Oh, suuuuure iPods won't lure more customers over to the Mac side of the playground, Steve; sheesh, we can't believe we bought that "decision not to use the iPod to drive people to Macs" line; we're usually cynical enough to duck that sort of bull. But suckered we were, kids, and here we are just a couple of months later, starting to see some more of that "evidence starting to mount that Apple is poised to pick up some PC share with consumers" to which BusinessWeek alluded a few weeks back. What sort of evidence, you ask? Howzabout a bucketful of steaming anecdotal testimony from multiple university computer sellers who claim that, this back-to-school season, the Mac has been hot hot hot?

No, seriously-- assuming you trust USA Today (and as we all know, it's far too pretty and colorful to lie to us), "many students, after falling in love with the iPod, are packing for college with new Apple Macintosh computers." At the University of Oregon's computer store, one sales associate notes that just two years ago, "people wouldn't even look at Macs," but now "two-thirds of them" come in wanting Macs right from the get-go. Meanwhile, at the University of Arizona's store, Mac sales now comprise "6 of 10" computers sold. Extrapolating wildly from unscientific, unverified, and woefully insufficient data, that would mean that Macs are scoring something in the 63% region when it comes to market share in higher education.

Oh, don't even bother with the startled gasps, because we can hear you already: "63%? But wait, even with the narrower market focus, what about that 2% figure they keep throwing at us?" Well, we don't mention it often, folks, but it's well worth keeping in mind that the 2% Apple market share you always hear about is probably derived from sales data that includes a vast number of computers sold in markets in which Apple isn't even competing (yet). So while it may technically be true that only one of every fifty computers sold is a Mac, you might consider the possibility that of the other forty-nine, ten or so are being made into those cheesy supermarket check-out terminals, twenty are going straight into fluorescently-lit beige cubicles to be operated from 9 to 5 by corporate assembly-line beancounters and suicidal data entry temps, etc. In markets in which Apple actually bothers to compete (like, say, education), it's apparently doing quite well.

And no, this isn't just the result of the current iPodmania; last year Apple had a 40% share at the U. of Arizona, and that was before the iPod mini threw the whole planet into some weird kind of brain-fever consumer frenzy. True, it was no 60%, but it sure wasn't any 2%, either. Indeed, IDC claims that Apple's market share in education overall is 26.7%; Apple's share among purchasers for graphics, sound, and video creators is surely even higher still. Heck, even if we could see numbers just for home consumer purchases, we bet Apple would be doing a whole lot better than a runty 2%. (And let's not even get into the difference between quarterly market share and installed user base.)

Not that we're going to write off the iPod's contribution to the Mac's growing popularity among the college set, of course. Says Lynnsey Bender, who "just picked up an Apple iBook laptop to go with her new iPod" (which is somewhat akin to picking up a new Mercedes to go with your sporty new automotive floor mats, but hey, whatever), "Everyone I know at school has switched this summer, or is in the process of going to Mac. Apple is so much easier to use. It's awesome." And there's also Windows's continuing secondary role as Virus Soup; New York University's campus store claims that "every week... three or four people switch [to a Mac] for just that reason."

Kinda warms your heart, doesn't it? And we're sure that the Mac's massive upswing in popularity among collegefolk right now has nothing whatsoever to do with that whole "buy a laptop, get an iPod for $69" deal. Nope. Nothing at all. (cough) Whatever it is, though, we're just happy to hear that the kids are developing some taste. We were beginning to fear the advent of a Beige Planet.