Why I prefer Apple (and why I Made the Switch)

For those of you who have been following me for a while, you may have realized that I’m a big fan of Apple. I will admit that I think of myself as a relatively recent converter, but since I went over to Apple completely, I’ve become completely enthralled with how the ecosystem works. For a bit of context, I should probably mention why I switched over in the first place. I have been using computers for years, but they were all PC’s. We had PCs at school and then at work, and I figured that I knew how to navigate that system, so why rock the boat and try to learn a new one? Well, a few years ago there was a galactic “critical error” that happened for me which made moving over that much easier. I had purchased a new laptop, I liked it because it was sleek and easy to carry around, and it was super cool.

A couple of weeks in I went to plug the computer into its power cord and instead of plugging it in I knocked it against the side of it, and the pin that went into the laptop snapped clean off. Losing the ability to charge, as you might imagine, ended up becoming a real problem for me. Not because I was using my computer a lot and needed power, but because I could not, no matter how hard I tried, find a replacement power cord for my laptop. I checked every store and website that I could find and still nothing (and that includes the manufacturer of the computer!), so I was unable to use my laptop because once it ran out of power that would be it! I told my wife that I wanted to get a Mac and she was thrilled. She had been using Macs for a while and had been bugging me about it for just as long. When I made the transition, I found a few things that had changed for me:

1) The Synchronization factor – While I was a serious PC user, I did have an iPhone. I love listening to my music and having a cell phone, but carrying around two devices was driving me slightly mental. The one issue was when I went to sync my phone with my computer. First I would have to plug it into my laptop, then I would need to make sure that my computer recognized my iPhone as being plugged in, and then I would have to make sure that it synced with iTunes and made sure that my pictures got synced over…..it was a process. Once I bought my first Mac computer, the difference was like night and day. I no longer had to plug my two devices together and practically put them through marriage counselling to get them to talk to each other.  They would work. My video, audio and picture files would sync properly, no effort required or anything.

2) Hardware is always available – one of the things that bothered me was the fact that I couldn’t find the charging cable for my computer. It bothered me that the hardware that I needed to work on my laptop was merely unavailable, even from the manufacturer! Also (at the time) there were no product-specific stores. There were no Microsoft stores back then so finding a charger that would work with my computer was impossible. This is another thing that I like about Apple. Because they have stores pretty much everywhere now if you need a new charger…..you go and get one, or you order one online. I’m perfectly aware that more and more has become available online and it’s very likely that you now can find everything you could ever need online, but Apple was ahead of the game, and that is what I needed.

3) It’s a complete Ecosystem – One of the things that I like is that Apple offers a complete ecosystem. I’ll be honest, I don’t use it as much as I could, but If I were to choose so, I could exist completely within apple specific products. There is the hardware (naturally) there is any software tool you could need for your business like Pages, Numbers and Keynote (for those Windows users that isd the mac version of Word, Excel and powerpoint). There is a messaging system, an e-mail system, a cloud service and an app store to help you find anything else. I’ll be honest, there are quite a few products that I will use instead of what is in the ecosystem, but the fact that it’s there at all is something that I admire about Apple. Any company that is willing to provide the whole package to its consumers is a company that I will happily buy from.

The fact of the matter is that Microsoft has come closer to Macs by leaps and bounds over the past few years. The problem that I have (and the reason I’ve stuck with Mac) is because they have been able to control the entire experience. They had both the hardware component and the Operating System to run it. This is different from Dells or Toshiba’s which would have to load the Windows OS and make sure that it worked. With Apple products, Their base Operating System AND their hardware are all done in house. Being able to offer a complete package is something that I like. I like the fact that if I wanted to, I would be able to use the preloaded programs. Admittedly, I have gone out and got third-party applications for many different things, but the point is that that was my choice. If you decided to get a Mac, then you wouldn’t have to go any further to function. I prefer Mac because they offer the complete package.

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What programs do you like using?

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