Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh computers are making the grade in universities around the country.

One after another, schools are switching to Macs from Windows-based computers, including the University of Tokyo, which did so in the spring.

Macs have a reputation for being graphics-oriented, and as such they are the computers of choice for designers and artists.

But thanks to their increasing popularity with schools, Macs appear set to take a bite out of the overwhelming market share held by Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system, on which most of the nation's PCs run.

In September, the Faculty of Fine Arts at Kyushu Sangyo University in Fukuoka bought 80 iMac G5 computers, which Apple launched that month. The computer comes with a 64-bit, high-performance processor.

``The G5s offer at a cost of several hundred thousand yen what previous computers did at a cost of several million yen,'' an Apple spokesperson said. ``Campuses used to be able to afford only a few computers this powerful.''

The April reform of state-run universities, which made them more responsible for their own finances, spurred orders for Mac computers. In the fall, Tohoku University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ochanomizu University and Kobe University all placed orders for Macs.

Apple has been stepping up its sales pitches, too. The company now employs 10 people full time to sell computers for educational purposes. The number of commercial negotiations Apple held with schools has doubled each year since 2002.

In addition to being powerful, the latest Macs, which run on Apple's proprietary Mac OS X system, also run on the Unix operating platform, which is widely used by researchers. Until now, many universities used Unix-based computers for academic research and Windows products for word processing and other applications.

With the new Macs, both functions can be accomplished on a single machine.

Because Macs are known for being user-friendly, they are expected to be well-received by students.

Apple has been inundated with inquiries from schools that learned that queries from students about how to use Mac computers dropped dramatically compared with Windows at such universities as the University of Tokyo and Tokyo Woman's Christian University.

``It's taken a little getting used to seeing everyone working on Macs (and not Windows computers),'' said Koji Ando, assistant professor at the University of Tokyo's Information Technology Center.

Windows computers overwhelm Macs in terms of business use but Apple hopes that students trained on Macs at universities could eventually get hooked on its products and at some stage redraw the computer industry map.(IHT/Asahi: December 8,2004)