The battle between Microsoft and Apple has probably been going on for 20 years now. Most of those years, Microsoft has been the declared winner. But only in sales and marketing. I think for the most part, the Apple Mac product was probably far superior. Unfortunately, it never gained any traction with the consumer. I always speculated that Microsoft catered to the business and corporate users while Apple catered more towards desktop publishing. This gave Microsoft and PCs an early advantage as all businesses needed "number crunching" software. However, I believe things are starting to change.
Previously, Apple was pretty much on life support while Microsoft was making money hand over fist. I had read somewhere that if you had purchased $100 worth of Microsoft stock in 1989 and held it for 10 years, it would have been worth $60,000 in 1999. But with the Internet/tech boom of the 90's, you would have done really well if you got out in 1999. Since then, Steve Jobs returned to Apple and the company was once again innovative. Since that time, the company introduced the iPod product, the iPhone and have for the most part reinvented the Mac product line.
In the summer of 2008, I was in the market for a new laptop computer. I had first considered a PC laptop, but I knew it would have come equipped with Microsoft Vista. Vista is a full blown, multi-definition of "failure," "disaster," and "headaches." And I was tired of these computers that would take 6 or 7 minutes to completely boot up, only to then run in a slow, unstable environment. I had a friend who had previously purchased a Macbook. He didn't have enough time to fully review it for me, but claimed he liked it for the brief amount of time he did have it. Well, since I mainly use a laptop for surfing the Internet, e-mail and other generic uses, I decided to take the plunge into the world of Mac.
There's a bit of a learning curve to using a Mac, that is if you've spent 25 years using Microsoft. I got home with the Macbook and it was able to log onto the Internet by plugging in a Cat 5 line into my home network. My wireless router was too old and was incompatible with the Macbook. So then, another purchase... the Apple Time Capsule. This is a 500GB backup drive with wireless router. It took no time to start up and was many times faster. And it worked well with my PCs in the house.
Over time, I preferred working on my Macbook over my PCs. This summer, I replaced my office PC with a new iMac. Works like a charm. It is so much faster and stable. It also doesn't take as much space and it is by far quieter; there's no clunky fan sounds. And better yet, in less than 45 seconds, it is fully booted up vs. my PC with took about 7 minutes.
Earlier this month, I did encounter my first problem with an Apple product. My Apple Time Capsule crapped on me. I believe the hard drive in it was fine, but the power unit quit working. As with everything else, it stops working shortly after the warranty expires. I called Apple support and was able to talk to Dave, an American citizen in California. Dave was extremely helpful. To make a long story short, Dave worked with me to find an option to exchange out the unit for a minimal price. However, I thought I might have to get some files off of that hard drive. He also help me with that, though it turned out I didn't need to. Dave is the first customer service rep that I have ever dealt with that not only returned my call, but 5 minutes after he left a message on my voice mail, called me back again in hopes I was available. Apple customer service has to be the best customer service I have ever used.
In less than 2 days, I received a new Apple Time Capsule, I put the old one in the same box, sealed it up, tore off the top sticker, which then displayed a new one that was pre-paid and I simply dropped it off to be sent back to Apple. Incredible!
I have since purchased an iMac for my home computer and it's due to arrive on Wednesday this week. I have pretty much, 99%, converted to Apple. So, goodbye Microsoft. Yea, I know Windows 7 came out last Thursday. Good for you, but I think I'll stick with Mac.
If I were to make a prediction, I will say in 10 years, if that, Apple will have gained far more market share than PCs. Millions of consumers are using iPods and iPhones and are completely satisfied with them. This is their introduction to other Apple products. If these iPods and iPhones are so good, they will probably check out their computers as well. It's only a matter of time.
