Stephen Wildstrom, the Business Week Technology columnist has some advice for incoming college freshmen, come prepared to school in the fall by bringing a Mac. Although his math is off (there are not 3 million incoming freshmen next fall, the number is actually much closer to 2 million), his pitch is somewhat compelling. One point he makes is dead on: today's college students prefer laptops over desktops. Among the 19% of college students who plan to purchase a computer in the next year, the overwhelming majority, some 69% plan to purchase a laptop for it ease of use and portability around campus. Given a significant percentage of campuses have wireless networking capabilities, it doesn't take a genius to figure out a college kid would rather sit under a tree on nice day to log on rather than be stuck in a tiny little dorm room with poor air conditioning. Going back to Mr. Wildstrom's advice for incoming college freshmen, the numbers still speak for themselves. Among laptop purchase intenders, Dell remains the dominant preferred choice by 39% of purchase intenders followed by 21% who plan to purchase a Mac. Everyone else, including HP and Lenovo are in the single digits. Mr. Wildstrom's advice may be solid, but at the very least, he should understand what the current college computer environment looks like.
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