'Half' of PC Users Polled Want to Go Intel-Mac


If this survey is to be believed, more than 50% of PC users will buy an Intel-based Mac next time around, IT Wire reports.

Well, the sample is poor (202) and 100 said yes to the question, 'Will your next PC be an Intel Mac?'. Now, okay, we accept this was a straw poll. And it didn't prefix that question with another query about whether the respondents were Mac or PC users already.

Of course, those who derive comfort from these things should also note that Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer noted during Apple's most recent quarterly financial conference call that fully 50% of Apple Store visitors were, quote, 'new to Mac'. That's encouraging.

Consumer buyers - well, we can believe that kind of figure. They'll pay good money for a decent PC, and they might just consider a rather cool Mac to go with their iPod. 'Specially if it'll run Windows. No problem.

But we suspect the White Box Brigade will barely look up from their LimeWire screens, if they've even gotten the newsflash that Macs dual-boot. If they can't stick their own super-duper video card into a Mac Mini, and it costs more than $599, they don't want to know.

But that isn't Apple's market. Heck, it's not even Dell's. After all, Mr. Dell & Co. really make money on the higher-end, up-specced consumer type portables and boxes, not the low-rent biz PCs that enterprise buys (business is notoriously tight fisted, even if it does Order Up Big). Only the MCSE-equipped MIS in the skunkworks gets the PC fully-decked out with a V12 engine, Christmas lights and his (and it will be a 'he') own personalized video card. But Dell can and does sell more pricey consumer/pro-am notebooks and desktops that find their way into consumers' homes.

This is the end of the market where Dell and Apple really do compete, and Macs' Windows capability has got to be a feature which might just push more people to switch. The numbers over the next 2-3 quarters will really begin to tell the story. In other words, whether Macs simply continue to remain in a holding pattern, selling to the faithful - or whether there's genuine expansion into what was previously the exclusive domain of the Wintel market.

Here's hoping the folks over at Dell, HPaq and Gateway are really starting to tremble.