Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Humor, Odds and ends
Do more Mac users hang out at coffee houses?
I'll admit to being one of those people who sits at the coffee house with a double espresso and a laptop. What's the point of buying cool hardware if you aren't going to be seen with it, right?It would seem that I'm not alone. Alexander at The Macintosh Journal also spends time with the urban hipsters, and he's even developed a theory: Most laptop-wielding coffee house patrons use Macs. He recently conducted an informal poll at CoffeeGeek which confirmed his suspicions.
When I think of it, I'd say Macs to non-Macs (Windows or Linux) at my local coffee joint is about 50/50. In fact, I've used my Ubuntu Compaq nearly as often as my MacBook Pro (I didn't spend all that time precisely putting stickers on the lid for nothing).
So, TUAW'ers, what's your experience? Macs at the coffee house or no?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Josh said 7:16PM on 7-16-2007
Before Diedrich's was bought out and replaced by Starbucks I used to go to the coffee shop all the time. Every Diedrichs had free WiFi that was surprisingly fast. However, I am not yet willing to pay for the T-Mobile hotspots that Starbucks employs... its sad. I yearn for Diedrichs.
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reid Dudley-smith said 7:29PM on 7-16-2007
Sitting in a cafe in London with a mac laptop (like my beloved iBook) is a surefire way to get mugged just after you leave, although you could substitute "coffee house" for "lecture hall" at my university and the same would be true.
At the start of term, I was the only one doing my note-taking on a laptop at all, let alone a mac, and by the end of the year there were around 6 or 7 dotted around our 40-strong class. Steve owes me royalties.
-Reid.
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Brett said 7:40PM on 7-16-2007
At the local Tully's with free wi-fi I actually notice more Windows machines, but I do live in Redmond, which probably factors into that.
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Bruce Reyes-Chow said 7:34PM on 7-16-2007
Here is SF, I would hazard a guess that most coffee houses are 7 out of 10 Macs. Kind of scary, but hey, since I am one of them, it's all good.
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fred said 7:53PM on 7-16-2007
I hang out with my 24" iMac in coffee shops and Panera Bread all the time. I'm the big white elephant in the corner....
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David Chartier said 7:40PM on 7-16-2007
A guy walked into a Starbucks I was hanging out at and sat next to me with some 15-inch Toshiba notebook (running Vista) he had just bought. He had some obscure video cam that he couldn't get to work or import videos from, even though the manufacturer's support site said their drivers were Vista ready.
He asked me to plug the cam into my MacBook Pro - and I was able to download vids perfectly with no extra installation voodoo. After finding out he only spend $100/200 less than I did on my machine, he said he was taking his back for a Mac.
So now, I guess you could say that the Mac attendance at that Sbux has improved at least a little. :)
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derek said 7:57PM on 7-16-2007
OMG!!!!! WHO CARES?????
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Joseph said 8:08PM on 7-16-2007
Coffee Society in south bay seems to attract many Mac users. It could also be that these coffee shops are near colleges and are frequented mostly by students.
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doyouflip said 8:21PM on 7-16-2007
Derek, why bother posting?
At coffee shops here in North Portland
(Oregon), I'd say the ratio is 3 Macs to 1 PC. Interestingly enough,
I'd also say it's at least 5 women for each man (with a laptop).
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jbelkin said 8:31PM on 7-16-2007
It's hard to lift the typical PC from its kiosk at Target (wedding kiosk) or from Jiffy Lube and of course, telemarketers are wired to the PC with a 2' only leash ... so 80% of PC's can't go anywhere or if they did, they call it company stolen property ...
The 15% who can roam with a PC laptop have pretty much spent 99% of their credit limit on their $599 laptop so they cannot afford anything other than the free coffee samples at Trader Joe's - no chairs there. Or at Cost Plus, other free coffee sample place - no wifi but all the wicker you can sit in though if you weigh more than 225, careful, you squash it, you buy it.
That leaves 5% who work for MS and of course, other than the Mac BU have to eat and have Ballmer smear their own dog food. That's Dell sexy!
Mac users never have to punch in - they can come and go as they please and in fact, might be launching an IPO because the biscotti is a little stale.
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rc said 8:33PM on 7-16-2007
@fred: that's nothin' dude, I use my Mac Pro with a 30" cinema display in the subway. ... Yeah, I guess this makes me cooler than you :-)
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Tim said 8:54PM on 7-16-2007
I'm glad to see this blog entry because I've noticed the same thing. I spend a lot of time in my local Caribou Coffee in Charlotte and I've noticed a strong Mac presence - at least 50%.
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Dirk Schmidt said 6:22AM on 7-17-2007
Hamburg, Germany
80% Macs
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Phil Reynolds said 9:17PM on 7-16-2007
This is so funny. I had never gone to a coffee house until just today for lunch and noticed how many Mac laptops people had there. I noticed it so much that I counted, there were 7 mac's to 2 Windows laptops.
My theory on this is Mac people are more "creative people" and the majority of people that hang out at a coffee house are artsy people hence the more Mac laptops.
Don't start yelling at me because I referred to Mac users as creative people this is meant as a high complement. I am not a Mac user but will be come August 3rd. Missouri's Tax Holiday so I don't have to pay sale tax. Woo Hoo.
Anyway I had to comment on this since I just experienced it today.
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Zach said 9:20PM on 7-16-2007
As a freelancer, I spend a lot of time in coffeeshops. The amount of Macs I see is much higher than their market share.
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Mark Scrimshire said 9:21PM on 7-16-2007
You know if my Ruby skills were better I would have put up a "coffee quotient" site. I had been thinking that it would be interesting to capture the ratio of Macs to PCs at coffee shops.
Who wants to help setup the Coffee Quotient. The dynamic barometer of Mac popularity?
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Cycomachead said 9:29PM on 7-16-2007
I would say in the many starbucks I have been to 33 - 50% (sometimes more) of the computers are macs - considering the C Mac laptop market share percentages this means the overall Mac percentage is higer than that of Windows
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Richard Alden Peterson said 9:45PM on 7-16-2007
The coolish independent coffeehouses in Denver are about 60-70 percent Mac users. I've been counting.
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Leonard Nimrod said 12:06AM on 7-18-2007
I go to Starbucks with 2 30" Cinema Displays and my Mac Pro and play WoW all day.
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ThePilot said 10:12PM on 7-16-2007
I think that this is one of those awareness cases where one is more aware of things you are familiar with. But I definitely see more Macs at the local bookstore. Maybe it is because most Mac users tend to be the artsy type who enjoy the bohemian lifestyle. Windows users, the accountants and engineers, prefer to crunch their numbers in the privacy of their cubicles :)
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