Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware
How I sold two Macs this week
Alternate title: Linus needs his security blanket. I'm lucky enough to work at an all-Mac school. However, the majority of employees (as I'm sure is the case most everywhere) are PC users at home. Two of them recently came to me on separate occasions seeking my opinion on a new computer purchase. Both admitted that they've recently become intrigued with Macs, but aren't sure they want to take the plunge. So we talked a bit and I showed them around my iMac, letting them play with a few of the iApps (photo sharing in iPhoto across two Macs via airport was a real crowd pleaser, I can tell you). Still, they couldn't be swayed. Until I dropped the bomb, that is."These can run Windows, you know," I said. "WHAT?!?" Their eyes lit up. I explained Boot Camp, and how the technology it represents will be a part of the next version of the OS. They reeled. It was like finding out you can eat cheesecake on your diet. I realized what was going on, of course: the security blanket effect. Knowing that their precious Windows is there, even if it's never used (and eventually it won't be) pushed them over the edge.
They've both since purchased Macs. The whole experience leads me to believe that Apple is going to sell a LOT of computers next year.
Linus and all PEANUTS characters are copyrighted © United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Stephen C. said 12:10PM on 5-19-2006
Yay bootcamp!
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kevin said 12:11PM on 5-19-2006
i did the same thing for my roommate, showed him some cool features.. expose, etc. and i had to explain a few things about dashboard et al since i was only running panther. told him about ilife, not having to deal with viruses, no (or very rarely any) weird cryptic error messages, and general comfort and appeal using mac os x. he tried it out and liked it.
but then i even showed him virtual pc, and had told him the new macs run windows natively so they're much faster than virtualization. he was worried he couldn't synch his palm to the mac, but i assured him he could just do it through windows on the mac if necessary even though he said he remembers seeing that the palm would work with a mac in the palm manual. i showed him microsoft word running on my mac, something he was concerned about.
upon my suggestion, he even went to the apple store to check out some more macs and get more info. he even went to the apple switch webpage, checked out products on the apple site including the imac and mac mini.
he got an hp laptop.
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ryan said 12:11PM on 5-19-2006
It's been said before and I'll say it again, Boot Camp is a HUGE deal for Apple, I don't have enogh fingers and toes to count the amaount of people at my school who have decided that their next system will definitly be a mac since i told them about boot camp. These people were always afraid of the program compatibility they would lose by switching but truly always wanted to use the superior OS. This is exactly what Boot Camp was made for and it truly is working.
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blackout said 12:31PM on 5-19-2006
and to think, its only beta.
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Paul said 12:35PM on 5-19-2006
good sales, now where is the Apple Sales affiliate program?
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Mike said 12:41PM on 5-19-2006
My Step daughter (away in college) PC laptop just died (again). She wanted one of the new MacBooks just because of the Boot Camp capability. It should be interesting to see how much time she spends in Windooze land vs OSX.
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Kevin said 12:43PM on 5-19-2006
Funny, though, I liked it better when the selling point was - it doesn't run Windows.
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blackout said 12:50PM on 5-19-2006
if you dont want to, you dont have to.
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Thorn said 1:03PM on 5-19-2006
I know that it doesn't do games (graphics can't keep up), but for me, using Parallels to run Windows in an OS X Window is sooooooo much more convenient than dual booting.
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Steve said 1:24PM on 5-19-2006
You are the St. Patrick of Mac my friend. Well done!
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Enrique said 1:34PM on 5-19-2006
I've been a Windows user my whole life. I rarely ever have issues (viruses and spyware aren't hard to avoid if you don't have fat fingers and use Firefox...) I have been intrigued by Apples for the last year or so, since I bought my iPod and was impressed by how well it works with iTunes and how seamless and customizable the programming is. And although I did get pissed at Apple for a while because my Smart Playlists stopped dynamically updating, they have since solved the problem, so I'm ok with it. I'm planning a trip to a nearby Apple store to have them try to convince me why Apples are better, but stability and the lack of a need for an anti-virus are not going to do it for me. I read through the Apple Switch site too, and am intrigued by iLife. I'd like to know what the TUAWers have used it for, since that seems to be a HUGE selling point. I also already have a 24" Widescreen LCD, so the only Mac I'd need would be the Mini. Are there any disadvantages to getting the Mini? What about Apps like Office? I know that it's available for Macs, but I also know it's $400. What Spreadsheet/Word processors come with a Mac? I realize I won't need Photoshop or Dreamweaver because of iLife, but what about Macromedia Flash? Will I also have to rebuy those? Anyway, thanks, and keep up the good blogging - even Windows people like me read it to see what's going on in the more stylish side of the Personal Computing world.
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Andreas from Denmark said 2:03PM on 5-19-2006
Enrique:
About iLife. I have to say I don't use it that much. I use iTunes often, because I own two iPods, which I use all the time. But aside from that I only use iPhoto a little for organizing my pictures and basic editing. That's about it.
I can't tell you about iMovie and iDVD because I have never launched them in my 12 months as a Mac-owner. What I can tell you, though, is that iWeb isn't much of a treat.
If you use the advanced features in Photoshop and Dreamweaver you can't replace them with iLife.
As far as word-processing and spreadsheets go, I use MS Office for Mac. Apple has some office-apps called iWork, the presentation tool, Keynote, should be really cool, but the word-processor, Pages, is, although inventive in some ways, not mature enough to replace Word. My major concern is with speed, it's too slow with large documents.
THE very cool thing about Macs, IMO, is OS X. It is way ahead of Windows, you will realize that yourself from playing around with it. I would pose no problem for me to use an ugly desktop computer, as long as it would allow me to run OS X.
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Alan said 2:15PM on 5-19-2006
Dave- which school? I went to Berklee - definitely an all-mac school.
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Paul-Michael Bauer said 2:19PM on 5-19-2006
@ #10 Enrique
I bought a legit copy of Mac Office '04, new, in packaging, off eBay for less than $200.
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Will said 2:37PM on 5-19-2006
If all you want is word processing and spreadsheet, get the Student and Teacher Edition of Office for $150 at the Apple Store.
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Will said 2:39PM on 5-19-2006
AND iLIFE IS AMAZING!
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James said 2:41PM on 5-19-2006
A family friend who works at an Apple Store let me in on a secret -- if you need Microsoft Office, pick up the Student-Teacher edition. Includes full versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage, and it's only $149. According to my friend, the Apple employees don't require any kind of verification to prove that you're actually a student. I bought my copy without any issues.
If this less-than-totally honest approach bothers you, well, tell them you're a "student of life" and see if that flies. :)
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Will Parker said 2:54PM on 5-19-2006
"If all you want is word processing and spreadsheet, get the Student and Teacher Edition of Office for $150 at the Apple Store."
Lest people think the Student/Teacher version only includes Word and Excel, please be aware that here are three versions of Mac Office -- Standard, Student/Teacher and Professional.
Professional includes a copy of Virtual PC (useless if you're going to buy an Intel Mac), while the ONLY differences between Standard and Student/Teacher are 1) the license and 2) the price.
Both of these versions include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage.
Buy the Student/Teacher version ($130 on Amazon) and you're legally allowed to run the single copy on any three Macs in your household. Buy the Standard version ($350) and you're legally allowed to run the single copy on TWO computers in your household -- one of which must be a laptop.
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Enrique said 3:01PM on 5-19-2006
right, it's amazing... but what about it is so amazing?
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gotfrap said 3:19PM on 5-19-2006
haha. Yea thats just like my friend. He came over to my house one day and we played around with my Mac and I alos showed him how I could boot into Windows. Ive been doing this to alot of friends and family since i'm the only one in my family that likes macs. ALL the time, when I ask whether to boot in Mac or Windows, its always Mac. I think cause they think its much cooler, I even got one friend to buy a Mac. He IM ed me one day and said, i'm getting a Mac like youres too. Well hes getting a 20" iMac. Yup thats my little story.
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