Harvard Mac sales surge 30 percent

Macs are continuing to see a resurgence on college campuses, solidifying the company's foothold in the education section. In the September, Apple executives told investors that the company experienced its most successful back-to-school quarter ever for its higher education business, noting that shipments of Mac portables increased 49 percent year over year due the popularity of the MacBook a successful free iPod nano back-to-school promotion. According to The Harvard Crimson, personal purchases of Macs at Harvard are up 30 percent from last year, while sales of IBM Lenovo machines have more or less flat-lined. Harvard, one of Apple’s largest educational re-sellers, has seen a rebound in Mac sales from several years ago. The same trend was seen at another Ivy league university Princeton, where Mac purchases have tripled in the past three years.

Harvard officials now say that demand for Macs has almost caught up to demand for non-Mac PCs, attributing the surge to several factors, including the new Intel-architecture for Windows compatibility, aesthetics, and a Unix-foundation for more technical students; however, the company notes that discount levels offered by Apple's competitors is "substantial," thus students are also looking at a combination of cost, software compatibility, and support issues (as well as aesthetics).

Filed under: education