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I hate people who use 'Generation X' in articles. They've probably never even read Coupland: Generation X was about 25 in 1991- which makes them about 40 today.

There's another reason. Macs just work and now come with some great software like the iLife suite which no PC vendor can match. OSX with no spyware and viruses also is a big plus.
And it is still easier to use than Windows!

“Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.” - Henry Ward Beecher

"Get off my lawn, you damn kids!" - My Dad

I think this guy is barking up the wrong tree. Why? Mac products are not eXtreme....

There is no way that 95% of today's kids will buy PC's when they grow up. NO WAY! The war is already over.

Bollocks.

Apple creates great products for people between 5 and 100. They have not gone out of their way to create something special for this age group. OK so the kids aren't blinkered like their parents and grandparents are so what?

My mother in law at 72 swears by her Mac. A PC in her hands would have been a wreck in a matter of weeks if not days.

At 46, I'm a late Boomer / early Gen X. Started using Macs in 1984. Started working with computers in 1976. People are still coming to me for advice on waht computer to buy.

Knowledge never goes out of style.

"That is that the real tech market of today and the future is not Silver Surfers or Baby Boomers. It is Gen X and Gen Y"

This is why I have always said that Apple won't gain a huge market share until the kids can play all the games at the same time as their PC owning friends. Right now you can't get many of the hottest games right away, and you can't use sites like gametap.

Been thinking this for years...I believe it is true also.

Apple's target audience is really the 18-39 crowd, and that does bode well for them in the future. The ones in their 30s have plenty of disposable income to spend on Macs and iPods right now, and those in their late teens and 20s are quickly moving in that direction. These next 5 years should be very bright at Apple.

Named generations are a myth. There are people twenty years old, twenty years and one hour old, twenty years and two hous old, etc. Billions of people, all different ages.

I think iPod had a lot to do with those "youngsters" trying the Mac in the first place. With iPod likely to become even more prevalent, the so-called "halo effect" is going to get even stronger. The good news is that all Apple had to do to make the Mac more successful was remove the obstacles for consumers to at least consider getting a Mac. With the iPod AND the switch to Intel, Apple has done exactly that...

>"I spoke with a grandparent recently who said that he bought his new Mac on the recommendation of his 17 year old grandson and loves it.">

In the opposite direction, my 17 year old grandson was convinced by me, I'm 73, to buy his new MacBookPro. His high school friends are envious.

I wonder if 24 year olds would resent being called "kids". Perhaps Bajarin should have referred to the 14 to 24 year olds as young people, which they are.

MW: language. How ironic and appropriate. (How does it know? This is spooky! But it is the Halloween season.)

BTW. We're all rich Republicans, after coming here in the 50's from England with nothing but the clothes on our backs. Vote.

Also, with Intel inside, the younger gamers can still get to play all the many varieties of games available in the Windows world that will never see the light of day as Mac versions

To eiscir:

I am 40 and think I fit the mold of what this guy is trying to say. Remember, 40 is the new 20! (at least that's what I tell myself in order to feel better about aging).

Bodes well for long term growth.

A soon to be 40 Gen X person here. This is not to say Mac products do not appeal to all age groups --- clearly they do. But it is clear from their marketing the are targeting a certain demographic which does roughly fall under 40. This will bode well in the future for Apple as the author says.

Microsoft, like Cadillac, will find its users getting older and dying off. They will need to do an about face and make attempts to appeal to a younger crowd without offending their core group.

Apple are winning hearts and minds...

Ray:

I think PC gaming is just about ready to die. It's clear that the next gen (no pun sorry) consoles are going to finally put the death nail into the coffen. I just don't see Gen Y kids hitting up their parents for a $2500 PC gaming rig when they can get an Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii with games for less than half of that. Consoles also offer a gaming experiance that rivals what can be had on a PC. Consider also that most Gen X parents will certainly thow down a couple grand for that new HDTV; so there isn't much money left for a high cost computer capable of playing current generation games. I think PC gaming will become marginalized and eventually succumb to economics; consoles are the future of gaming.

Apple is well positioned. I love gaming and my 5 year old loves it too. But as I have thought about where to put the money, gaming is migrating to the HDTV via consoles (Wii for him PS3 for me) and the computer is used as an educational tool and digital media hub, and Apple has the best computer for this purpose.

What this article illustrates is the difference in generational mind sets. Gen Y kids are growing up at a time when Apple is cool and relevent and cosole gaming is hot and inexpensive. I think Apple's market share is going to rise exponentially in the coming years.

Apple does not do anything for teenagers/young adults. This article is full of crap. Teenagers and young adults are only interested in 2 things : IM and videogames. The Mac version of Microsoft Messenger is appalling (no video, no winks, no nudges, no animated self pic, no themes, etc...), and Microsoft Messenger is by far the most used IM client for teenagers, and the video game selection for Intel Mac's is ridiculous (less than 30 games are Universal binaries, and Rosetta does not work well for games), so how in hell is Apple supporting this demographic ? Until Apple can "force" Microsoft to build a decent version of their IM client, or add Windows Live compatibility to iChat, and until Apple can start bringing 50 top games for Intel, teenagers will not even consider Mac's.

Object-X:

I have to disagree with ya. For most games, sure. I in fact was hoping for a PS3 port of WoW since it's defiantly capable of handling the code. Then it was pointed out to me that even with a huge HDTV, there are still aspects of the game UI that necessitate being close to the display. While I still have hope that gaming will move entirely to consoles, since I'd prefer to keep my gaming in the living room instead of the office, I don't think PC games will be dad anytime soon.

Mike, as a parent of a teenager, they don't care much about instant messaging anymore. It's now text messaging and MySpace.

Also, my kids and their friends are playing video games less and less. Probably because the gaming industry hasn't put out anything new. It's just the same game engines with different graphics. They'd rather have air soft wars than play video games.

Cell phones have liberated the younger generations.

Mike,
You said no video for iChat? Hmm. Guess my built in iSight camera is just a peep hole to the other side of my desk-- I didn't realize that, and all this time I've been using it to video chat since last Nov. Silly me.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat/

The resident 11 year old here says quote: "PC's suck." He uses both a PC at his mothers and a Mac here. He always comments how much better the background music and other stuff is on a Mac vs the PC for his on line games. His 13 year old friend wants a Mac too and when he visits he laments he is stuck with the family's cheap PC that's always infested with crap.

"Gen X and the older generations since Gen Y is the crowd these older groups turn to to get advice for what they should buy."

I'm Gen-X by one definition and almost Gen-X by the other, and I don't turn to anyone younger (Gen-Y) for advice on anything, and no one near my age does either. I'm sure that some do (especially maybe older Gen-X'ers), but this is by far an overstatement! I grew up with computers for crying out loud! I was beginning to program TRS-80's when I was 7 years old and have kept up ever since! Don't need no young whippersnappers' advice, thanks!

Small correction.
Apple said that more that 50% of the Mac sold in its retail stores where to windows switchers. They did not disclose the amount of Macs they sold in their stores, but it is safe to say that it is much lower than 1.6M.

Anyway, apple is doing great and so i AAPL!

I know a LOT of teenagers.
The gamers don't want a PC, they want a PS3.
Everyone else wants a Mac.
Or an iPod.
Or both.

And every damn one of them goes ape-sh|t when you talk about an iPod phone.

This is gonna be huge. =)

-c

MW: "needed" (I can think of nothing clever for this word.)

to MacRaven : of course iChat supports video (duh !), I wrote that Microsoft Messenger for Mac doesn't support video, and that's the issue, because no-one uses iChat/AIM in Europe, everyone uses MS IM.

Damn, I'm 42 and still cool (and HOT, too)

Can anyone tell me what my stock would be worth today if I had bought $1500 worth of Apple stock (150 shares) when it was at 10?

Bily Bob,
enough to make you weep!

Well, 150 times the current price (82.28) is $12,342.

MW: "today" (is the greatest day I've ever known)

I wish people would quit using my name in piss ass generalizatons

Hey Billy Bob Thorton's Penis, quit blocking our light.How else are we gonna get a tan down here?

Wow, MDN getting poetic! Whatever happened to "Enderle is a fool!"? Ahhh, the good old days.

I'm not after cool. I want stuff that is good looking and works well. Apple does that. To me, that's as cool as I care about. If Gen X and Y and ZZZ feel Apple is "cool" because it's "in" or for other reasons, fine, they can have it.

I'm 54, and I 'switched' two people today, mainly thanks to iLife: one a little younger than me and the other somewhat older. I don't think age has a great deal to do with it.

One million downloads of boot camp tell the story. 1 million of those Macs are Windows PCs.

Object-X

Nice try but MMORPGs are the hot thing right now and there's simply NO WAY a cheesy console can provide the depth of gameplay experience you can get form a computer in any true MMORPG.

Why? Because what a MMORPG is basically an elaborate chat client with fancy graphics. Explain to me how with any type of game controller you can function in a chat program exactly?

Oh, that's right.. you can't. Also, most of the hard core gamers on these games use voice chat clients like Ventrillo and Teamspeak.. oh you can't do those on a console system?

Yeah consoles will take over computer gaming about the same time as I discover the Loch Ness monster.

Nice try.

Not to say that console gaming isn't hot.. but it's been a multi billion dollar industry for quite awhile and computer gaming is still around, and a strong industry.

Heck even games you CAN do on a console sell well on PCs.

"At 46, I'm a late Boomer / early Gen X. Started using Macs in 1984. Started working with computers in 1976. "

I'm right there with you. I remember peeking and poking using Basic on a new TRS-80.
And forget the "cool" factor about the Mac, they fact of the matter is that people are tired of the hassles of PCs. Computers are supposed to make our lives easier. Macs do that.
Further, the best thing that the iPod did was inform the other 97% of the population that Apple still existed and would not be going out of business next week.

One of my friends switched and bought an iMac. He is wowed by the simplicity of the OS not to mention its security. One thing he liked was the stealth mode Apple provides Web surfers. Now he can use Pounder II against some of the assholes who kicked him off their Buddhist bulletin board.

Speaking as a 17 year old Gen-Y person, I can tell you that the majority of people in my age group (as far as I can tell) are no longer interested in IM and PC gaming. Most people I know do not care whether MSN Messenger has animated winks and nudges or any other useless extraneous features like these. They want a quick way of communication, with a picture of themselves or something that means something to them, and that's about it. Text messaging has taken over for the most part. I text message probably ten times more often than I IM nowadays. PC gaming is also dying out as most "gamerz" that I know are much more interested in the Xbox 360 and upcoming PS3 than their computers. PC gaming is expensive, and offers few benefits over console gaming today.

My girlfriend switched to a Macbook 3 weeks ago and she loves it. She has the following needs:

- Instant Messaging over MSN
- Safari for surfing the internet
- iTunes for Music
- Word for taking notes in class and writing assignments
- iPhoto for her digital photos

And she wants to do these things with a minimum of hassle. The Macbook is the perfect notebook for her and for most other youth our age. And she'll never go back to a PC. She hates Windows and sees it for what it is now. This is the reason why Apple's market share can only go up.

--mAc

"she'll never go back to a PC."

Until she gets a job flipping burgers and has to use the cash register.

Or gets almost any job in corporate america.