I think you're right. In Europe macs are not used as tools for professionals, but as toys for rich kids. You never see macbooks in any company unless they are an Apple shop but if you go in the old town center, in the most hipster cafes, you only see youths with macs.
Yeah most people use it for browsing the web, syncing their iPhones and not much else; for most is a luxury item used as another success symbol, like driving a BMW or wearing Gucci belts.
A significant number of the academics I know and work with have a MacBook of some description. They’re incredibly popular in Universities. I can run PowerPoint for teaching as well as all the *nix stuff I need for research.
