Despite the low market share, Apple is still the world's seventh-largest computer maker and shipped 1.7 million units last year. But Apple's market share continues to slide in educational institutions. Apple had 27 percent of that market in 1997 and 19 percent in 1998. Those numbers are reflected in the statistics at San Jose State University, which, while less biased against Macs than Santa Clara University, remains a staunchly pro-PC campus. While Nance says the university continues to support Macs, there will be inconveniences for Mac users.
Many faculty choose to switch to be compatible with colleagues.
At San Jose State, the bottom line is the high cost of supporting both platforms. At De Anza College, always a Mac-dominant campus, the introduction of the iMac solidified things for the near future. Pritchard is in the midst of replacing all the campus computers in three phases ending next fall. Even though the iMac wasn't an option for the first two phases of the computer replacement program, Mac users made up 60 percent of the faculty and staff. Recently, Stanford University's computer support staff has noticed a resurgence of Macs on their network of 35,000 computers.