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Have you converted anyone to mac?

elf69

elf69

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 2, 2016
2,333
489
Cornwall UK
I swapped to mac almost a year ago and not looked back since.

Few things cannot do natively or at all but not a deal breaker.

I have got a few friends to swap to mac.
One is over 60 and since the swap he said he so much happier as it just works!

He hates windows 10 in comparison to Sierra.
He has a very low budget and as such he has a 2007 imac with hack to run Sierra.

Another friend again windows user bought my old 2009 macbook with SSD and Sierra.
She too loves it but still getting to grips with the difference of swapping OS.
But she too agrees it is smoother and better than windows 8 or 10.

I still have a windows 7 notebook for the odd thing I cannot use my macs for.
These are few and far between but some special software for printer maintenance etc is all really.

I too have older macs as do not have budget for new macs.
 
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True but older macs are fine for most people.

here 2007 imacs 20 and 24 inch can be had for £200-300
and 2009/2010 white macbooks for £150-250

bargain if you ask me and these are the ones I got for my friends
they are very happy with them.

As can see in my signature I like older macs, plus not got budget for newer models lol.
The older ones sometimes underrated for what they are.
 
Yes, my pastor. Told her to start her new church plant with Apple priducts since most of the staff will be younger Mac afficianados . She got a MBP and ipad
 
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Mac Evangelists put me off Macs for 10+ years. I inwardly cringe when I hear some people try to push them on others.

My conversion to Mac began with an iPhone. My wife got an iPhone 3G 1st because some of her colleagues raved about it. It was the first mobile phone that lived up to, or exceeded the hype. When my contract expired a month or so later, I got one. It was brilliant.

When her laptop started to go, she wanted a Mac, so I bought her a MacBook. At first she wasn't sure about it, because it's different to Windows. I'm the techie one, so I looked at it, and figured out all the answers to her questions. The more I used it, the more brilliant I thought it was. In the end, I began using it far more than she did, so I got one of my own, and I haven't looked back since.

I am credited with converting 5-6 people to Macs in the last few years. I didn't do it intentionally. I did show them how easy it was to do various tasks on my Mac (when asked), and how fast it still was despite being several years old. They made their own mind up about what to buy.

I think the hardest part of crossing over is to accept you really can junk all that Windows knowledge / tips / tricks you had to learn to get Windows to do simple things. Once people get passed that, they are very happy.
 
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I've provided details of what is good and bad with the Mac platform, but I don't try to convince anyone to buy one product. I've found if I push hard and try t get them to buy, it only back fires in the end. They'll be calling me every time for tech support, blame me if something goes wrong, or the machine is defective. My goal as a friend, or family, is provide details and then they can make an informed decision that makes the most sense for them.
 
Yes.

Some several years ago, one last week.

Most are in a position to spend what is required for macbook pro level, most are dis-satisified with the Windows ownership experience or hardware quality on the PC side.

Many were iphone and/or ipad users. I dont think anyone i've converted has gone Mac as their first Apple device.

I blame itunes.

on Windows it's even more of a disaster than on macOS. And itunes + quicktime (previously) is the first experience most Windows users have/had with Apple software. Apple really need to look into making "first contact" for other platform users not suck. Because itunes on Windows and quicktime on windows is/was garbage.
 
I never forced anyone to swap.

two friends I even lent them my 2007 17" macbook pro while I fixed there aging windows machines.
The windows machines where newer than the macbook they borrowed but the did not want give it back!

This made them ask, "can you get me one?"
My fiancee has a macbook air (gen1) and uses "syncios" app not itunes she finds it easier to use.
 
I have told friends and family that they should try a Mac. Don't know of anyone that has switched. Most get the sticker price shock when they find out how much a Mac costs.
 
Fancuku said:
I have told friends and family that they should try a Mac. Don't know of anyone that has switched. Most get the sticker price shock when they find out how much a Mac costs.
Click to expand...

The 'sticker price shock' is a real phenomenon. But I don't think Macs are more expensive when considered over a 5 or 6 year period. My 2011 iMac and MBA were still miles faster than the 2015 PCs my colleagues use at work.

I upgraded because, with a Mac you come to expect higher standards.

The Mac 'perfectionists' that complain about minor flaws don't help either. PC users get the wrong idea. The slow down on Macs is insignificant compared to that which PC users experience (to almost paraphrase Darth Vader).
 
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I converted a friend to Mac because my Mac broke.

(funny, but true!)

He and I were on a business trip. I had my iceBook G3 and he had his Dell.

Mine was working fine, poking around and doing the usual things. He was trying to play Ghost Recon, but it would occasionally lock up and he'd have to reboot.

The seed of discontent was planted. :D

Then, one day, my G3 iBook's video card went bad, and for the third time, too. I backed everything up onto my iPod and called Apple. They said that I'd be getting a brand-new G4 replacement, which was then maybe two generations newer and with a larger HD installed. They emailed me a shipping label, and the next morning, immediately after FedEx scanned the label on my boxed, busted iBook, they configured my replacement and sent it out.

Two days later, before lunch, I received the new G4 iBook. I took it to our room, plugged in my iPod, started copying all my stuff over, then left to do our afternoon tasks. When I came back after dinner, it was all set up.

So, then I'm sitting there, playing with GarageBand and putting wheels on my car in Photoshop, and my friend's Dell froze up again. He looks over at me and says, "Okay, that does it. Next time, I'm getting a Mac."

He got to see the entire Apple experience packed into just three days: typical usage, equipment failure handled by absolutely painless customer service, minimal downtime, and nearly seamless setup of a new system.

I'm not much of an evangelist. I don't think I once said to him, "Why do you have that Dell? Just get a Mac." I like to let the product speak for itself, and, IMO, the "product" with Apple includes everything from the hardware to the sales floor to the support and repair departments.
 
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Obi Wan Kenobi said:
The 'sticker price shock' is a real phenomenon. But I don't think Macs are more expensive when considered over a 5 or 6 year period. My 2011 iMac and MBA were still miles faster than the 2015 PCs my colleagues use at work.
Click to expand...
I have attempted to explain this to my boss in the 13 years I've worked for him.

We have two circa 1999 PowerMac G4s still doing the job and a 2005 PowerMac G5 (I was there when it was bought) up front.

Since 2004 my boss has replaced the staff PCs no less than three times and our PC server twice. For how many X hundreds/thousands of dollars each time, I don't know.

Other than a ram stick and one or two hard drives, a CPU/logicboard replacement for the G5 ($60) and adding a refub 2010 Mac Pro he hasn't spent very much on the Macs.

I remind him of these facts every time there's an issue with the PCs. :)
 
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maybe just me but Apple products represent less value these days.
would not recommend Apple products
 
Two direct family members.

My system administration load dropped 95%. The remaining effort was mostly telling them to go to the Apple Store's Genius Bar. I did that for about two years. The calls/e-mails slowed then finally stopped. They got it.

That was well over ten years ago.

Same thing with getting a programmable universal remote controller for an A/V system for another family member. That basically eliminated all tech support calls from that person.
 
I think five, or maybe it was six people through the years..... I don't push, don't put any pressure on anyone but simply describe the differences between Windows and Mac OS and the various things which are included with a Mac and what things DON'T need to be stuffed in there (i.e., some sort of virus scan program, trial versions of various software programs, etc.), show them one of my Macs in operation, talk about the nice connectivity/synchronization and integration between various devices and software, etc...... No one has gone back to a Windows machine since!
 
BarracksSi said:
I converted a friend to Mac because my Mac broke.

(funny, but true!)

He and I were on a business trip. I had my iceBook G3 and he had his Dell.

Mine was working fine, poking around and doing the usual things. He was trying to play Ghost Recon, but it would occasionally lock up and he'd have to reboot.

The seed of discontent was planted. :D

Then, one day, my G3 iBook's video card went bad, and for the third time, too. I backed everything up onto my iPod and called Apple. They said that I'd be getting a brand-new G4 replacement, which was then maybe two generations newer and with a larger HD installed. They emailed me a shipping label, and the next morning, immediately after FedEx scanned the label on my boxed, busted iBook, they configured my replacement and sent it out.

Two days later, before lunch, I received the new G4 iBook. I took it to our room, plugged in my iPod, started copying all my stuff over, then left to do our afternoon tasks. When I came back after dinner, it was all set up.

So, then I'm sitting there, playing with GarageBand and putting wheels on my car in Photoshop, and my friend's Dell froze up again. He looks over at me and says, "Okay, that does it. Next time, I'm getting a Mac."

He got to see the entire Apple experience packed into just three days: typical usage, equipment failure handled by absolutely painless customer service, minimal downtime, and nearly seamless setup of a new system.

I'm not much of an evangelist. I don't think I once said to him, "Why do you have that Dell? Just get a Mac." I like to let the product speak for itself, and, IMO, the "product" with Apple includes everything from the hardware to the sales floor to the support and repair departments.
Click to expand...

This right here is a major selling point that has to be seen/experienced vs. the Windows experience to be appreciated.

Windows using friends are horrified of hardware failure or OS reinstall, or migration to a new machine.

On a mac, it is fairly painless.

Restore from backup, copy your applications back, (or even just log into icloud account these days if you have decent bandwidth) and you're up and running in the time it takes to copy your data.

Windows?
Reinstall, downloading drivers, many reboots, reinstalling every application from original media (because backups don't do applications and applications can't just be copied around like files), product keys, etc.

If you value your time in any significant way, then even ONE OS reinstall over the expected life of the machine will pay the cost difference.

Never mind all of the other advantages.
 
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At least a dozen people or more, including a small business, over the past fifteen years or so...
 
Yes. When I moved in with my partner and her three boys, they all converted to Apple for computers, tablets and phones. We have a lovely clean, simple to use unified system, with no hiccups. We even got the mother-in-law to cross over, technophobe that she was and all. :eek:
 
I had Mac for a while but still prefer Windows to it simply because I know how to use it and make it do what I want and need. Mac is simplistic in my opinion, but that makes it perfect for my wife. She uses it (turned on to it by me and my old Macbook) and hasn't looked back. That being said, I also have Linux in the house so it is hard to judge what OS I truly like, they all have their pluses and minuses.
 
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