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Are you a Switcher?

  • I switched to Mac in 2006 (A MacIntel Switcher)

    Votes: 44 29.1%
  • I switched to Mac in 2005

    Votes: 42 27.8%
  • I switched to Mac in 2004

    Votes: 23 15.2%
  • Switched before 2004, but after the introduction of the PowerPC

    Votes: 16 10.6%
  • I never was a Windows users, so how could I switch?

    Votes: 26 17.2%

  • Total voters
    151
  • Poll closed .
Bought a PM in 04. The iPod was the gateway drug for me.

Still have the PM and have since added an ibook and a mini.

Converted my sister and brother to macs as well...
 
Maybe it's just the site I Polled on*, but I asked a version of this same question a year ago and got a strikingly different answer(base).

1669 voters, overwhelmingly "Lifers" 46.79%.

http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=38555&lifer

I'm interested in seeing how things sift out in this (macrumors) poll.



* Though I did advertise here (in macrumors) in my sig, and got quite a few people to vote.
 
There are alot of reasons this poll could be skewed, but I posed the questions because I have noticed a lot of switchers cropping up at all boards, and I have overheard a lot of switchers at the store in London with the arrival of the Intel machines in January (particularly the iMac) and now with people looking at that MacBook. Salesmen there have confirmed to me that their impression is also that they are seeing more switchers this year than they have before by a substantial amount. This trend also seemed to pre-date Parallels and Boot Camp, but it has seemed to pick up even more with the MacBook.

This poll may be completely off, but the question as to whether Apple is finally making significant inroads in capturing switchers, something they have long wanted, is a valid one. Hopefully there will be some kind of more meaningful answer over the course of the year if Apple ever choose to release their sales number of particular units.
 
I got my PowerBook on September 21, 2004. I didn't officially switch entirely up until a few months ago or so. I'm actually selling my Windows rig right now. I have just a few more parts to sell...

But I do consider myself to be a Switcher since 9.21.04. :)
 
I'm a switch...


Oh, you mean from PCs to Macs. Nevermind.


I've bounced inbetween the two for the past several years, depending on what I could afford and what best met my needs, I'm currently using a home built PC and have no desire to buy another Mac again for the time being, mostly because I use it as a Media Centre (with the appropriate OS to go with it) and Windows is far better at that than Macs are at the moment. I'm afraid if I bought a Mac now, I'd be booting Windows on it most of the time. :eek:

I'm waiting until I hear more about Leopard an its rumoured built-in virtulisation before I spring on another one. I'm intending to get a MBP, but not unless I can quickly switch between operating systems, or if there's a robust and polished media centre app on OS X that can handle a wide variety of formats including and especially VIDEO_TS folders which I don't think any of the four currently out there (MediaCetral, Front Row, Centrestage, iTheatre) handle very well.
 
vniow said:
I've bounced inbetween the two for the past several years, depending on what I could afford and what best met my needs, I'm currently using a home built PC and have no desire to buy another Mac again for the time being, mostly because I use it as a Media Centre (with the appropriate OS to go with it) and Windows is far better at that than Macs are at the moment. I'm afraid if I bought a Mac now, I'd be booting Windows on it most of the time. :eek:

I had NO idea you were a spy for the other side!!! :eek:
Gendarme! Gendarme!
 
Crap i voted 2005 , but i really switched in 2004, on Dec 27 2004. Before that i had an iPod Mini.. and now i spend most of free time on my mac..learning about Mac stuff(or at least computer stuff)
 
I switched to mac when i went to college, i needed to due to the field i work in ( photography )

i haven't looked back once.
and i never will.
im a lifer now.

i switched from a Pentium II 333mhz 5GB hard drive ( i dont even want to try to remember what the RAM was )

basically it was disgusting lol. but it was all i had at the time during umm.. elementary school through high school? Lol.

i switched to a 17" powerbook g4 1.5Ghz, and i nearly cried at the performance difference. i still have the powerbook. at least until photoshop becomes universal and i get a macbook ( id rather have the small size laptop now. )
 
I got an iMac Base model, and I love it. It is so fast compared to my AMD 64 Athlon Compaq laptop and HP Pavilion Atrhlon XP! :D I am a lifer. I will never EVER look back to that horrible operating system and hardware.
 
Switched in April 2006, and will never go back.

I dislike the term "switcher". If it weren't for some key events in the past we probably would all be using Apple's anyway. But alas, life panned out this way.
 
I'm 17, I took up arms with Apple 2 months after I turned 16. I was at my friends and saw his flippin' sweet 12" PowerBook (He's really spoiled) and he showed me some keynote where Steve was talkin about all the great new features of Tiger. That was in January and I was workin at McD's and so I planned on getting it when Tiger came out. I showed my Dad my friends PowerBook and he like already had determined that I would pay 1/4 of it. Eventually, I saved up money and finally had enough from a paycheck 3 hours before tiger came out and Tiger came out at I believe 18:00? And THEN my dad decided he didn't like my behavior anymore so he said I had to pay for 1/2 instead of 1/4... took me 2 weeks to convince him to loan me the money and I would pay him back, which I did ASAP. So It was my first computer/first mac and I plan on staying loyal 'till kingdom come. So I didn't switch... I am an 'pro-mac initial decision maker.'
 
count chocula said:
my first mac purchase (macbook), has been ordered, but it hasnt shipped yet :mad:

Yes, the waiting can be a killer- that is why I went to the Apple store in King of Prussia Mall to pick up my MacBook Pro. But if you want your Mac BTO, then you have to buy it online.


Enjoy it when it arrives count chocula! :)
 
Born and raised Windows.

Dad was employee at Digital Semiconductorm so I had computer stuff in my house all the time. Parts gadgetry new products software, all the good windows stuff.

When I went to school I brought my brothers dated Pentium3. It worked for freshman year, but I really wanted something new. Luckily, the hard drive crashed and I used it as an excuse to buy my Mini. Now I love Apple, and now that Intel is in the scene I can run all my engineering apps on my Apple too!

Now my dad cant say it was worthless to switch, as I have the best of both.
 
I switched in August or September of 2004. We had a Mac II in 1987 (still have it), and I used that fairly often, but until 2004 that was pretty much my only experience with Macs. It runs/ran System 6.0.8, so obviously there's no comparison with OS X.

I would call my switch a total one. I do actually own a Windows machine, but it was given to me free and only gets turned on around once a month, maybe less. Even then, it's used exclusively via Remote Desktop. It doesn't even have a monitor hooked up to it. I never use it for anything essential, mostly just to mess around for one reason or another in Windows. VPC is generally fine for Windows stuff I need.
 
I was convinced in 2002, but didn't buy until 2004. I use windows now and again (I currently have 6 computers in the house 4 macs, 2 PC's!), but I can't stand the organisation of windows (or lack of one) so I mainly use them to make sure websites are IE compatible (IE7 still isn't reading WW3 standards properly - and that is criminal). One of the macs is running edubuntu, which I haven't really warmed to (it's for the kids anyway). I'm sure it's good (I love the sound effects!), but not much to look at. Macs are comparatively hassle-free and look nice. That's why I switched (well, the hassle-free bit) and I have not been disappointed.

yoji
 
In October of 2005 I became so frustrated with Windows and the poor performance of my year-and-a-half-old PC that I bought myself a Rev B G5 iMac. Didn't take me long to fall in love with it, with the OS and with everything Mac. Not that long afterward I bought a PB because I was about to take a trip and knew that there was no way I wanted to use my inexpensive laptop and fight with Windows again, especially when on the road. Love the PB as much as the iMac. However... just a couple of weeks ago I was in the Apple store and came out happily carrying a box containing a brand-new MacBook Pro. Am I hooked on Macs? I guess so!

Interestingly, it was only after I'd had my iMac about a month or two that one day I decided to find out what this iTunes thing was all about....and, yep, next thing you know, I'm in the Apple store looking at iPods. This is definitely a Mac household now! The old Windows machines are still sitting here, but definitely unused and definitely unloved. I need to take some time one day to clean them out and get them out of the house altogether. Trouble is, I'm too busy with my Macs....
 
I switched as of last night....my pc is still a keeper, but I picked up a white mb. Still trying to learn everything about it...stayed up til 4a doing a report that was due today....i guess that made it necessary to sink or swim :)
 
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