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1 Million Windows to Mac Converts So Far in 2005
UltimaGuy writes to tell us AppleInsider is reporting that according to one Wall Street analyst over one million Windows users have switched to Mac in the first three quarters of 2005. It is speculated that these numbers are a direct result of the popularity gained through the iPod and related technologies in addition to security concerns from Microsoft. From the article: "According to checks with Apple Store Specialists, Wolf also said a larger than expected percentage of Windows to Mac converts appear to be purchasing Apple's higher-end systems and that their transition is fueled by the epidemic of viruses and malware on the Windows platform."
While I am sure this is probably random guesses and whohar from this one analyst, I actually somewhat believe him from my observations from down-under (Australia).
As a young man that works for a family owned and quite large computer business I've over the years seen people generally not ask very many questions, to now every day hearing people wanting details on Macs, and how they compare to standard white boxes.
Now bundle this in with the fact that our local, and only Apple store is constantly flourishing with business as compared to a few years ago when it was rare to see more then 1 person at a time in there, you'll understand why it's possible Apple have converted so many users.
Just in my direct experience over the last few years, it's converted myself, my brother, my mother and a few friends of mine - (2 to be exact).
It's also at the point, and while I am growing up and establishing my future that me owning and operating a Apple franchise is highly possible.
I've also seen the websites I manage, which are local to our area, sky rocket from 5-10 hits per week from Mac users, to now over 250-300 unique Mac users per week and raising.
Apple are on to something here, and Steve Jobs knows it!
... is the prohibitive cost here in Australia. The 15.2" Powerbook I want (with a spare battery and 2Gb RAM as the only upgrades) will set me back in excess of AU$4200.
I get to play with a Mac a little at work for some of my app testing, and I have serious envy of the guy whose desk it sits on...
Actually, it was the Mac mini which caused me to use the Mac as my primary home computer, not the iPod.
A few weeks ago I went to Startup School, a conference for hackers with entrepreneurial interests that was hosted by Paul Graham. I'd say 80% of the people there with laptops had macs. It was one of the most amazing things I'd ever seen, to look back from the front of the room and see an entire roomful of Apple computers. I think Paul is right that most of the new Apple users aren't switchers, but rather are switch-backers. I for one am extremely happy with my powerbook that I bought two years ago, switching back from XP, so I don't think I will ever become a switch-back-backer. The amazing thing is that even though this computer 22 months old it feels brand new, rechargable battery issues aside. I have never had to reformat the hard drive, remove a virus, or uninstall any adware. I know that it is theoretically possible to get viruses on an Apple and there have been proof of concepts, but personally I don't give a damn about theory. All I care about is my last two years of "just works" computing.
Excellent point. I added OSX to my arsenal this past year, but did not "switch" from Windows or Linux, both of which still get daily use by me.
>> "What would the robut do? Frame someone!"
I have a PC in my room but I use a mac in the office. If I had the money right now I'd buy a powerbook. It doesn't mean I'm switching from PC to Mac, I'm merely complimenting both machines. I want the best features of both at my disposal. I agree that Apple seems to be unfairly gauging the situation as "everyone who buys a new Mac was a disgruntled PC user"...it's certainly still very cool to have more than one computer.
"Curse your sudden, but inevitable betrayal!"
Me for one ... my new machine will be the first I've had since 1997 for which Linux is not the main OS.
James P. Barrett
My hubby and I are two of those converts out there. After the zillionth windows disaster, we saved up and got a set of powerbooks. I can't say the iPods had anything to do with it because we didn't get a set of those until after we got the powerbooks. I always hated the overzealous mac lover, but it appears I just bought my way into the cult. I can't be happier to have switched, as I haven't had one problem since February. That's definitely longer than I went without having to tweak my PC box.
Nothing hides evidence like a stew. -Gus Pratt
"If we assume that all of the growth in Mac shipments during the past three quarters resulted from Windows users purchasing a Mac..."
That's a really stupid assumption, a lot of Mac buyers could either be buying their first computer or upgrading from an old Mac.
Maybe it's because Apple finally came down off their high horse and offered an affordable computer for once?
I switched to a Mac as much because Mac hardware is just higher quality than most PC hardware. I am more comfortable on Linux than on Windows, so I joined the "cult of mac" because I was tired of my white (or black) boxes falling a part after 2 or 3 years of use. (built in ether net dies, parallel port dies, USB ports die, machine finally refuses to boot) Macs cost more, but they appear to be higher quality.
But I do agree that the iPod and iTunes has probably introduced many people to Apple. I realize I am not typical in my knowledge of the pros and cons of OS's.
Think Deeply.
There probably is no correlation between people buying iPods, people using Wintel, and people buying Macs...
The lifecycle of a PC is about 2 years. A mac is about 5 years. Its probable that this is just a turnover of pre-existing mac users.
Nobody I know or has met who has a Mac bought one because of an iPod.
One one person I've met has bought a Mac because of Windows issues... and they were also a frustrated Linux user.
However, I've met a few people who have bought Macs just because they look cool, fit in with their Ikea furniture, and are trendy.
(I'm a former Mac user. Now I use Windows, mostly for games. Not that I want to... I had the choice between starving MacOS developer, average Wintel developer, or corpulent enterprise Java developer. After starving for a number of years, I chose the corpulent route.)
/\/\icro/\/\uncher
I am contemplating buying a Mac Mini just to check things out. Doesn't mean I'll be dropping my Windows machines any time soon.
I think you don't like change and having to learn how to do basic tasks again, rather than disliking OSX per se... ya know : )
I'm not debating the reasons why. I'm refuting the article's author's assumption that because someone buys a Mac or an iPod they are instantly a "convert".
I'm sure a lot of those 'converts' were due to the Mac Mini. I know, for me, the #1 reason why I never even tried owning a Mac was because I wasn't willing to spend $1-3k to try something out. $500 is a lot easier to spend than $2k for a PowerMac.
Then you have an ever-growing application support for OSX. Large games like World of Warcraft coming with a Mac client at release surely can't hurt.
Plus, damn if the iBooks don't look a lot nicer than my drab, boring Thinkpad.
Further to that, the article makes no attempt to quantify Mac users who are buying PCs. It is all very well that a million users (who may have been PC users) have bought Macs, but if 2 million Mac users have bought PCs in the same period, then that does not bode too well for the Mac.
In fact if you use their logic, and assume that any nominal growth in market A is caused by people in market B (and disregard all other markets), it probably doesn't look good for them. (I have nothing to back it up, but I doubt the nominal growth of the PC market would be less than that of the Mac in the same period).
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Background: First notebook computer I ever owned was a Powerbook 100, followed by a Powerbook 140, back in the early 90s. I left the Mac world (thanks to my job) in 1994, and I returned in fall 2004 with my purchase of an iBook G4.
I really like this machine. Most of the time, anyway. It's small (I got the 12" model), light (5 pounds), and elegant. It performs well enough for everything I do, which includes some system administration, some development, and a lot of email, web browsing, and writing. I love the integration of PDF with the system, and the fact that so many useful applications come bundled with the machine. OpenType is simply beautiful, at least with a word processor like Mellel that uses it (don't even ask Word to do something like NICE typesetting). TeXShop is a wonderful environment, and it only runs under OS X. I love having a UNIX command prompt for when the going gets tough.
Sadly, I find myself considering running Yellow Dog Linux on the machine lately, if only to get some tools to do larger-scale writing with. I don't really like Word for Mac 2004, but, frankly, what else is there? OpenOffice.org is a superb writing platform, but OpenOffice.org under the Mac's X11 is painful. NeoOffice/J is even more painful, simply because it's so SLOW! Mellel is sleek and inexpensive, but kyrie eleison if you try to do anything other than report-type text (e.g., a brochure, screenplay, etc.) The big DTP packages are here, but do more (at a higher price) than what I need. Scribus isn't quite where it needs to be yet. TeXShop/LaTeX do beautiful work, but, again, for anything more than report-type text, I'll spend hours figuring out the incantations to get it to format the way I want it to.
I really love this machine, but, over the past 6 months, it's just not doing the job I need it to. And that's why I use a computer -- not because it's cool, or cute, or powerful.
Would someone please tell Apple to fund the development of a real competitor to Office? One called OpenOffice.org is a prime candidate, but they need help.
I started working w/ a graphic design group (I do web coding) about 10 months ago. All they had was Macs and I was forced to use one. I began the job having an intrinsic hatred for OSX, but within about a month I was hooked. I've found it to be a much easier system to navigate and get things done in, and now use it exclusively (except having to use a PC to work with a client's PPT file here and there). Since then, I have also converted 8 friends to Macs. Apple should pay me a commission :)
Sure, over 90 million computers world wide run Microsoft Windows. We run this OS because its not a choice, Windows is basically imposed in our daily lives, even our careers. As a computer engineer I know that. Go ahead and put in your resume, you only know Mac. You will never find a job... (at least on a computer oriented career), Windows rules all our lives and what do we get of it? More viruses, faulty hardware, lack of security and the same ol' beige box feeling we have had since we laid our hands on a PC for ever. I mean, anyone my age knows that the first PC they laid their hands on was a beige tower of some bulky size. And that was at least 15 years ago. Take a look how cars change in 15 years...
Then look at apple... everynow and then, they shove out a new computer design, always pushing technology to an edge, first with the flat panel imacs, then the ipods, and then OSX, which is basically what everyone has tried to do with Linux. OSX to me is the embodiment of Linux on the Desktop.
I just know that since i switched to apple, I dont worry anymore of viruses, nor i worry if my e-mail has some bundled adware into it, and like many other people have said in this post, it could eventually happen, but right now it hasn't happened for me.
I recently dug myself deeper into apple. I bought a G5 Dual 2.0ghz and have it running with 4gb ram, and the works. Sure i admit i miss my games on the PC... although i play World of Warcraft, without any problems on my powermac, and any other games I play, i play'em on my Xbox, and eventually my 360. My GF who is also an Engineer uses windows because of her daily work, but she uses my mac everynow and often and she likes it a lot... im sure she will want one once we move in toghether.
Finally, i don't know what future Vista will offer anyone. Everything Vista does, OSX does for me. Plus OSX is far more secure than Vista will ever be. The Software part, well its coming around... At least anything i need to use or do I can do it on my mac... no biggy there. Just think other companies should try to develpe more ingenuity and true innovation like Apple does. Instead of stealing ideas only to develop them shittierly than they are originally developed. OSX has brought apple out of the dark ages into the light. I just wish we could all enjoy of the benefits this brings forward.
Now let me go back to my GF and keep raising those GF Points up... I want a video ipod... :)
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You're not the right person to trust anecdotal evidence from, in this case. None of us here on Slashdot are. The average user doesn't have an arsenal of machines, he has one. So, from a macro-sales point of view, each Windows user who buys a Mac is switching. (Even if 100% of them aren't actually doing so.)
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I bought a Mac Mini because it was a cheap way to get a debugging machine for my web app. That was solely to see how it looks in a Mac browser. I still rely on Windows for everything else. I hope they didn't count me.
Blizzard have supported the Mac long before WoW, that hasn't changed. Game support for Mac is still crummy on the whole, that hasn't changed either. In fact, WoW is one of a remarkably small minority of MMOGs that run on the Mac. I can might near count them on one hand.
SWG? No. . . EQ2? No. . .
Does anyone remember when Bungie was first and foremost a Mac developer? We were all talking about how Halo was going to sell Macs. So much for that plan.
Does anyone remember when Connectix Virtual Gamestation was going to make the Mac an attractive gaming platform, because it could run most Playstation games? Then Sony bought CVGS from Connectix and buried it.
I understand Civilization 4 and Call of Duty 2 were recently released for the PC. How many months will it be before they appear on Macintosh? How many features (like editors) will be left out of the Mac version, while we still have to pay full price?
So . . . I really don't see any upswing in Mac game development, much as I might wish for it. Computer gaming still completely revolves around Microsoft (and DirectX), Macs aren't on the radar screen of most game companies -- and if the Mac platform does accidentally get something good, there are always entities like Microsoft and Sony standing ready to buy and/or bury it.
I'm really not trying to rip on the Mac here at all. I'm just being realistic and telling what experience has shown. Games are the one big area where the Mac is weak, and I don't see anything in the works to change it. Apple could do some things to change it, but gaming just isn't in their corporate DNA.
I do tech support for my school, and a senior was having a problem where if she accessed files off of our network server, whenever she saved word would crash and she lost the file. It turned out that the problem was just a loose network cable, and office 2001 or whatever was just deciding to crash when it couldn't find the network connection. Out of nowhere she says while we are working on her computer "I heard that Apples are a lot better - is that true?" and I told her that it was true but that Dell had better warrantees, and if she was going to buy a new computer and would be graduating soon and not have access to our campus tech support than she might be better off going with Dell. I did however confirm that Macs don't have spyware/adware/virus problems, usually I'm a rabid apple fan-boy but I was genuinely worried that applecare would treat her like crap, so I didn't play of the Apple aspect at all. Two weeks later she walked in with a brand new iBook and wanted help transferring all her old files over :-).
I have two friends who all throughout high school were ardent PC users. Now they both have Powerbook G4s, saying it was the best laptop on the market.
It is incredible to me that the company that people were saying was going to go bankrupt is now doing so well. I credit OS X, the iPod, and apple hardware engineering. Oh yeah, and steve jobs!
People have been laying out book length writings in TeX for a long time now. If you're doing more than "report writing", why don't you spend a few minutes (or hours dependingo on how fancy) learning TeX and writing some macros for it to do what you want?
Oh, I don't think most Slashdot readers hate modern Macs. That'd be kind of dumb, after all.. most of us are pretty into Unix.
:-)
There are still quite a few, though. I'm thinking those are the people who haven't yet pulled their heads out and realized that OS X isn't the same thing as OS 9.
Being a Mac hater for most of my life, I can attest to the difficulty of pulling one's head out when it comes to the Mac. But with all the raving of fans (and $$$ pouring into the market) it became hard for me to ignore.
All I can say is, once you go Mac OS X, everything else seems inferior. And I mean EVERYTHING.
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The real issue is not the number of configurations, but rather its design. Because it is an earlier '90s style OS, its message engine, scheduler, file system, and SECURITY setup are just simply inferior. Everytime I am forced to use a XP box, I am reminded of this as the system thrashes items in and out of swap, NTFS file permissions locks files some of which are not even in use, and even when the most insignificant system apps, it brings XP to its knees. Use any newer linux KDE/gnome or aqua gui a spin, and you will see what I am talking about.
In Apple's case, they knew they had to go with newer technology. They did, and are now reaping the benefits. Microsoft, on the other hand, is a very capable company and could write a newer OS, but they are afraid to move because they do not want to loose the monopolistic position which has kept them as the market titan for over a decade now. In the end, though, their inaction will force them to loose big time.
What was the cost different to get a comparable Apple laptop. What do you value your free time at... for me its a lot, because I don't have much... Given the choice between an extra $200 for the machine (and generally, Dell charges the same as Apple for the same machine, but Apple only has limited options, so you buy more machine... i.e. to upgrade the screen, you get a processor upgrade, that kinda thing), and a few hours of tinkering, I reach for my Amex...
It all depends if you'd rather have two-four hours for yourself or a little cash in your pocket...
My point on the Apple vs. Dell... any time I took an Apple machine, then went to Dell and priced an "equivalent" purchase, the price was +/- $50... however, if you start with the Dell, and then price out the equivalent Apple, it is usually a bit more... but you get stuff you may not need, but that is because Apple has limited models...
The Mac Mini is a GREAT office desktop (we have 8, probably going to get 4-5 more)... and its dirt cheap... Once you price out the equivalent Dell and add in XP Pro (home is worthless for a business workstation), and a few other minor upgrades, the mini tends to be $25-$50 less, which is a great deal.
Not intended as a flame, but I just don't regard Linux as mature enough on the desktop for me to go that route. I've spent a lot of time on various UNIX environments over the years, and they usually consume too much overhead for hacking, and these days I just want to get my work done.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Ok, you may have to go back to the very beginning of this blog , but in his early case files he is clearly a linux user. He talks about using Kpresent, KDE, and Gentoo Linux a lot. Then almost without explanation, he has a powerbook running OS X! I was surprised though because I didn't think there were a lot of forensic tools for OS X but I guess he is just compiling the linux ones using fink and X11? Anybody? SecurityMonkey if you're reading this please comment?
due to my recommendation in the last year, including my wife. The difficulty each of those people saw with using Windows and keeping it working deterred them from buying their own PC. For all 3 of them, the iBooks are a literal dream, with only the normal learning curve resulting in some study of training books and DVDs. It has also been almost totally painless for me, as I don't have any significant support to deal with on these machines.
I also can apply patches and updates without worrying about breaking anything, and I can continue to get fully supported OS and application updates for years (yes, even with the Intels coming.)
Don't get me wrong; I love Linux. It definitely has its place (i.e. my servers.) I just don't have the time to play Russian Roulette with compatibility.
As a 10 year DOS/Windows user, with 8 years in I.T. I recently made the switch myself. I'd hated Apple's for years, but once they decided to build their OS on freeBSD technology I couldn't help myself. Frankly, I love it. Like another person mentioned before, I used to spend hours on Putty. Now I just drop down to a terminal and have fun. I really wish Apple would just release their OS to more directly compete with Windows. As a user of both platforms I can honestly say that I think OS X would win hands down.
seriously. Windows and OSX just work because they came with the hardware when you bought it.
I think that this "upswing" is because of the domninance of Windows in the past years. Microsoft is sitting on their cash cows, fixing enough bugs so that people don't give serious thought to the alternatives. After many years, however, the annoyances start to build up. Sure, Windows is "good enough" for a lot of people, but these people also have spyware crawling all over their systems and wonder why their browser is slow and acting strange. With the threats of viruses and spyware that the average user has no idea how to protect against or fix when they get hit, anyone with half a clue is looking for ways to either have a safer Windows system or find a way to get away from MS. For someone like me, who gets the calls from the family asking why something doesn't work, there was no way in hell I was setting my grandparents up with a Windows system. I thought about donating my old computer with Linux on it, but if they needed any help setting up any internet configuration, I know how much ISPs love Linux, so there was really only one choice.
I 'switched' this year when I had to replace my PC laptop. I use the laptop pretty much exclusively, we do have a PC in the closet mostly for legacy purposes that we never directly used (one of these days, when I have more 'time', I will turn it into a proper fileserver with a proper OS...). Anyway, I'm typing this entry from my iBook. PowerBooks were a bit outside my price range for a home machine, but the iBook had everything I wanted, including software, and no extras I didn't want to pay for (except maybe bluetooth, but I'd rather have that than not, I just don't use it now). It is both small and light, making it portable (I travel frequently enough to care). The price was excellent for the processor/memory/drives combination, especially when compared to Dell. The Dell competitors were a little less, but I have never been satisfied with the engineering that Dell puts (or doesn't put) into their laptops. The iBook feels much, much more solid.
This is my first Apple, and I used to make a lot of fun of Macs (especially when they came out with all the fruity colors...). But with OS X and the excellent software traditions, this thing really rocks! I'm even enjoying the development tools - which, unlike Visual Studio - come WITH THE OS. Including all the reference material I could ever want. What a joy!
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
(The Beatles)
That's a sorry apology for Microsoft.
The fact is, there have *always* been better options than a Microsoft-based PC...go as far back chronologically as you like. The reasons change - DOS was cryptic, no GUI, Windows 1-3 weren't worth the bits they were made from, 95 "home of the GPF", (honestly, easy piracy was the best reason to use MS operating systems through this period), *crap* GUI, Security issues, Security issues OUT THE WAZOO.
For all the internal stability the drones in Redmond have been able to achieve in modern renditions of Windows (it doesn't crash just sitting there anymore), they've had that progress *more* than eclipsed by malware vulnerability. *And* it's not too hard to see this situation as nothing more than the legacy of their crap software development standards. Additionally, they've never had the discipline that Apple has had wrt designing a *nice* coherent interface. And I say this while acknowledging that Apple took a few steps back in that department when moving from OS 9 to OS X!!
Last, to cede a little ground to the pro-Windows side so they have somewhere to stand....Window is *definitely* the preferred platform to run games on. This is a "duh" point to an extent - the number of packages for Win32 is enormous - but it is important to me to give credit where it's due.
If you're a hard core gamer, you shouldn't look ay anything but a PC.
Past gaming, the pro-Windows argument gets pretty thin IMO.
Well, put in context:
Guy One says that the lack of malware has nothing to do with the fact that Windows makes up such a large portion of the market, it's just because it's such a great OX.
Guy Two says that it'd be just as easy to write malware for OS X but no one bothers to, and asks whether that's the excellent design Guy One was asking about.
You state that the small expanse of OS X users makes it possible to have a very stable community but that that may not be the case if it were ever to expand to Windows level.
So in summary, enjoy stability while it lasts. You recongnize the validity of his claims, he doesn't address yours. Everyone is happy.
I think you both make good points, making me posting completely uncessessary.
Slightly off-topic, but..
Linux works very well as desktop OS. In our company, there is Max OS X laptops, Linux and Windows XP laptops - and all *just work*.
Secret here is choose your hardware well - I did check Mandriva hardware database before choosing my laptop. HP nc6220 is certified to work with Mandriva Linux 2006 - and suprise suprise, it works like a charm - WiFI for example.
It is not that different from Mac OS X situation: you just have to choose your hardware, dont expect every (windows) gadget out there to work with your OS of choise.I worked in a school where they had a suite of iBooks for video editing using iMovie- they were not the most powerful beasts at 500MHz G3 and 128MB of RAM, but they were good enough for the kids to splice footage together and mess about with transitions. Later last year we got a bunch of iBook G4s in along with copies of Final Cut Express- I started having a fiddle with them, just to get a feel for OS X and gradually realised that I was enjoying using a computer for the first time in a while. I am one of those peopl who periodically tries to use Linux but gets frustrated by all the configuraion difficulties.
The only problem for me getting one was price, that changed earlier this year with the Mac Mini- I bought one and loved it to pieces. As a result of the Mini being around, my housemate and two of his friends are now owners of 12" iBooks, my uncle is getting a Mini and my cousin is going for a 15" Powerbook. Myself, I just bought one of the new 17" iMac G5s, the recent bump seemed to move it into a sweet spot where I thought it was worth buying.
Seven Mac sales where before there were only PC users, obviously this is just a point of data and not a trend, but I think it shows how thse things can snowball. I do stil use my PC by the way, it is more powerful than the Macs- but I only use it for games now, and to be honest I can't see me upgrading it or getting a new one in the future.
"...and on the seventh day we wrapped." JMS 4:22 May 5, 1997
People who think it's impossible to create spyware for Macs are fools. Now, due to architecture differences, it would be much harder, if not impossible to make the kinds of spyware that you get in Windows that burrow into the system .dlls and boot partitions in order to make themselves unremoveable. That level of spyware technology would be really hard to do on a Mac. But just listening in on Safari and reporting back to the mothership? That level of spyware would be trivial to create. Fortunately, it can also be detected through network activity monitors, but the threat remains. In my mind, the only way to stop spyware permanently is to sandbox every application, so that they can't view or modify any more of my home directory than I explicitly allow them to. Security minded users can jury rig such a system for themselves, but this needs to happen automatically and be easy for users to configure. Unfortunately, neither Windows nor Linux nor OS X implements such a sandbox at this time.
But still, we have to use our computers today as well as in the future, so my advice is to stick with OS X for today, since it's the best combination of user friendliness and security currently available. Just keep your eyes peeled in the future for better options, as ever.
Who's going to persuade Canon that we need print drivers for Linux, oh and RAW mage support for their Cameras.
Whilst we're at it, this reliable Linux vendor should have a chat to Adobe about getting Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash working on Linux as well.
Then I'd like them to sort out a decent desktop, none of this lookey-likey gnome or kde, but something new and original and easy to use. Oh plsu they've got to make it close to standard so it's easy to support.
After that I'd like to see some support for bluetooth keyboards and mice, and an app to sync to my next 3 or 4 phones, or at least one that supports most phones.
When they've done that, I'd also like a suite of apps, that can sync with that mobile phone sync app, you know like ical, adress book, that kind of thing.
Throw in something like Salling Clicker for Mac or Windows, and you've nearly got a deal.
All I want then in the package to come in something as thin, stylish and quiet as the Imac.
Jobs a good un.