On Orbitz, Mac Users Offered Pricier Hotels First 305
An anonymous reader writes "Travel site Orbitz found out that Mac users tend to select pricier rooms and swanky hotels. So, from now on, they will show more expensive hotel options to Mac users than to PC users. This is why, although I am a Mac user, my Firefox agent string says 'Windows XP' :)" The (paywalled) WSJ report on which Reuter's summary is based carries Orbitz' s softer explanation, which is that the results by platform are an experiment based mostly on presentation and search-result ordering rather than actually naming higher prices based on OS: "[T]he company isn't showing the same room to different users at different prices. They also pointed out that users can opt to rank results by price."
Suprised This Doesn't Happen More Often (Score:5, Interesting)
To be honest I'm surprised we don't see this kind of thing more often. Not just on travel sites, but on any kind of site that doesn't have strict MSRP pricing such as Amazon. Certain platforms absolutely attract certain demographics, and unlike tracking/profiling you don't have to spend time building as profile as all of this data is conveniently offered up by the browser with page requests.
Re:Linux users (Score:3, Interesting)
You do deserve the funny you have.
The truth now though is quite a bit different.
For most users and equipment Linux does 'just work' now. There are many choices for almost any type of software that most people would use that is just a click or a single 'sudo apt-get install [new thing I want]' away. Linux mint for example is good looking. Comes with codecs and flash. Works well, Easy to use and install.
Seems to me that for most use cases that for non computer people that Linux would be a better and easier choice.
Re:Well, duh (Score:4, Interesting)
Citation please. All the published data says the opposite.
"The average household income for adult owners of Mac computers is $98,560, compared with $74,452 for a PC owner, according to technology market data firm Forrester."
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/06/26/why-the-apple-demographic-is-so-important-to-orbitz-and-retailers/ [wsj.com]