In college: PCs grow old and busted, Macbooks define new hotness

There has been quite a bit of room for I-told-you-so’s in regards to Apple’s astonishingly rapid growth in its user base in the last few months; not only has the general overall Mac usage increased from a 3% market share to 6%, Apple now holds a substantial 10% of the laptop market. However, the real market in which Mac usage is growing is college campuses, where Macs are not only more reliable and easier to use, but are rapidly becoming the hottest status gadgets on campus.

It is well known that status is arguably more important than majors, jobs, and grades in the college community (go figure). If you want to be Johnny Hotstuff on campus, you need to wear the hottest clothes, pimp the most expensive smart phone (soon to be the iPhone), drive the sexiest car, and now own an Apple lappy.

Computerworld has the article that unveils the true nature of Apple’s exploding popularity on college campuses, in which the CIO of Georgetown’s Law Center, Pablo Molina, says:

“There’s been a rebirth of using Apple technology on campus. Three years ago it was one percent. Now more than 25% of the students are arriving with Apple laptops. So we’re eagerly embracing Apple technologies as something that people find much more intuitive and [they’re] not necessarily more difficult to support.”

Now, that is Georgetown where wealth and leisure-boating flows freely, but high-class campuses aren’t the only hotspots of Apple growth; in the same article many users from different universities comment on the recent boom of Macs around the U.S.

Jonathan, one such commenter, wrote, “A quick glance around the library suggests that about half of students are using Macs, and in classes, the rate is often higher (as an aside, it seems like Mac users are more likely to actually take their laptops out of their rooms, for some reason).”

I think there are two main reasons why Macs are not only flooding college campuses, but are being touted to and from class more frequently than PC laptops:

1. Ease of use and the essence of portability – I don’t care what you say, I’d rather tote my MacBook to and from class (and I do) than a clunky 15″ laptop from some other manufacturer. That isn’t to say that there aren’t other 13″ lappies; it is meant to show that Apple’s form factor is portable. However, this still doesn’t explain why so many Mac users are jumping up on campuses, and are actually using them for their portability.

2. Status and popularity – this has to be a large part of why Macs aren’t sitting in dorm rooms; what’s the best way to show you have the coolest of the cool? Take it to a few classrooms or computer labs with hundreds of people…that’ll get the message across.

Although the “I’m a Mac” ads are designed to appeal to a wide range and age span of users, take a moment to examine the Mac actor: mid-twenties, dressed in the hottest clothes (which in college circles is non-branded, minimalistic, well fitted clothing that says, “Yeah, I look good, and I don’t have to buy into name brands to do it.”), and with an attitude that says, “I’m just better than you (you being a PC in the ads).”

Let’s face it: college kids see these ads and recognize Macs as the latest and greatest, and that’s what earns the most popularity points on campus. As a bonus, the computers are pretty freakin’ amazing too, which I’m sure many of them discovered after they made their popularity purchase.

To be honest, the largest percentage of college kids are doing the exact same things on computers…browsing the internet, listening to music, instant messaging, and feeding their stalker-side on Facebook and MySpac, whether its on a Mac or a PC. Most of them aren’t becoming graphic designers, HD movie makers, or artists once they buy their Macs. There has to be something else than the functionality…

The allure of Apple started with the iPod; its something about the shiny, white, minimalistic casing that draws students like flies to their college-budget-breaking addictions. Apple’s marketing is a vast success; users, regardless of their reasons, are buying Macs like hotcakes (or cheap beer kegs).

Apple’s marketing squad has a double-whammy heading the college student way: as Mac popularity is already on the rise, the release of the iPhone will be a sure success because of the image Apple has already created for themselves. As the iPhone succeeds, Mac computer sales will increase as well. It will be very good to hold AAPL stock, indeed.

What are your own personal feelings about Macs on college campuses? Are they exploding only in certain schools or majors? Speak to us, great masses of the internet!

• College: A Mac survival guide (Pt 2)
• College: A Mac survival guide (Pt 1)
• Taking a Mac to college, finding the right Mac for school
• Universities moving to endorse Apple exclusively?
• College: A Mac survival guide (Pt 3)