10 Reasons Why You Need to Buy a MAC
1. It works & it’s easy (plug and play)
The average Windows home user spends between 50 and 60 hours each year troubleshooting their computer. The average Mac user spends less than 5. This figure is astonishing. Forget those detailed instructions you use with you PC. Install this, open the Run window and look for this file. You can perform a clean installation of the Mac OS without erasing any other contents of your hard drive. Macs have streamlined all installation process to simple drag and drop function. Furthermore, most of the time there is really nothing you need to do, it just recognizes the new peripheral and you’re ready to utilize it as soon as you plug it in. Double-clicking on a Mac document automatically opens the application that created it – no matter where the app is on your hard disk, your network or your server, no matter what that document is named. Additionally, You can use the characters /, ? and ” in a Macintosh file name (e.g. Inventory/July, Current?); a feature unavailable in Windows.
2. It doesn’t crash (OS X is UNIX-based)
Well, it can, but not as frequently as a PC. Every computer is prone to crashing, but the crash rate for a Mac is miniscule. In two years of use I can honestly say my Apple has crashed twice. In the business world, the industry standard for Windows systems is one support technician for every 25 to 60 computers. By contrast, the standard for Macintosh support is one person for every 100 to 200 machines. Need I say more?
3. It offers the best in digital music (iTunes, iPod)
It is no coincidence that iTunes is the leader in digital audio, its all about innovation at Apple. Despite its late entry into the streaming media arena, Apple’s iTunes player is climbing the charts faster than its competitors. iTunes users are now downloading 2.5 million songs per week, which is an annual run rate of 130 million songs per year, helping establish the legal digital music store industry. The introduction of television shows now available for download, in addition to the ever increasing popularity of the podcast, will undoubtedly solidify the place of iTunes within this industry.
4. It provides the missing link in digital photography (iPhoto)
Macs have always been know to be a leader in digital media. For example, 72% of the alumni of Rochester Institute of Technology – arguably the world’s oldest (1830s), largest and best school of photography and printing in the world – own Macs (“Contact Sheet”, the RIT alumni news letter).
5. It serves as a digital entertainment center (iLife, iMovie, iDVD)
Did you know that Apple started including USB on their computers as a standard item well before anyone else did! Consequently when consumers started buying digital cameras, they found that the Macintosh they bought last year was able to download their photos with ease. This contrasts with Windows users who generally had to purchase an upgrade that usually didn’t work or a completely new computer. This illustrates the commitment and innovation that Mac brings to digital entertainment Additionally, with the inclusion of the Power Mac G4 with SuperDrive, Apple introduced the world to DVD creation on the desktop. Today, with your iDVD equipped Macintosh at the center of your digital hub, you can easily author digital content, without any loss of quality, in a format which may be played on a number of consumer DVD players Furthermore, with the integration of iWeb, publishing your digital media to the web has become easier than anyone expected. But wait there’s more! Even superstars are in on the Mac craze. Anyone who saw Madonna’s 2001 performance on The Grammys witnessed the work of Dan Rucks, the mastermind behind the video that led in to, and danced along with, Madonna. Rucks used Macs to remix hours of Madonna’s existing music videos and performance footage with other campy outtakes (macspeedzone.com). Talk about celebrity branding!
6. It’s portable (iBook, PowerBook, MacBook Pro)
Apple has contributed heavily to the field of mobile computing, and many features of their mobile computers have become the norm. Recently, the PowerBook G4 became the first full-size laptop computer to feature a widescreen display; and in 2003 it became the first laptop computer with a 17-inch display. Additionally, did you know Apple was the first to introduce the track pad on laptops! Apple’s commitment to mobile computing is one of it’s leading innovative features that sets it apart from it’s competitors. Moreover, it’s innovations often lead to industry standards that competitors soon follow.
7. It’s built for the Internet (email, iChat, QuickTime, AirPort)
Mac comes equipped with everything you need to access the internet and run a website off your computer via Apache. Apache is a powerful, flexible, HTTP/1.1-compliant Web server known for its stability. It’s highly configurable and can be extended with third-party modules. Apache is the world’s most popular Web server, powering more than 60 percent of Internet domains, according to Netcraft’s June 2001 Web Server Survey. Mac OS X has a Web Sharing feature that offers a fully functional installation of the Apache Web server.
8. Windows applications have Macintosh equivalents (Microsoft Office for Mac)
There are over 18,000 Mac compatible products.
(Apple Computer, August 2001). Furthermore you can find a complete list at: http://guide.apple.com/index.lasso
9. It networks with PCs (Ethernet, AirPort, USB, FireWire)
An ad hoc network (ad hoc means “for this purpose”) is a network you create on-the-fly, using direct Ethernet, FireWire, Wi-Fi, or even Bluetooth connections among your Macs or PCs. Ad hoc networking isn’t right for every situation. But it’s a great tool for gamers, business travelers, and people who need to pass big files or share an Internet connection when a local network isn’t available. Macs are built with this concept in mind. Connecting you Mac to another computer is key component of it’s ease of use. For more information on setting up networks visit: Macworkd at: http://www.macworld.com/2005/09/secrets/octmobilemac/index.php
10. It’s beautiful (iMac)
This intangible feeling is something a PC, in its current form at least, will never recreate, it is something that Mac owners find hard to express, and it is something that PC users will never truly experience or appreciate. When you buy a PC you buy an aggregation of components, mean to work together 99% of the time. When you buy a Mac, you buy a streamlined system, that from inception was designed to fit together and work together as a whole. Thus creating the beauty of the system. The design of the Macintosh operating system and the vigilance of Macintosh users has contributed to the near-absence of the types of malware and spyware that plague Microsoft Windows users For example, other than Word macro viruses, there are over 20,000 PC viruses, yet only 40-80 Mac ones. Also, there is no Mac virus that can destroy your hardware. Some PC viruses can zero out the flash BIOS and render the computer totally inoperable. Now that is beautiful.
