Time went by and software manufacturers saw an untapped market and money making potential and started developing their programs for the PC. This changed my career forever. The last time I was employed by a company using a Mac was in the 90s. Yes the 90s. From what I can tell, a lot of companies didn't like the Mac price tag and when they came out with QuarkXpress for the PC, corporate and nonprofit purchasing managers rejoiced.
Dan was one of my favorite people to work for. We worked for a nonprofit organization and every-now-and-then I would walk in his office and tell him I need a Mac! His eyes would roll to the back of his head and I would break out in laughter. We both knew that there was no way in the world I was getting a Mac; not unless I got one from McDonald's around the corner. PCs were cheaper and software for Macs were now available to PCs. Case closed. The bottom line meant I worked on a whole lot of PCs in my career and very few Macs.
In the beginning, even though they made design software for PCs it wasn't the same. PCs were clumsy, the processing was laborious and simply put, it wasn't a Mac.
A customer came to my counter recently with a Mac and my eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store. I helped him convert a few files and then uploaded them. It was wonderful. Now the operating system is a wee bit different from the OS7 I remember but it was still strangely familiar.
So what's the prevailing argument now?
If you're in the business of creating, does it still matter on what hardware you produce that work?
What selling point, what persuasive argument is there to convince a company - especially in this economy - to buy a Mac in 2010?
I'd love to hear from you!
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I was a Windows developer (note the use of the past tense) since the late 80s. I struck out on my own as a freelancer in 92. At the time, I owned a Mac Quadra 950 and a PC. Eventually, I saw that I could pick one, for both platforms could do pretty much the same things. I chose Windows because of the cost of the Mac hardware. It wasn't a slam dunk back then - the service bureaus were all PC-averse, but clients were leery of Macs. I got rid of the Quadra, more-or-less reluctantly.
ReplyDeleteI went from Windows 3 to NT to XP (skipping Windows ME) and then XP. Finally! A version of Windows for the 80s! Trouble was, it was the 90s.
I put up with XP for years. I gained a rep as the office "Alpha Geek," which meant I not only had to put up with crap from my own computer, but from everybody else's.
I bought laptops for my then-wife and daughter. They came with Vista. And what a steaming pile of crapalicious junk it was. When my XP box was on its last legs I had a decision to make...what kind of PC to get. Then a friend said, "have you even looked at a Mac?" I said, "of course not...they're too expensive." He asked me to price out a Mac versus the high-end, balls-to-the-wall PC I wanted.
I was shocked.
Turns out, those sub-$1K PCs are effectively "loss-leaders" for manufacturers. Stack 'em deep and sell 'em cheap. But when you compare high-end PCs to virtually any Mac, the price differences evaporate. And when you take into account all the extras you get with the Mac (GarageBand, iMovie, etc.) the decision becomes a slam dunk.
I bought a MacBook Pro. And haven't looked back. Interestingly, the Mac makes a great PC, too. In fact, PC magazine ranked the MacBook Pro as the best machine for running Windows.
The Mac isn't perfect. It crashes...once in a blue moon. (I've never used a Windows machine that could make it through a day - much less a week - without rebooting. My Mac gets rebooted about once a week regardless of if it needs it or not.)
I'm not a Mac fanboy, nor am I a Windows hater. Both have their advantages. If budget is an issue, and you don't need much more than MS Office, buy a PC. If you wanna get real work done (video, 3D, big images in Photoshop) save your hypertension pills and scripts for Prilosec and buy a Mac. You can thank me later.
Thank you for sharing! That's right along the feedback I'm getting. That apples to apples, PCs and Macs are priced about the same.
ReplyDeleteIf this is the case, then why don't we see more Macs in the workplace? The other issue I heard was networking. Is that even a valid reason not for businesses to buy a Mac anymore?