According to the latest survey by Technometrica: ³Among those saying it's likely they'll buy a new desktop PC in the next six months, Apple was the No. 2 preferred brand, with 16%. That's the highest number for Apple since TechnoMetrica began collecting purchase-intent data more than two years ago. In May, 6% of likely desktop PC buyers said they would choose Apple.
³Dell was No. 1 with 41%. But that's down from 48% in May and 55% in April.² http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20060705/bs_ibd_ibd/200675tech Combine this with other articles positing a 39% jump in Apple notebook sales: http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?home&NewsID=15130 Looks like Bootcamp and the iPod are together working their magic on the consumer market. Then you have the Sophos Security Threat Management Report recommending home users should switch to the Mac, warning of a huge wave of malevolent Windows Trojan malware attacks: http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=15155&Page=1&pagePos=1 ...and final availability of the intelification of the Xserve and ³Mac Pro² lines perhaps in August and it becomes apparent that it is a good time to be a Mac user. :-) I personally have seen: * one linux-using colleague get a Mac Mini as a media centre machine as he finally wants something that just works, * one of our Windows Systems engineers get a MacBook for his girlfriend so he can use Garageband, * one of our PC-based web developers get a MacBook Pro so he can do Windows and Mac OS X, * the entire staff of our previously Windows/Linux-using school of Computing gets Macs from the Head down * A group in the School of Electrical Engineering working on software for vision-impaired users become Mac developers with a vengeance because of the fantastic Universal Access screen-reading features built-into Mac OS X which would cost thousands to add to a PC (and still not be as well integrated). * A head of one of the departments at the WA school of Mines (previously Windows and UNIX only) got a Dual CPU PowerMac G5 because it beat the pants off their Sun systems for Mining research now getting a MacBook and loving it. -Mart -------------------------------------- Martin Hill email: mart "at" ozmac.com homepages: http://mart.ozmac.com Mb: 0417-967-969 hm: (08)9314-5242
