Survey: Did you ever make your friend switch over to a Mac?

[0098386]

I got my friend into Apple. He bought an iMac and I helped him carry it home on the bus, but not before a trip around the labyrinthine corridors of Afflecks Palace (for the Mancs amongst us).

Friend didn't like the iMac. My parents ended up with it. Which got them into Apple and bam! But we have a split 50/50 of Macs and PC's. And each Mac has Windows on it.

 

[G4er?]

No but without a headless mid range Mac I'm close to switching the other way after 18 years of using Macs.

 

[ChristianVirtual]

I'm very selective whom I try to convince. Will not try that anymore with my mother; she just got used to Windows and lives 12 flight hours away; my support would be difficult.

But for colleagues I'm the official Appe fanboy and try my best to pull them over into the bright side of life. My recent success is my wife; she finally dumped her Windows laptop and use my "old" MBP pro.

 

[belvdr]

How do you make someone switch to another platform?

At any rate, if people ask, I tell them what I like and don't like about the Mac platform. Honestly, I don't see the fun or excitement in seeing anyone use a particular platform. It is just a computer.

 

[velocityg4]

I've swayed numerous people to buy Macs. Really only when they bring up that they are interested in one. If I think a Windows computer is best for there situation I will try to steer them that way.

If they have budgetary constraints, have minimal uses or specialized business uses the Mac can not fulfill. I most certainly will steer them towards another Windows computer. Bootcamp and Parallels add too many difficulties for the average computer user.

 

[steve2112]

Nope, I have never really converted anyone. My brother keeps saying his next computer will be a MBP, but he hasn't bought one yet. He does have an iPhone, and uses it all the time. Of course, he did that on his own. I had nothing to do with it; he just needed a replacement for an ancient Palm Treo.

A couple of years ago, the pieced-together tower PC I had built for my mother had a motherboard die. I showed her my Powerbook and gave the whole dog-and-pony show. I showed how easy it was to get online, to find files and folders, etc. After all that, she said "That's nice. Now, where is the Start button?". After that, I gave up and told her to just buy a Dell through her work (they had some kind of discount deal with Dell). After seeing the price of Macs, she wanted no part of it.

There may be some hope. I was using my iPad at their house one day, and she was interested in it, and commented on how easy it was to use. Heck, even my 85 year old grandmother, who has never touched a computer, commented how easy it looked. I may just give mine to my parents, since I never use it.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I swtched my family to a mac.. I then switched 3 people from mac to PC, so does that mean I've switched -2 people?

 

[MorphingDragon]

I wish I could swap work over to a completely Non-Windows dependent infrastructure, but our Lazy Arse government won't port an essential piece of software to a Browser based interface.

 

[Abyssgh0st]

6+ people. I started using a Mac in 2006 or 2007, and while it took awhile I've been able to get at least 6+ people to switch over:

1. Mom
2. Dad
3. Brother
4. Grandma
5. Uncle
6. Aunt
7. Ex Girlfriend
8. Current Girlfriend
9. Current Girlfriend's Sister
10. Old best friend
11. High School classmate
12. High School classmate
13. High School classmate
14. High School classmate
15. High School classmate
16. Old co-worker
17. Old co-worker
18. Old co-worker
19. Old co-worker
20. Current Girlfriend's roommate
21. Old guitar teacher

Somewhere around 10-15 more that I'm just forgetting.

Probably 75-100 people while I was working at Best Buy in the computer department. 90% of those were dead set on a PC, 10% were considering Macs.

If you count iPhones and iPads, it's probably in the 50 range (only personal relationships, no Best Buy customers even though that'd be about 50 more).

 

[tigres]

Way more than 6. Probably close to 50+ actually.

Starting to hate the support calls.

 

[Montanan]

Way more than 6. Probably close to 50+ actually.

Starting to hate the support calls.

I know the feeling ... but at least the Mac support calls are way less painful than the Windows support calls I used to get.

 

[Daffodil]

Don't know about convincing friends, but slowly might get my parents to come around... They both have iPhones now and love them, and whenever I help them (esp. my dad) with tech support stuff, I keep dropping not-so-subtle hints about how it'd be even better with a mac

 

[ngg1996]

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I just got convinced by a friend to get a Mac