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Seventy-Two Percent Of Mac-Owning Households Have Laptops - The “Logical Mac” Vindicated

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

by Charles W. Moore

My longtime advocacy of laptops as “the logical Mac” for most users appears to have been largely realized, especially for Mac=users. Market-research firm NPD Group’s 2009 Household Penetration Studysurveying more than 2300 online panelists, released yesterday, found that approximately 12 percent of all U.S. computer owning households own an Apple computer, up from 9 percent in 2008 — a whopping 33 percent growth year-over year, and especially interesting in the context of my “logical Mac” theory. Seventy-two percent of them own a notebook, although only 50 percent of households that have a Windows PC own notebooks.

It took me about half a day after I unboxed my first laptop — a PowerBook 5300 — back in 1996, to recognize that portables were the computing experience I’d been looking for and I’ve never really looked back except for a brief dalliance with a G4 Cube in 2001. I had not expected the laptop to essentially replace my desktop Mac, but that’s what happened, leaving me wondering whether there is any reason for most people to own a desktop computer at all. Never say “never”, but I don’t perceive any likelihood that I’ll ever buy another desktop Mac, at least as my main computer. A possible exception might be a Mac mini, but I’m really not comfortable anymore using a machine that doesn’t support battery — powered operation. NPD Group’s research confirms that more and more people are evidently coming to the conclusion that Mac ‘Books are “the logical Mac” for them too.

But it goes farther than the convenience and security of battery power. Most desktop computers just seem so excessively large and cumbersome for what they do compared with a notebook. Again, the Mac mini is a partial exception, but even it requires an external monitor, keyboard, and pointing device, unlike laptops, which constitute a completely self-contained package that can run completely untethered to peripherals as long as the battery holds out.

Laptops are delightfully compact. Even my 17-inch PowerBook, which is a middling - large laptop, packs around very comfortably and conveniently in a one inch thick package with the screen closed, as opposed to a hulking collection of components connected with a tangle of cables. The appeal is partly aesthetic, partly conceptual. It just seems more sensible. Laptop computers don’t dominate a room the way a desktop machine does. They are more SUBTLE, a quality that appeals to me.

Ever tried using a desktop computer in bed? I like computing while reclining, and keep my old Pismo PowerBook by my bed most of the time, parked on a Laptop Laidback stand - not a mode that lends itself to practicality with a desktop computer - even a Mac mini. The Laptop Laidback actually positions the computer and keyboard in a near ideal ergonomic placement, with elbows at the prescribed 90° and the display at a viewing height that minimizes neck strain - much better than when using it on your lap or on a desk or table without an elevated laptop stand and external input devices.

Of course if you want to, you can convert your laptop into a virtual desktop Mac for stationary use. Just plug in an external monitor, a standard keyboard and ADB mouse, whatever serial or SCSI peripherals you need, and voila! This sort of set-up costs substantially less than buying separate portable and desktop computers.

Another portable advantage, especially if you live out in the boonies like I do, is lack of worry about power outages. I can happily keep on computing, and even web surfing and faxing through blackouts as long as my batteries hold up.

Of course Apple household adoption and the proportion of laptops are just two of several interesting metrics reported in NPD’s second annual Household Penetration Study of consumer electronics products household ownership, and this year it reports on the number of devices owned by category and explores consumers’ cross-category and cross-platform ownership, finding that for example that while Apple owners tend to own more computers and more electronics devices, there is also a high correlation among Apple owners and more affluent consumer households Thirty-six percent of Apple computer owners reported household incomes greater than $100,000, compared to 21 percent of all consumers.

Hmmmm. That meshes with popular perception of the Mac as a premium machine favored by elites, but not all of us Macheads fit the profile. One hundred $grand a year? — I wish! On the other hand, we currently have nine Macs that still work in the house plus a couple that don’t and one is out on loan. Of that total of a dozen, all but the three oldest ones are laptops.

However, as with income level, another element of the profile we don’t fit is the finding that most Mac households are actually mixed system environments. Of the 12 percent overall that have Macs, nearly 85 percent also own a Windows-based PC. We’ve only ever had two PC machines domiciled in this house — an prehistoric 286 that ran DOS, and an elderly IBM ThinkPad — both hand-me-downs that didn’t get used much or hang around long, but that’s just us.

Indeed, despite the stereotype of fanatically monomaniacal Mac fanboy platform bigots, NPD found that multi-platform computer ownership was a vastly more a common thread in Apple computer households, with a 85 percent of Mac users surveyed also owning a Windows-based PC 66 percent of them owning three or more computers, compared to just 29 percent of Windows PC households having more than one.

Not only do Apple computer owners own more computers (and more mobile computers) than the median lowest common denominator they also tend to own more types of electronics, and more of them, than typical computer owning households. For example, while 36 percent of overall computer owning households have an iPod, 63 percent of Apple households have one. And while almost 50 percent of Apple owners own some type of navigation system, only about 30 percent of all computer households own one.

The metrics are, among Apple computer owning households 28% have an iPod touch, 63%i an iPod 32% a digital SLR, 20% a Flash camcorder, 18% a 50-inch or larger LCD TV and 49% some sort of electronic Navigation device. The corresponding metrics for general computer owning households are respectively: 9%, 36%, 12%, 5%, 8%, and 30%.

“While Apple owners tend to own more computers and more electronics devices, there is also a high correlation among Apple owners and more affluent consumer households,” comments Stephen Baker, NPD’s vice president of industry analysis. “With a higher household income, though, it’s not a surprise that those consumers are making more electronics purchases,” Baker said. “The average Apple household owns 48 CE devices whereas the average computer household owns about 24. Apple household owners’ actions and purchases can be used by the industry as leading indicators for hot new products and adoption.”

These revelations indicate that notwithstanding a constant barrage of criticism and second-guessing, often from friends as well as detractors of the Mac platform, Apple is demonstrably doing some things right — one obviously being to particularly concentrate on laptops. It’s reasonable to anticipate that especially if the rumored Mac tablet and redesigned MacBooks arrive as expected, along with a major revamp of the iMac and Mac mini, those household penetration figures should show a big boost again in 2010.

CM