Students Are Going for the Mac Nationwide

and it's not just our Editor in Chief's niece who just started at Yale with her brand new 15" PowerBook. Here are some telling exerpts from the Columbia Spectator:

According to market tracker IDC, in 2003 Apple sold 193,000 Macs to people in colleges and universities, a jump of 17.7% over the previous year. If you only consider laptops, the computer of choice for most new college students, Apple sales to higher education grew by 58.5% in the same period.

With regard to the price myth,

Furthermore, for most laptops, Macs are comparatively priced or even cheaper than their competitors. Currently, both Apple and Dell offer discounts to Columbia students for computer purchases. With the discounts factored in, a standard 14" Apple iBook laptop with a 1Ghz G4 processor, 40GB hard drive and a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive costs $1200. A comparable Dell Latitude costs $1730.

"It was far cheaper than the equivalent [PC]," said Deborah Beim, CC '08, who debated whether to get a Mac or a PC over the summer. "Everybody who I talked to said they were far easier to use."

We hope Mark Langberg of MercuryNews.com read that one. [Dana Baggett]