How do tech conferences and meetup groups work without a sea of macs?

But, it might be better to say HN is a tech bubble, because everywhere in the world that I've been people who work on web tech use macs, for most of us the job would be almost impossible without a *nix OS.

And this post was written (somewhat regretfully) from a Mac in Aotearoa/New Zealand, where non mac laptops are somewhat rare in the tech community (and are then usually Linux rather than Windows).

Here in Germany I see Mac products every day. Even in the train there are more MacBooks than Windows Laptops.

For "PC" (laptop and desktop), the market share of Apple worldwide is somewhere between 6% and 10%. Linux is ~ 1 to 2%. The rest is mainly Windows.

Interestingly I could not found Germany on http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/ but here is Switzerland which have one of the highest OS X penetration of the world (the highest?)

http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/switzerlan...

I don't have the figures for laptop only, but I don't believe for 1s that OS X is above Windows in any country (of a non-trivial size)

Maybe in certain extremely local areas, you see a highest concentration of mac laptops. Even then, I challenge you to count carefully and come back to us if you still find that mac laptops are more common than laptops running Windows. Of course there are some factors that can bias in favor of mac laptops, depending of where you look at. However, while that can be interesting from a socio-economical POV, keep in mind that Windows market share is, on average, consistently largely superior to OS X, regardless of if running on desktop or laptop computers.

Germany has less Apple interest than the rest of Europe: http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/germany

I'm sure some of this has to do with wealth and the ability to pay for intangible, but definitely positive, experience premia. Go into a cafe in New York City or a college library and you'll see a sea of MacBooks. I might say 90% MacBooks (i'm a part-time grad student.) The situation is very different in the workplace, especially in lagging industries. In finance and management consulting, my past careers, I saw 99% PCs.

Apple has also been aiming heavily towards students, to the point of setting up mini-stores in university libraries (never mind offering discounts).

My casual observation: most commuters don't use a laptop in the train. Those who do, mostly Windows. Apples seem fairly rare, as in, every 20th unit or so.

that is not true. people use clearly more windows laptops in germany

You can both be correct depending on sampling.

UK Birmingham: 0700 trains to London (corporate types), Thinkpads, Dells and a few HP laptops all with Excel/Outlook in operation. A few hours later (students and younger people), it changes to tablets and Macs. Mostly watching films or doing Web stuff. And lots of phones.

I'd imagine a large percentage of Windows licenses in any country are for desktops sitting in offices (1000+ in my fairly small organsation alone).

People use more Windows laptops than Mac laptops everywhere. Apple's marketshare is like 25%.

Way lower than 25% actually.

Uhm no. Here in Norway Apple is huge. Go to a major Asian city and there are Macbooks everywhere. Sure there is higher percentage of Apple among some devs and for places with higher income, but to call a major product from one of the most valuable companies in the world "exotic" is absurd.

Again i suspect it depends on when and where one look around (never mind that every Mac has that "WITNESS ME!" spotlight on the lid).

There are certain industries etc that is very heavy Mac users, media production in particular. They crop up in the weirdest of ads because the production staff use them for example. But for the rest of the nation it is Windows all the way.

The only people i know personally that own a Mac musicians or in the ads/marketing/graphics business. And i think the latter, as much as the _nix internals, that has made Mac a web dev fixture.

I live in New Zealand (at last check, that was outside North America). I see Macs all the time.

Marketshare is similar to the US at around 20%

http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/new-zealan...

To be fair to HN, Apple laptops are very common in American universities too. It's not a purely Silicon Valley thing.

This is the view you have in most universities in the US, Canada and the UK http://i.imgur.com/xzEyLQB.jpg

I don't think that's representative of the UK.

Students don't tend to have money to spare for a Mac, so they buy a cheaper Windows laptop instead.

A Macbook is 15% of a year's money, which is better spent on rent, food and beer.

For those unfamiliar with US geography, mizzou is not in California.

Have you ever been outside of North America. I see Mac's all over Europe all the time. Not only in developer friendly environments. Busses, trains, coffee shops,...

I live outside North America and I don't see Mac's all over this Europe: http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/europe

Basically this. Never mind that you could walk past piles of Lenovos, Samsungs, Acers, Asus', etc etc etc, and never notice. But Apple, thanks to that glowing fruit logo on the lid, basically screams "witness me!".

And in India where all the developers live - Apple MBPs are everywhere

What "India" are you talking about? The India I know is http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/india

I think you need a reality check. Even here in South Africa, Apple's computer market share is steadily increasing. In general (and this applies to most countries outside the US), those who actually care about their computers (as opposed to seeing a computer as just a fancy typewriter) and have the budget to justify it, will often buy Macs. In terms of developers, I expect the market share to be even higher. In our company we have about 50 people and we're all on Macs (Airs and Pros).

PC penetration is about 10% in asia and africa. Is it exotic about talking about gadget which 90% of population does not own?

Huh? There's macs everywhere I look.

I live in Hungary, and I see MacBooks all over the place, albeit typically older models. The only Toucbar MBP I've seen is mine.