Class warfare

Mac versus PC: class warfare?

A few years ago Apple ran a series of insufferable TV ads comparing Mac computers to the generally less-expensive PCs.

Personally I thought the PC guy was way cooler than the Mac guy, but that probably only tells you something about me.

Anyway it turns out that Mac users are not only (as Apple would have us believe) hip, they spend lots more money on hotel rooms. (However the people who work at Apple stores may not be among them.) The Orbitz travel-booking website steers Mac users to more expensive hotels than it does PC users.

CEO Barney Harford told CNN that Orbitz recommendation results are part of an attempt to pair customers with the hotel they’d probably pick. In this case, Orbitz will offer recommendations based on what other PC or other Mac users selected as their final hotel, on the assumption that spending habits are the same, he said.

“What we have found is … that Mac users are 40% more likely to book four- or five-star hotels than PC users,” Harford said. “That lines up with (the fact that) Mac users are typically more willing to spend more money on higher-end computers.”

My desktop and laptop are both PCs, which makes me a member of what I like to call (as of today) the cyberproletariat.