Does Apple provide info on the size of its college mac sales

I doubt you find information. Either we don't know, or if we knew, we probably would not be authorized to tell…

You should search in business reviews whether you can find such infrmation (may be paying reports, BTW).

Anyway, if you believe these figures are high, so you should develop for this market.

Good luck.

-If- those stats were broken out, they would be part of Apple's Annual Business Report - https://investor.apple.com/investor-relations/financial-information/default.aspx

Why would it be in Apple's favour to publish this information? Apple doesn't need external funding for its software projects. They have plenty of money.

Why? Credibility in the Education market, a market where Apple's influence has greatly declined. In fact, I receintly ask someone wether she used a Mac. She said, "Macs? We (meaning everyone) don't use Macs anymore. The Mac has largely disappeared from people's attention as it has from Apple's. Mac's legitimacy in many people's minds is now in question. Yet, I recently read (from a questionable source) that 65% of college students use Macs. If so, Apple would do well to draw people's attention to this. That is if Apple cares about the Mac any more.

If Apple wants to maintain or increase it's influence in the education market, then it should encourage development of modern, innovative software for that market by demonstrating that it is worthwhile to develop for it.

That is why I want reliable information about this.

There is no one stopping you from seeking that information if you want it.

As for Apple, it has no obligation to perform this market research on your behalf. "Credibility" and "legitimacy" are selective, subjective evaluations. You pointed out a discrepancy yourself. Some people tell you they don't use Macs anymore and other people tell you that most college students use Macs. What is the truth? The truth is likely much more subtle than that. Apple probably doesn't have great standing in the institutional IT market. I don't think it ever did. Apple probably doesn't have 65% of student market, nor did it ever. But I'm willing to bet that Apple's customers in that market are the best and most profitable customers. I'm willing to bet that as you go up the socio-economic ladder of IT, the percentage of Macs gets higher and higher.

Why do you care? Have you ever tried to do business with institutional IT customers? I bet you wouldn't like it. They want top-of-the-line service and products for massive discounts. You'll work like mad on a bid or a small project hoping to get something lucrative. Then you'll find out the contract went to someone with connections for 5 times your bid. I speak from experience here. 🙂

It is better to focus on building a great product for customers who are willing and able to buy. If that means you focus on some other industry instead of higher-ed IT, so be it.

Send me your e-mail so I can send you my invoice for this $10,000 consulting work. If you laugh at that, then higher-ed IT really isn't for you.

Approved. Institutional education market is pretty special. I prefer to address customers who have a real, expressed need, who may care about what my software bring to them ; not customers who just buy "on instruction" (and that's a Windows world essentially).

In addition, I would not try to give marketing lessons to Apple. 😉

John, if you address(ed) this market, I would be interested to share with you, on a different channel.

Not really. I've tried but it wasn't worth the effort. If you want to look me up, I'm "etresoft". I'm afraid I don't recognize you from any other venue.

Oh, come on folks. No one said anything about institutional sales.

Sorry, but that is what I assumed you meant when you said "education market" and referred to someone saying "Macs? We (meaning everyone) don't use Macs anymore". Macs are not popular among institutional customers and never have been. They are too expensive. But among other young adults, their popularity seems to mirror their popularity among the rest of the population. In my experience, Macs popularity is proportional to income and education level. I've been to university 3 times over [redacted] years. The first two times I was the only person with a Mac. But in 2011-2013 I would say that your 65% is too low, at least among graduate students at the University of Toronto.

That is the same market dynamics that applies to any Mac product. It really doesn't matter what the "market" is or what the "percentage" is unless you are talking about institutional sales. For consumers, Apple products, the Mac included, are always in the minority, but that it always the best minority as far as profit potential is concerned.