It'd be interesting to see how many of those Macs are running Windows as well.
Apple and OSX infuriate me sometimes though. Over the past few weeks 4 out of the 5 people in my household got iPod Touchs/iPhones (I'm the 5th). As I programmer I figured that since I have access to a wealth of dev machines now I might try some app programming. I then learn that Apple in their infinite wisdom (read: dickishness) have locked app development to OSX.
Well screw you Apple, I'm not interested enough in your platform to buy a new machine for.
He writes "of the 12% of homes with a Mac, less than 2% are Mac-exclusive."
... the "of" means that the "12% of homes with a Mac" becomes 100% of the subset in which he's distinguishing between Mac-exclusive vs. Mac+PC.
100% (the 12% subset of homes with Macs) - 85% (the % of that subset with Mac + PC) = 15% (households that are Mac-only within the subset of homes that have at least one Mac).
Also, if you go beyond the math, doesn't it also make common sense: if only 2% of Mac-owning households were Mac exclusive, that would mean virtually everyone with a Mac would also have a PC. That doesn't seem to be true in real life, but an 85% (mixed) / 15% (exclusive) split among Mac owners is credible.
But of the subset of households that own Macs (12% of total households, or 100% of households with Macs), if 85% of them also own PCs, that's 85% of 100% of the households with Macs, leaving 15% not 2% of the subset of households with Macs exclusively Mac.
@frigg: 15% of homes with macs, have only macs, would be correct, but that wasn't how it was read in the post. they were saying 85% of 12% which is why only 2% of total homes with computers have only Macs, not 85% of 100% mac households.
@HyperDrunk: That's right. total homes. But what he said was "What's surprising (or not) is that of the 12% of homes with a Mac, less than 2% are Mac-exclusive."
(my emphasis. he didn't say total homes, he said homes with a mac, which gives the wrong stat).
Almost everyone I know has either a Mac and a Windows box or uses BootCamp/Virtual Machine software. There's still so much that Windows can do that OS X can't.
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Edited by Yuppers: I love you at 10/05/09 5:22 PM
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@otko: I'm not aware of anything that macs can't do that windows can. though I know that windows has probably 100 different programs that do the same thing to maybe 1 on a mac, but still, the mac can do it!
Yesterday I wanted to watch an out of market football game that I couldn't get here in MN. Bootcamped into Vista and loaded up Sopcast/TVU Player. I've been looking for an OS X version of something like that for a bit but I can't seem to find anything like it-especially one that lets me record what I'm watching.
*And if you want some other examples-browse Lifehacker on a daily basis. You always see some nice software that they come across and the first sentence will read Windows Only. It's not all the time-they have others that say "OS X only/Linux only". One aspect I LOVE about OS X is the amount of freeware made for it. It's second to none (except linux, blah blah blah)
@HyperDrunk: I still use the Windows side of my Macbook for the handful of things I can't do on OSX. Most of it specific for hardware, but the big one is the app software for my Garmin - their software support for mac SUCKS - and Fusion doesn't run it well.
I know these are specific issues, and it has gotten a LOT better in recent years. I know basic users can get away with just mac, but to suggest that anyone can do anything they need to do on a mac is a bit shortsighted.
Given the fact that Windows is regularly installed on Macs, typical Windows machines sometimes have OS X installed on it (Hackintosh), both platforms use (essentially) the same hardware, plus we have folks logging into virtual sessions (VMware, Citrix, Terminal Services, etc) -- I think this poll is somewhat meaningless. Right - households that have Macs often have other platforms available as well. Same is true for Windows households. Welcome to 2009.
@Monty: I think this comment is somewhat meaningless. You're saying that households with macs often have a windows machine. And households with windows often have a mac? Yes, that would be true. If A=B then B=A. The fact of the matter is that 88% are exclusively one way while 2% are exclusively the other way. Whether they are a mac user with a windows machine or a windows user with a mac machine, they all fit into the mixed system household group. The group being emphasized here is the small number of people using ONLY macs.
@Patrick Howard: I apologize that I was not clear, but what I am saying is that in a world moving entirely virtual with multiple types of computers in the house that this sort of poll is worthless. What did it tell me? Not a damn thing. But, if you got something out of it, more power to you.
I am a blended household for a number of reasons. I have an Imac and Macbook for me, but for my two young sons, I bought basic PCs for their school work and gaming. And sadly, as much as I love my Macs, I had to also buy a windows system to do some gaming on. I'm not anti-PC -- in fact I'm a recent switch-over to Mac. I think both devices have good uses.
@Bruce Landwaster: Apparently only a genius can figure out how to live with using nothing but a Mac, I guess. Unfortunately, since our home is a mixed environment,I am clearly not part of the genius community.
@Bruce Landwaster: Probably, I'm a PC myself since falling victim to the iBook logicboard failure syndrome. I like Macs, learned on an Apple II, but I think they cost too much. Give me my homebuilt anyday.
This makes sense. To save money, I'm paying rent at home (thank you, NJ, for making rent impossible to afford) and my family owns two Macs which I frequently use, plus my main PC I use to freelance off of.
There are a few cases where I have to boot up Windows on my Macbook or fire up the desktop. If Garmin would make a decent application for the Mac (Roadtrip is AWFUL) for their devices and if Emachineshop.com would make an OSX app, I'd be more than happy to ditch Windows completely. My wife would not give up Windows, however, so our household is tied to both for now.
@Lizard_King: I think that you'd still be in the 2% figure. Installing Windows on your Mac doesn't mean that you own a Windows-based computer. It's still a Mac computer no matter what OS you're running on it.
10/06/09
Apple and OSX infuriate me sometimes though. Over the past few weeks 4 out of the 5 people in my household got iPod Touchs/iPhones (I'm the 5th). As I programmer I figured that since I have access to a wealth of dev machines now I might try some app programming. I then learn that Apple in their infinite wisdom (read: dickishness) have locked app development to OSX.
Well screw you Apple, I'm not interested enough in your platform to buy a new machine for.
END RANT
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15% of 12% = 1.8%
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He writes "of the 12% of homes with a Mac, less than 2% are Mac-exclusive."
... the "of" means that the "12% of homes with a Mac" becomes 100% of the subset in which he's distinguishing between Mac-exclusive vs. Mac+PC.
100% (the 12% subset of homes with Macs) - 85% (the % of that subset with Mac + PC) = 15% (households that are Mac-only within the subset of homes that have at least one Mac).
Also, if you go beyond the math, doesn't it also make common sense: if only 2% of Mac-owning households were Mac exclusive, that would mean virtually everyone with a Mac would also have a PC. That doesn't seem to be true in real life, but an 85% (mixed) / 15% (exclusive) split among Mac owners is credible.
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John writes "of the 12% of homes with a Mac, less than 2% are Mac-exclusive."
But the study says "Of those 12 percent, nearly 85 percent also own a Windows-based PC."
Wouldn't that mean of the 12% of homes with a Mac, a little more than 15% are Mac-exclusive (not 2%)?
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Another way of looking at that is 10.2% of homes with computers own both a MAC and a Windows based computer.
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But of the subset of households that own Macs (12% of total households, or 100% of households with Macs), if 85% of them also own PCs, that's 85% of 100% of the households with Macs, leaving 15% not 2% of the subset of households with Macs exclusively Mac.
No?
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(my emphasis. he didn't say total homes, he said homes with a mac, which gives the wrong stat).
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*Yes I know Macs can get viruses/worms too.
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Yesterday I wanted to watch an out of market football game that I couldn't get here in MN. Bootcamped into Vista and loaded up Sopcast/TVU Player. I've been looking for an OS X version of something like that for a bit but I can't seem to find anything like it-especially one that lets me record what I'm watching.
*And if you want some other examples-browse Lifehacker on a daily basis. You always see some nice software that they come across and the first sentence will read Windows Only. It's not all the time-they have others that say "OS X only/Linux only". One aspect I LOVE about OS X is the amount of freeware made for it. It's second to none (except linux, blah blah blah)
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I know these are specific issues, and it has gotten a LOT better in recent years. I know basic users can get away with just mac, but to suggest that anyone can do anything they need to do on a mac is a bit shortsighted.
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Just sayin...
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Besides, we are talking household - the wife has a PC.