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>Apple knows that a large percentage of the people who buy its computers are software engineers I suspect a large percentage of software engineers buy their co

>Apple knows that a large percentage of the people who buy its computers are software engineers I suspect a large percentage of software engineers buy their computers, but I'm skeptical at the assertion that a large percentage of people who buy their computers are software engineers.

hyperpape 6y ago
Looks like they've been selling around 18 million macs a year (https://www.statista.com/statistics/263444/sales-of-apple-mac-computers-since-first-quarter-2006/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/263444/sales-of-apple-ma...). If you ignore individuals having multiple computers, and assume the average lifetime of a machine is 5 years, you get 90 million people with a Mac. I don't know how many developers there are, but saw 20-25 million in some estimates.
- oblio 6y ago
  The vast majority of developed worldwide are using crummy Windows laptops and developing internal enterprise software :-) At best Macs probably have a marketshare of 30% among developers. The US and big tech companies are outliers regarding Mac usage.
  - jevgeni 6y ago
    Win10 developer experience is far better than Mac OS. And way more versatile. Not to mention the brain dead design of UX when somebody FaceTimes you while you are developing in full screen mode...
- pier25 6y ago
  IIRC Tim said in today's keynote there are 23M Apple developers. Very roughly, 20% of macOS users are developers.
  - lokedhs 6y ago
    20% of users are Apple developers. There are plenty of developers who use their hardware but don't develop for Apple products (a web developer wouldn't be an Apple developer). Or have things changed since I left the Apple ecosystem? I'm assuming you don't need to be a registered developer to use things like "make" or download IntelliJ IDEA?
    - pier25 6y ago
      Yes you're right, that's what I meant. If you're doing web dev you don't need to be a registered Apple developer.
breakfastduck 6y ago
That's probably true - although there are a LOT of iOS developers out there who can now essentially program for macOS because of catalyst. Either way, software engineers build the applications that drive your platforms popularity, meaning developer adoption of a platform is incredibly important and thus they probably have a larger influence on Apples decision making than other demographics would with similar percentages.
lwhi 6y ago
There are more 'normies' than engineers out there. They need to continue sell more to keep share holders happy. It's a calculated shift.
spideymans 6y ago
At the last WWDC, Apple mentioned that of all of the so called "creative professionals" on the Mac, software developers were the largest group. I don't know how large the percentage is exactly, but its clearly significant.
- madhadron 6y ago
  Considering they intentionally got rid of, say, video editors as a professional group that used Macs, it may be more of a case of "who is left." One of these days I'll write a todo list manager to replace OmniFocus and then be able to switch platforms.
  - DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
    I'm sure the only reason we buy Macs is so that we can still target iOS.
    - madhadron 6y ago
      I honestly find MacOS to be a more usable environment than Windows. I haven't run Linux as my desktop for many years, though, so maybe I just need to go back and try it again.

hyperpape 6y ago

Looks like they've been selling around 18 million macs a year (https://www.statista.com/statistics/263444/sales-of-apple-mac-computers-since-first-quarter-2006/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/263444/sales-of-apple-ma...). If you ignore individuals having multiple computers, and assume the average lifetime of a machine is 5 years, you get 90 million people with a Mac. I don't know how many developers there are, but saw 20-25 million in some estimates.

oblio 6y ago
The vast majority of developed worldwide are using crummy Windows laptops and developing internal enterprise software :-) At best Macs probably have a marketshare of 30% among developers. The US and big tech companies are outliers regarding Mac usage.
- jevgeni 6y ago
  Win10 developer experience is far better than Mac OS. And way more versatile. Not to mention the brain dead design of UX when somebody FaceTimes you while you are developing in full screen mode...
pier25 6y ago
IIRC Tim said in today's keynote there are 23M Apple developers. Very roughly, 20% of macOS users are developers.
- lokedhs 6y ago
  20% of users are Apple developers. There are plenty of developers who use their hardware but don't develop for Apple products (a web developer wouldn't be an Apple developer). Or have things changed since I left the Apple ecosystem? I'm assuming you don't need to be a registered developer to use things like "make" or download IntelliJ IDEA?
  - pier25 6y ago
    Yes you're right, that's what I meant. If you're doing web dev you don't need to be a registered Apple developer.

breakfastduck 6y ago

That's probably true - although there are a LOT of iOS developers out there who can now essentially program for macOS because of catalyst. Either way, software engineers build the applications that drive your platforms popularity, meaning developer adoption of a platform is incredibly important and thus they probably have a larger influence on Apples decision making than other demographics would with similar percentages.

lwhi 6y ago

There are more 'normies' than engineers out there. They need to continue sell more to keep share holders happy. It's a calculated shift.

spideymans 6y ago

At the last WWDC, Apple mentioned that of all of the so called "creative professionals" on the Mac, software developers were the largest group. I don't know how large the percentage is exactly, but its clearly significant.

madhadron 6y ago
Considering they intentionally got rid of, say, video editors as a professional group that used Macs, it may be more of a case of "who is left." One of these days I'll write a todo list manager to replace OmniFocus and then be able to switch platforms.
- DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
  I'm sure the only reason we buy Macs is so that we can still target iOS.
  - madhadron 6y ago
    I honestly find MacOS to be a more usable environment than Windows. I haven't run Linux as my desktop for many years, though, so maybe I just need to go back and try it again.