If you’ve looked at our bio page, you may have noticed that we’re skewed somewhat to the younger side. It’s time I confessed, though: I’m actually a 79 year-old man. It’s true. But I’m young at heart (no, really, I have the heart of a 26 year old—he got quite the raw deal). Still, even if you factor that in, we’re still well short of the 46% Mac users that Metafacts reports fall into the over 55 age bracket.
The report runs up against the image that Apple has tried to push for itself of appealing to the young and cool—the Justin Longs in us all, if you will. Apple disputed the figures while simultaneously trying to remain diplomatic to users of all ages:
“MetaFacts data is incorrect,” Apple spokesperson Bill Evans told Macworld. “Our customer data shows that only around 20 percent of Mac users are over the age of 55. The Mac is more popular than ever, and we are thrilled that our products appeal to people of age 1 to 100.”Jazz pianist Bill Evans was unavailable for comment (that was a joke for you over 55 crowd—expect more of those as we retune for our audience).
The most perplexing and laugh-worthy portion of the study to me was the conclusion on which manufacturer most appealed to the 18-24 year old crowd: Gateway. Oh, yes. Nothing appeals to those 18-24 year olds like cow patterns.
Now, of course, the 46% figure is featured in Metafacts’s press release, but they only give hard numbers for the rest of the age breakdown in the full report, which requires shelling out some dough that I, er, don’t have. Hey, I’m limited to what I can afford on Social Security. Either way, just remember this: if nothing else, Metafacts’s numbers do say that 54% of Mac users are under 55.
[via Macworld]
I'm a little skeptical about MetaFact's data, but I do believe Apple's products are appealing to older users just because they're so darn easy to use.
I think a lot of people are forgetting that a huge number of tenured faculty at universities, colleges, and other educational institutions are well over 55, many not retiring until they are 65 or older. These people are obviously well educated and reflect part of the surge in Apple purchases, the other part, probably the largest, being their students.
These numbers also reflect older folks who are scientists, musicians, writers, and other professionals who are at the heads of their fields.
We are not talking about the feeble minded elderly shopping for a PC at Walmart with their pensions from the factory that moved to China.