Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

It's Official: Mac Users Are, Indeed, Cooler

by Amar Toor on October 6, 2009 at 05:00 PM

In an apparent confirmation of what everyone's always suspected, and what those commercials have been telling us for years, a report released Monday from consumer-research firm NPD claims to show that Mac users are not only richer than their PC counterparts, but "hipper" as well.

The results reveal that the percentage of computer-owning households with a Mac shot up to 12-percent, a 4-percent increase from 2008. Meanwhile, a remarkable 36-percent of Apple-owning households had an income of over $100,000. Only 21-percent of the entire sample made such bank. Apple users also own, on average, 48 consumer electronic devices, which is double the general average. Finally, the typical Apple user owns more electronics, and more types of electronics, than the norm. A full 63-percent, for instance, reported having an iPod, while only 36-percent of the overall population did so.


This isn't the kind of thing we're taking too seriously, though. Of course, our metric for "hipness" is the number of gadgets a person owns, but that's a measure many would probably contest. And there are also some clear lines of reverse causality. Of course, richer families have more gadgets; that's part of being rich. The fact that most Mac owners have iPods should come as no surprise, either, given the ease of syncing between the company's computers and iDevices.

Perhaps the most interesting nugget, though, is the simple fact that Mac-owning households are wealthier -- a result, perhaps, of Apple's marketing campaign. Ironically, by playing up the whole skinny, t-shirt wearing hipster aesthetic, the company appears to have successfully attracted more affluent consumers -- perhaps those who dress like the stodgy John Hodgman during the day, but yearn for days of their hoodie-draped, Justin Long youth?

Or maybe not. But whatever the reason, it's a pretty compelling finding. So richer, sure. Cooler? We'll let you decide. [From: NPD Group, via Huffington Post]

Tags: consumer spending, ConsumerSpending, demographics, mac, pc

Comments

5

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular