Even the business school has
mostly Mac systems in their labs.
The University of Wisconsin, Madison. The Mac is thriving here, although what
had formerly been an all-Mac computer lab two years ago is now about 75% Mac.
Macs (6500s) are used in the school's New Media Center along with one Intel
machine (running NT server for cross platform purposes), and the University's
DoIT (Dept. of Information Tech.) center is very pro-Mac. An average stroll
around campus might reveal a 60:40 Mac/Wintel split.
Vassar College. Vassar is still recommending Macs as the computer of choice
on campus. Until recently, the school was exclusively Mac, but with Ethernet
having been installed, it's now possible for the "Wintel side" to connect to
the network. Still, most computers on this campus are Macs, and computer
labs are all-Macintosh, with a small amount of PCs (under 20) in the printing
room.
NYU School of Medicine. This school is about 80% Mac and has been mostly Mac
for several years. Most of the administration has switched to the Mac though
there are people who use PCs, SGI systems, and workstations, as well.
Cornell University's Medical School. The medical school is in New York city
and is about 90% Mac. The med students have a state of the art teaching
facility with 160 Macs. The entire curriculum is Mac-based and the
administration uses Macs.
Percentages
Sales of MacOS computers (including Macintosh clones) grew 61% during 1996.
The MacOS took market share away from Intel-based PCs, whose sales dropped by
5%. And this was when the press was shouting that Apple was dead.
(Computer Intelligence, March 1997)
Apple Computer's software subsidiary Claris Corp. reported record sales for
Q4 97 ^ up 61%, and 1997 as a whole - up 19%.
Apple Computer has now grown for seven successive quarters at an average rate
of 29% at a time when the industry average has been only 11.9% and when
Compaq Computer and Gateway have reported serious life-threatening losses,
and Dell Computer has reported slight growth.
(Gartner Group)
More than 57% of Web sites that use video use QuickTime [to deliver it].
(Apple Computer)
On average, the cost to develop and support Windows applications is 50%
higher per dollar of revenue than the cost to develop for Macintosh.
(Software and Information Industry Association)
Half of the families in Family PC magazine's "95 days with Windows 95" gave
up. They were "upset over its hardware requirements, frustrated by its slow
operation, or just plain fed up with compatibility problems."
(ZDNet)
Adobe had a 42% increase in Macintosh application sales in Q3 97.
(InformationWeek Daily)
20% of all the personal computers in use today are Macs.
(Mpls Star Tribune, 5/11/98)
Apple computers account for 15% of CompUSA's CPU sales.
(From the WWDC Keynote Speech by Steve Jobs, 11 May 98)
According to independent research firm PC Data, Apple's marketshare has
doubled in the past 12 months and is now up to 11.3%. Quotes in the popular
press only cite Apple,s ,retail0/00 sales which is at 5% up from 2.3% in 1997.
(Retail and mail order sales, fiscal 1999 Q2).
Position
Apple was the best performing computer stock in 1998, just had its seventh
profitable quarter in a row, and is currently (7/7/99) at a four-year high.
Apple Computer's market share is greater than that of Sony televisions, Tag
Heuer watches, and the COMBINED shares of ALL European passenger cars sold in
the U.S., including Mercedes, BMW, Volvo, Jaguar, and Porsche.
(Appliance Manufacturer & Market DataBook of Automotive News, June 1998)
The Apple iMac is the best-selling computer in CompUSA's 13-year history, and
it is outselling PC,s 4 to 1 worldwide.
Apple Computer's sales volume figures from January 1998 through May 1999
were higher than Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.
(Don Crabb, Abbott Systems column)
Apple Computer holds more than twice as many computing patents than does
Microsoft.
Apple is the #1 computer company in Australia and in Sweden.
(IDC)
Consumer Reports rated the Macintosh #1 in Performance & Reliability, #1 in
Customer Satisfaction, and #1 in Fewest Repairs.
(Sept. 1997)
The higher percentage of Macintosh computers, the lower the technical support
costs.
(Gartner Group)
Negative feelings towards computers are much higher in PC users, and positive
feelings about computers are much higher in Mac users.
(Robert Sharl Consultancy, 1997)
There are just as many Macintosh users as users of Windows 95, and there are
twice as many Macintosh users as users of Windows 98.
(Microsoft. In the court appearance arguing against monopoly
status, 5/98)
The 300MHz G3 PowerMac delivers better graphics performance than a 400MHz
Pentium II, and matches the performance of the latest Pentium III system.
(PC Week)
A Westinghouse study showed that engineers doing design work are about twice
as productive using Macintosh as those using a PC.
The iMac was the #3 selling desktop worldwide in May 1999.
(PC Data)
As of March 1999, Apple Computer is the third largest manufacturer of
computers in the world. The fourth is IBM.
Forbes Magazine recently placed Apple Computer fourth on its list of "most
dynamic companies".
When you take the Fortune 500 and rank them based on shareholder return in
the past 12 months, Apple is number 5.
(News article re: Barron's 500)
Apple is ranked #223 on the Fortune 500 list, ahead of Upjohn, Hilton Hotels,
General Mills and Bethlehem Steel.
And finally, an important point to remember when discussing market share:
Just because market share drops doesn't mean that people are leaving the
system.
First, the industry's overall growth could have been outpacing Apple's
increasing sales. In the past six months the opposite has held true, and
Apple share has doubled, while everyone else,s share has tanked. Are we to
thus assume that Wintel is now on its deathbed?
Secondly, Macs are viable longer than Wintel machines (79% of all of them are
still being used), so while Windows users are forced by program sizes and
incompatible operating systems, to upgrade their equipment much faster than
Mac users, Mac users are reaping the benefits of a smart buy. On a per
operating system basis: There are more Win 3.1 users than Mac users. There
are the same Win 95 users as Mac users. There are less Win 98 and Win NT
users than Mac users. These are quotes directly from Microsoft. If Windows is
so great, then why aren,t more of its users quickly upgrading to the latest
and greatest software? Could it be that these upgrades on Wintel mean an
entirely new system (hardware and software)? While on the Mac it has been
just a change of operating system ^ that all the applications continue to run
smoothly, lessening the overall upgrade costs?
Thirdly, the Apple Computer and the Macintosh operating system and most
applications written for the Mac are Y2K compliant out-of-the box. Mac users
don,t have to waste time and money becoming compliant. If student,s tap into
the school,s network with a Macintosh, they aren,t going to bring down the
whole system due to a single transfer of a non-compliant document. Microsoft
actually warns of such things happening.
Dollars
Legal liability damages resulting from the Y2K fiasco could reach $1
trillion.
Spending on systems integration, professional services, and outsourcing to
address the Year 2000 ("Y2K") problem in computers will reach $280 billion
between 1997 and 2002.
(Killen & Associates, 1997)
The Macintosh OS has been able to handle 4-digit dates since its inception
in 1984 and will remain compliant throughout the fiasco (until the year
20300). The costs to make a pure Macintosh network Y2K compliant is $0
(zero)!
Apple Computer has a cash surplus of over $3 billion in 1999.
A Mac-using creative professional produces $26,441 more annual revenue and
$14,488 more net profit than a comparable Windows user. Mac-based
media-creation studios achieve payback on a new platform in 4.6 months, while
Windows NT takes over 12.5 months.
(GISTICS 1997 study of over 10,000 media-producing firms)
A business Mac user gets $24,000 more work done per year, his or her computer
is down 14% less, and it costs less to support than any other platform.
(Gartner Group)
An extensive survey of actual dual-platform costs collected from real
organizations in the US with a sample size in excess of 312,000 desktop
computers concluded that there are NO detectable extra support costs
associated with having both Macintosh AND Windows over and above having
Windows alone.
(Gartner Group)
Software developers make higher profits with Mac software than Windows
software. Average revenues per unit remain higher overall for Macintosh
software than for Windows applications.
(Reports from PCData and SIIA)
A private firm, VirTech Communications, set up a Mac server and offered
$15,000 to anyone who could gain unauthorized access. No one could ever. The
site was running for two years and had over 140,000 attacks.
(NY Times, 12 April 97)
A single NT server service call to Microsoft costs $195. A year of Apple
support costs $70.
Big Numbers
27.6 million Macintosh computers have been shipped worldwide since 1984, with
an average of 3.2 users per Mac, meaning there are 60 million Mac users
world-wide.
(Apple Computer, 1997)
Apple sold 800,000 iMacs in less than half a year, and 2 million in a single
year, making it one of the most successful computer launches ever. It is
continuing to break all sales records.
Motorola sold 50,000 MacOS computers in its first 7 weeks of existence, the
fastest initial sales figures ever for a computer company.
Power Computing sold over 100,000 MacOS computers in its first year, which is
more than Compaq, Dell, and Gateway did in their first years COMBINED. It
was the largest first-year sales of any computer maker in history. Had the
iMac been put on the market by a first-year company, it,s sales of 2 million
in its first year, would have been twenty times larger than that of Power
Computing. The iBook,s projected sales of 4 million in its first year, should
leave the iMac in the dust.
Other than Word macro viruses (which now number 8,000), there are over 20,000
PC viruses, yet only about 40 Mac ones.
Also, there is no Mac virus that can destroy your hardware. Some PC viruses
can
zero out the flash BIOS and render the computer totally inoperable.
There are over 32,000 Mac compatible products, up from only 12,000 one year
earlier.
(Apple Computer, August 1999)
Microsoft admitted on one of their own web pages that Windows NT 4.0 has more
than 10,000 bugs, and Windows 2000 has over 32,358 bugs reported so far.
(The page has since been removed.)
There are 1,889 Mac-only software titles.
In the business world, the industry standard for Windows systems is one
support technician for every 25 to 60 computers. By contrast, the standard
for Macintosh support is one person for every 100 to 200 machines.
Gulfstream, a company that manufactures jets, has 1 administrator for 450 Mac
workstations.
The average Wintel home user spends between 50 and 60 hours each year
troubleshooting their computer. The average Mac user spends less than 5
hours. (Gartner Group)
The Mac OS is available in over 35 different languages.
(Apple Computer)
A new Mac is sold every 9 seconds.
Strange But True!
The architectural firm that designed Bill Gates' $50 million residence,
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in Seattle, is a Mac shop, and Bill bought his mom a
new iMac, because he said it was too hard for her to understand computing and
the Mac is so much easier for a novice to use. Gates says his mom doesn,t
bother him so much with computing questions now.
The high-tech electronics inside Gates' mansion are Windows-based. The first
evening at home, his drop-from-the-ceiling bigscreen TV would not shut off --
Gates had to throw a blanket over it to get to sleep.
(Barbara Walters 20/20 interview)
Bill Gates uses Macintoshes on his desk at Microsoft headquarters.
Bill Gates couldn,t get Windows 95 to boot up at its official launch
celebration. He threw a tirade then asked jokingly if anyone had a Mac.
Bill Gates did not "invent" DOS, the operating system that begat Windows.
His company bought code called QDOS ("Quick and Dirty Operating System") from
the Seattle Television Company for $50,000 and polished it. They did this
AFTER they had cut a $2.3 million deal with IBM to deliver an operating
system for their personal computer line. Thus in two days with minimal
investment and a lot of luck Microsoft took off.
("The Six Serendipities of Microsoft")
Intel's advertising agency is an all-Apple shop with over 600 Macs used to
create ad content.
Bill Gates said that Microsoft is reviewing the error messages from the
perspective of users and has recently come to realize, "It's pretty shocking
how many there are and how cryptic they are."
(InfoWorld, a Windows PC-oriented magazine, 1999)
The Navy missile cruiser USS Yorktown suffered a crippling systems failure
when its Windows NT operating system tried to divide by zero. "Even a $3
calculator gives you a 'zero' and doesn't stop executing the next set of
instructions", said an engineer with the Atlantic Fleet Technical Support
Center. The ship ultimately had to be towed into the Naval base at Norfolk,
VA.
The "Shut Down" command in Windows is located in the "Start" menu.
Windows does not even perform such simple checks as verifying that there is
enough space on a volume before copying data to it. For example, if you tell
it to, Windows will begin copying your 900 MB hard drive onto your 1.4 MB
floppy disk.
PC World's "Best of '99" award for Best (PC) Operating System is... "NONE".
Microsoft can't even place in a field of one!
The setup routine for Windows 98 deliberately disables files used by
competitors' software and installs different versions of those files ("for
the use of Win98").
(ZDNet)
Despite continual complaints about security concerns, Microsoft uses Win98 to
keep track of PC owners without their knowledge. Inside every Win98 package
is a Wizard that creates a directory of all applications and their serial
numbers on the system, and reports these back to Microsoft on a cookie when
you connect to the Microsoft network, ask for technical support online, or
register your product electronically.
(ZD Net)
Just 6 weeks before its release, Bill Gates demonstrated Windows 98 at the
Comdex98 computer show in Chicago. As soon as his assistant plugged in a
scanner, Win98 crashed.
(C/Net)
An article in the British magazine ComputerActive reports that 47% of readers
say they now regret having upgraded from Windows95 to Windows98. In a similar
New York Times poll in July 1999 53% of the readers have indicated similar
regret (up 9% from a poll last year).
"Intel chairman Andy Grove, codeveloper of the 'Wintel' PC, has seen the
future of computing and it is a Macintosh." Andy Grove now uses an iMac at
both work and home for everything.
("Andy Grove Loves His iMac.", TIME Daily, 23 Sept 1998)
"Despite the advances made by Windows 95, a Mac is still easier to set up,
easier to learn, easier to use, easier to troubleshoot, easier to upgrade,
and easier to connect to the Internet."
(Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/6/97)
"(People ask me) 'There are many PCs that are less expensive than a Mac.
Isn't it smarter to buy the cheaper one?' You know, that same argument was
used to sell a lot of Yugos and Hyundais in the 1980s, but nobody was calling
for the death of Mercedes-Benz."
(Don Crabb)
When technology reporter Don Crabb visited the COMDEX '98 computer show, he
noticed that a substantial number of booths were running their Windows
product movies and slideshows on PowerMacs. "When I asked some of these
vendors why, the answer was always, 'Because we don't have much setup time
and little time to fix it if it crashes. So we run on a PowerMac and have
done with it.' In a half-dozen Pentium-based presentations I sat through,
the crash rate was a spectacularly bad five out of six."
(ZDNet Tech News)
Source: http://www.macintoshed.com/mac.html
Cost Efficiency:
The higher percentage of Macintosh computers, the lower the technical
support costs.
Gartner Group The study
--------------------------------------------------------------
When NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston switched from Mac to Windows,
help desk calls grew consistently from 68,000 calls to 142,000 in two years.
Ultimately, Congress decided the switchover violated the government's "open
procurement" law, but it was too late to switch back.
--------------------------------------------------------------
PC support costs are 8 times as high as Mac support.
(McDonnell Douglas Corp.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
PC support costs are 4 times higher than Mac.
(Gartner Group)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Numerous case studies from The Aberdeen Group, a Boston-based consultancy,
have shown that companies migrating to Windows NT suffer greatly increased
costs and user dissatisfaction.
(Michael Kucsak, Information Systems
Coordinator)
Gartner Group's study on dual platfrom
support.
Gistic Group's study on platforms
-------------------------------------------------------------
Mac OS X Server outperforms both Windows NT and Sun servers at all tested
load volumes; for 100 users, the Mac served over 3 times more pages than the
Sun (using a Solaris server), and over 7 times the NT (using a Pentium III
server).
(NewMedia, 6/99)
------------------------------------------------------------
Industry Use:
In a 1999 study by Roher Public Relations, at Least 70% of respondents in
each category (print and on-line consumer magazines, trade magazines and
daily newspapers) want to receive disks readable on Macintosh. Fewer than 5%
of all respondents said Windows PC disks were their first choice.
In a nationwide survey of 22,000 creative firms, 77% of them plan to purchase
additional Macintosh computers in 1999, outselling both Windows and Windows
NT by an astounding margin of over 3 to 1. The research company stated,
"Apple continues to dominate the creative and scientific markets."
TrendWatch 1999 Creative Atlas Guide
Apple's market share in video editing is at least 58%.
(MSNBC, 6/97; the most popular digital film editing system in Hollywood is
the Avid, which is a souped-up Mac.)
An estimated 80% of all professional music production involves an Apple
computer. (MSNBC, 6/97)
72% of the alumni of Rochester Institute of Technology - arguably the world's
oldest (1830s), largest and best school of photography and printing in the
world - own Macs.
("Contact Sheet", the RIT alumni news
letter)
Among U.S.-based professional website design firms, 64% of all sites are
created using the Mac OS, more than any other platform.
(thessaSOURCE, 1997)
63% of all multimedia applications development is done on Macintosh, per
Dataquest
A Westinghouse study showed that engineers doing design work are about twice
as productive using Macintosh as those using a PC.(Westinghouse, 1992)
Mac users are 50% more accurate and 44% more productive than Wintel users.
A.D. Little
The report
The Software Publishers Association "Ultimate Mac vs. Windows Challenge"
pitted a senior technical editor from Windows Sources magazine and his
assistant against a 10-year-old Mac user. In a series of real world tests
(assembling the computer, connecting a printer and a Zip drive, connecting to
the Internet, etc.) the youngster finished in HALF the time taken by his
adult opponents.
"Market acceptance non-withstanding, Windows is far, far behind the Macintosh
in technical performance, and in the capability to allow users to perform
their jobs."
(Computer Reseller News, 1998)
US News and World Report: "From a software publisher's point of view,
releasing a Macintosh version makes good business sense. Production costs for
Mac software are lower than those for Windows titles; less testing is
required because there is a single standard for Mac hardware and software.
And Macintosh owners buy 30 percent more software than their Windows
counterparts, probably because they find more time to use it and less time
getting it to work right."
Macintosh software comprises over 18% of all software sold, and 32% of all
Microsoft software sold, even though their hardware market is half that.
Macintosh users actually use more applications than Windows users, citing
ease of installation of Mac applications as one of the reasons.
(Software and Information Industry
Association, 1999)
79% of all Macintosh computers ever shipped are still in use.
(Apple Computer, 1999)
Education:
As of 3/18/99, Apple continues to lead in K-12 computer purchases (64%).
Apple ranked number one brand in education study July 12, 1999, 1:45pm ET
(Gartner Group)
Other Universities:
In 1997, Yale University's University Director of Information Technology,
Daniel Updegrove, attempted to make the same bad decision U.T.'s
administration is currently making. It didn't work. (Business Week : Yale
reverses decision, 1997)
University of Michigan -- Fortunately, enlightenment still prevails at most
schools. "It is not in the interests of a leading institution to dictate
computing platform, we will continue to support the Macintosh platform in a
big way," says Jose-Marie Griffiths (Updegrove's equivalent at the University
of Michigan). "To limit choice of selection limits opportunity, limits
student capacity and, ultimately, limits achievement."
Miami University School of Education and Allied Professions' answer to the
multigenerational technology challenges was nearly 100 new Macintosh
computers (52 iMac computers and 43 Power Macintosh G3 systems) on faculty
and staff desktops. All administrative and support personnel and a majority
of the full-time faculty have a new iMac or Power Macintosh G3. All other
faculty have received an upgrade to their computing capacity through
reallocation of recent generation computers.
Everyone in a faculty or staff position in the School is working from a Power
Macintosh platform~a reduction from six platforms (five PC) and eight hardware
generations to three on the Macintosh platform.
Cost Effective, Reliable Solution for Administrative System Access:
By combining the WinFrame client with the speed of the Macintosh G3
processor, Dr. Perry states, "a cost-effective and reliable solution was
achieved that provides School of Education and Allied Professions faculty and
staff with universal access and exceptional performance for accessing the
SCT/Banner 2000 systems."
The Rochester Institute of Technology in New York State. Adjunct teacher
Marcus Conge says RIT has dumped all of their DOS machines throughout the
administrative section of the school, such as the Bursars Office, in favor of
switching to the Mac. They run the database for the whole school on Macs. All
figured, Conge says the school has over 500 Power Macs. "The Art and Design
school just made its biggest purchase last year filling the school with
Macs," he adds. "These are all tied together on the campus network and the
Internet as well."
UT Austin. Over 70% of the installed computer base here is still Mac. And the
school has no plans to abandon them in the future either, in fact they are
adding. The University Health Services uses Macs in about 90% of its day to
day operations.
East Carolina University. This is an all-Mac school; even all but one of the
office staff uses a Mac. There are two computer labs (36 Mac stations total)
and almost all of the 65-member music faculty have Mac systems. The main MIDI
lab of 18 computers will be upgraded to all G3 systems over the summer. The
university has a faculty workstation program that allows upgrades every three
years, and faculty have a choice of a Mac or PC system. The School you work
in usually determines the platform you choose. The School of Art, Music,
Theatre/Dance, Physics, and English all use Power Macs. The School of
Education is about half and half Macs and PCs. Even the business school has
mostly Mac systems in their labs.
The University of Wisconsin, Madison. The Mac is thriving here, although what
had formerly been an all-Mac computer lab two years ago is now about 75% Mac.
Macs (6500s) are used in the school's New Media Center along with one Intel
machine (running NT server for cross platform purposes), and the University's
DoIT (Dept. of Information Tech.) center is very pro-Mac. An average stroll
around campus might reveal a 60:40 Mac/Wintel split.
Vassar College. Vassar is still recommending Macs as the computer of choice
on campus. Until recently, the school was exclusively Mac, but with Ethernet
having been installed, it's now possible for the "Wintel side" to connect to
the network. Still, most computers on this campus are Macs, and computer
labs are all-Macintosh, with a small amount of PCs (under 20) in the printing
room.
NYU School of Medicine. This school is about 80% Mac and has been mostly Mac
for several years. Most of the administration has switched to the Mac though
there are people who use PCs, SGI systems, and workstations, as well.
Cornell University's Medical School. The medical school is in New York city
and is about 90% Mac. The med students have a state of the art teaching
facility with 160 Macs. The entire curriculum is Mac-based and the
administration uses Macs.
Percentages
Sales of MacOS computers (including Macintosh clones) grew 61% during 1996.
The MacOS took market share away from Intel-based PCs, whose sales dropped by
5%. And this was when the press was shouting that Apple was dead.
(Computer Intelligence, March 1997)
Apple Computer's software subsidiary Claris Corp. reported record sales for
Q4 97 ^ up 61%, and 1997 as a whole - up 19%.
Apple Computer has now grown for seven successive quarters at an average rate
of 29% at a time when the industry average has been only 11.9% and when
Compaq Computer and Gateway have reported serious life-threatening losses,
and Dell Computer has reported slight growth.
(Gartner Group)
More than 57% of Web sites that use video use QuickTime [to deliver it].
(Apple Computer)
On average, the cost to develop and support Windows applications is 50%
higher per dollar of revenue than the cost to develop for Macintosh.
(Software and Information Industry Association)
Half of the families in Family PC magazine's "95 days with Windows 95" gave
up. They were "upset over its hardware requirements, frustrated by its slow
operation, or just plain fed up with compatibility problems."
(ZDNet)
Adobe had a 42% increase in Macintosh application sales in Q3 97.
(InformationWeek Daily)
20% of all the personal computers in use today are Macs.
(Mpls Star Tribune, 5/11/98)
Apple computers account for 15% of CompUSA's CPU sales.
(From the WWDC Keynote Speech by Steve Jobs, 11 May 98)
According to independent research firm PC Data, Apple's marketshare has
doubled in the past 12 months and is now up to 11.3%. Quotes in the popular
press only cite Apple,s ,retail0/00 sales which is at 5% up from 2.3% in 1997.
(Retail and mail order sales, fiscal 1999 Q2).
Position
Apple was the best performing computer stock in 1998, just had its seventh
profitable quarter in a row, and is currently (7/7/99) at a four-year high.
Apple Computer's market share is greater than that of Sony televisions, Tag
Heuer watches, and the COMBINED shares of ALL European passenger cars sold in
the U.S., including Mercedes, BMW, Volvo, Jaguar, and Porsche.
(Appliance Manufacturer & Market DataBook of Automotive News, June 1998)
The Apple iMac is the best-selling computer in CompUSA's 13-year history, and
it is outselling PC,s 4 to 1 worldwide.
Apple Computer's sales volume figures from January 1998 through May 1999
were higher than Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.
(Don Crabb, Abbott Systems column)
Apple Computer holds more than twice as many computing patents than does
Microsoft.
Apple is the #1 computer company in Australia and in Sweden.
(IDC)
Consumer Reports rated the Macintosh #1 in Performance & Reliability, #1 in
Customer Satisfaction, and #1 in Fewest Repairs.
(Sept. 1997)
The higher percentage of Macintosh computers, the lower the technical support
costs.
(Gartner Group)
Negative feelings towards computers are much higher in PC users, and positive
feelings about computers are much higher in Mac users.
(Robert Sharl Consultancy, 1997)
There are just as many Macintosh users as users of Windows 95, and there are
twice as many Macintosh users as users of Windows 98.
(Microsoft. In the court appearance arguing against monopoly
status, 5/98)
The 300MHz G3 PowerMac delivers better graphics performance than a 400MHz
Pentium II, and matches the performance of the latest Pentium III system.
(PC Week)
A Westinghouse study showed that engineers doing design work are about twice
as productive using Macintosh as those using a PC.
The iMac was the #3 selling desktop worldwide in May 1999.
(PC Data)
As of March 1999, Apple Computer is the third largest manufacturer of
computers in the world. The fourth is IBM.
Forbes Magazine recently placed Apple Computer fourth on its list of "most
dynamic companies".
When you take the Fortune 500 and rank them based on shareholder return in
the past 12 months, Apple is number 5.
(News article re: Barron's 500)
Apple is ranked #223 on the Fortune 500 list, ahead of Upjohn, Hilton Hotels,
General Mills and Bethlehem Steel.
And finally, an important point to remember when discussing market share:
Just because market share drops doesn't mean that people are leaving the
system.
First, the industry's overall growth could have been outpacing Apple's
increasing sales. In the past six months the opposite has held true, and
Apple share has doubled, while everyone else,s share has tanked. Are we to
thus assume that Wintel is now on its deathbed?
Secondly, Macs are viable longer than Wintel machines (79% of all of them are
still being used), so while Windows users are forced by program sizes and
incompatible operating systems, to upgrade their equipment much faster than
Mac users, Mac users are reaping the benefits of a smart buy. On a per
operating system basis: There are more Win 3.1 users than Mac users. There
are the same Win 95 users as Mac users. There are less Win 98 and Win NT
users than Mac users. These are quotes directly from Microsoft. If Windows is
so great, then why aren,t more of its users quickly upgrading to the latest
and greatest software? Could it be that these upgrades on Wintel mean an
entirely new system (hardware and software)? While on the Mac it has been
just a change of operating system ^ that all the applications continue to run
smoothly, lessening the overall upgrade costs?
Thirdly, the Apple Computer and the Macintosh operating system and most
applications written for the Mac are Y2K compliant out-of-the box. Mac users
don,t have to waste time and money becoming compliant. If student,s tap into
the school,s network with a Macintosh, they aren,t going to bring down the
whole system due to a single transfer of a non-compliant document. Microsoft
actually warns of such things happening.
Dollars
Legal liability damages resulting from the Y2K fiasco could reach $1
trillion.
Spending on systems integration, professional services, and outsourcing to
address the Year 2000 ("Y2K") problem in computers will reach $280 billion
between 1997 and 2002.
(Killen & Associates, 1997)
The Macintosh OS has been able to handle 4-digit dates since its inception
in 1984 and will remain compliant throughout the fiasco (until the year
20300). The costs to make a pure Macintosh network Y2K compliant is $0
(zero)!
Apple Computer has a cash surplus of over $3 billion in 1999.
A Mac-using creative professional produces $26,441 more annual revenue and
$14,488 more net profit than a comparable Windows user. Mac-based
media-creation studios achieve payback on a new platform in 4.6 months, while
Windows NT takes over 12.5 months.
(GISTICS 1997 study of over 10,000 media-producing firms)
A business Mac user gets $24,000 more work done per year, his or her computer
is down 14% less, and it costs less to support than any other platform.
(Gartner Group)
An extensive survey of actual dual-platform costs collected from real
organizations in the US with a sample size in excess of 312,000 desktop
computers concluded that there are NO detectable extra support costs
associated with having both Macintosh AND Windows over and above having
Windows alone.
(Gartner Group)
Software developers make higher profits with Mac software than Windows
software. Average revenues per unit remain higher overall for Macintosh
software than for Windows applications.
(Reports from PCData and SIIA)
A private firm, VirTech Communications, set up a Mac server and offered
$15,000 to anyone who could gain unauthorized access. No one could ever. The
site was running for two years and had over 140,000 attacks.
(NY Times, 12 April 97)
A single NT server service call to Microsoft costs $195. A year of Apple
support costs $70.
Big Numbers
27.6 million Macintosh computers have been shipped worldwide since 1984, with
an average of 3.2 users per Mac, meaning there are 60 million Mac users
world-wide.
(Apple Computer, 1997)
Apple sold 800,000 iMacs in less than half a year, and 2 million in a single
year, making it one of the most successful computer launches ever. It is
continuing to break all sales records.
Motorola sold 50,000 MacOS computers in its first 7 weeks of existence, the
fastest initial sales figures ever for a computer company.
Power Computing sold over 100,000 MacOS computers in its first year, which is
more than Compaq, Dell, and Gateway did in their first years COMBINED. It
was the largest first-year sales of any computer maker in history. Had the
iMac been put on the market by a first-year company, it,s sales of 2 million
in its first year, would have been twenty times larger than that of Power
Computing. The iBook,s projected sales of 4 million in its first year, should
leave the iMac in the dust.
Other than Word macro viruses (which now number 8,000), there are over 20,000
PC viruses, yet only about 40 Mac ones.
Also, there is no Mac virus that can destroy your hardware. Some PC viruses
can
zero out the flash BIOS and render the computer totally inoperable.
There are over 32,000 Mac compatible products, up from only 12,000 one year
earlier.
(Apple Computer, August 1999)
Microsoft admitted on one of their own web pages that Windows NT 4.0 has more
than 10,000 bugs, and Windows 2000 has over 32,358 bugs reported so far.
(The page has since been removed.)
There are 1,889 Mac-only software titles.
In the business world, the industry standard for Windows systems is one
support technician for every 25 to 60 computers. By contrast, the standard
for Macintosh support is one person for every 100 to 200 machines.
Gulfstream, a company that manufactures jets, has 1 administrator for 450 Mac
workstations.
The average Wintel home user spends between 50 and 60 hours each year
troubleshooting their computer. The average Mac user spends less than 5
hours. (Gartner Group)
The Mac OS is available in over 35 different languages.
(Apple Computer)
A new Mac is sold every 9 seconds.
Strange But True!
The architectural firm that designed Bill Gates' $50 million residence,
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in Seattle, is a Mac shop, and Bill bought his mom a
new iMac, because he said it was too hard for her to understand computing and
the Mac is so much easier for a novice to use. Gates says his mom doesn,t
bother him so much with computing questions now.
The high-tech electronics inside Gates' mansion are Windows-based. The first
evening at home, his drop-from-the-ceiling bigscreen TV would not shut off --
Gates had to throw a blanket over it to get to sleep.
(Barbara Walters 20/20 interview)
Bill Gates uses Macintoshes on his desk at Microsoft headquarters.
Bill Gates couldn,t get Windows 95 to boot up at its official launch
celebration. He threw a tirade then asked jokingly if anyone had a Mac.
Bill Gates did not "invent" DOS, the operating system that begat Windows.
His company bought code called QDOS ("Quick and Dirty Operating System") from
the Seattle Television Company for $50,000 and polished it. They did this
AFTER they had cut a $2.3 million deal with IBM to deliver an operating
system for their personal computer line. Thus in two days with minimal
investment and a lot of luck Microsoft took off.
("The Six Serendipities of Microsoft")
Intel's advertising agency is an all-Apple shop with over 600 Macs used to
create ad content.
Bill Gates said that Microsoft is reviewing the error messages from the
perspective of users and has recently come to realize, "It's pretty shocking
how many there are and how cryptic they are."
(InfoWorld, a Windows PC-oriented magazine, 1999)
The Navy missile cruiser USS Yorktown suffered a crippling systems failure
when its Windows NT operating system tried to divide by zero. "Even a $3
calculator gives you a 'zero' and doesn't stop executing the next set of
instructions", said an engineer with the Atlantic Fleet Technical Support
Center. The ship ultimately had to be towed into the Naval base at Norfolk,
VA.
The "Shut Down" command in Windows is located in the "Start" menu.
Windows does not even perform such simple checks as verifying that there is
enough space on a volume before copying data to it. For example, if you tell
it to, Windows will begin copying your 900 MB hard drive onto your 1.4 MB
floppy disk.
PC World's "Best of '99" award for Best (PC) Operating System is... "NONE".
Microsoft can't even place in a field of one!
The setup routine for Windows 98 deliberately disables files used by
competitors' software and installs different versions of those files ("for
the use of Win98").
(ZDNet)
Despite continual complaints about security concerns, Microsoft uses Win98 to
keep track of PC owners without their knowledge. Inside every Win98 package
is a Wizard that creates a directory of all applications and their serial
numbers on the system, and reports these back to Microsoft on a cookie when
you connect to the Microsoft network, ask for technical support online, or
register your product electronically.
(ZD Net)
Just 6 weeks before its release, Bill Gates demonstrated Windows 98 at the
Comdex98 computer show in Chicago. As soon as his assistant plugged in a
scanner, Win98 crashed.
(C/Net)
An article in the British magazine ComputerActive reports that 47% of readers
say they now regret having upgraded from Windows95 to Windows98. In a similar
New York Times poll in July 1999 53% of the readers have indicated similar
regret (up 9% from a poll last year).
"Intel chairman Andy Grove, codeveloper of the 'Wintel' PC, has seen the
future of computing and it is a Macintosh." Andy Grove now uses an iMac at
both work and home for everything.
("Andy Grove Loves His iMac.", TIME Daily, 23 Sept 1998)
"Despite the advances made by Windows 95, a Mac is still easier to set up,
easier to learn, easier to use, easier to troubleshoot, easier to upgrade,
and easier to connect to the Internet."
(Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/6/97)
"(People ask me) 'There are many PCs that are less expensive than a Mac.
Isn't it smarter to buy the cheaper one?' You know, that same argument was
used to sell a lot of Yugos and Hyundais in the 1980s, but nobody was calling
for the death of Mercedes-Benz."
(Don Crabb)
When technology reporter Don Crabb visited the COMDEX '98 computer show, he
noticed that a substantial number of booths were running their Windows
product movies and slideshows on PowerMacs. "When I asked some of these
vendors why, the answer was always, 'Because we don't have much setup time
and little time to fix it if it crashes. So we run on a PowerMac and have
done with it.' In a half-dozen Pentium-based presentations I sat through,
the crash rate was a spectacularly bad five out of six."
(ZDNet Tech News)
Source: http://www.macintoshed.com/mac.html
