Hey iMac fans.
A lot of my friends went the Mac mini + Apple Studio Display route, which as we all know is an utterly foolish thing to do compared to getting an iMac.
I've tried to convince them a few different ways:
-I've let them know that Apple has an amazing trade-in policy where they will put credit towards a new iMac when they turn in their Mac mini & Studio Display
-Held nice dinner parties that while the wives are in the kitchen preparing, I give my friends a test drive of the iMac and show them how much better it is than the mac mini + studio display
-Utilize Apple's AR feature to show them how much more improved their setup looks with an iMac - less cables, clutter, and colors that make their interior pop
-Offered $100 out of my pocket toward a new iMac to anyone that does it
-I've even tried to circumvent their refusal by trying to get their spouses to do it behind their backs - one of them couldn't go through with it but wanted to do something else without their partner's knowledge!
Does anyone else have any further ideas on how to convince my friends to get an iMac?
Yea okay, I have to weigh in because the logic here just doesn’t hold up.
A computer + external display setup (Mac Mini + Apple Studio Display, or anything similar) is
objectively more versatile and future-proof. The display and the computer are decoupled. If one becomes outdated, you can upgrade it
without throwing out the other. An all-in-one like the iMac locks the screen and the internals together, which limits long term flexibility. That’s not an opinion - it’s just how the hardware categories work.
On the aesthetics point: if someone
does add a second display to an iMac, it obviously wont match the iMac’s design. Apple doesn’t manufacture external displays in the iMac form factor. A dual-monitor setup with two matching displays will, by definition, have more visual symmetry. Humans show a general perceptual preference for symmetry over asymmetry - that’s documented in cross-cultural psychology. (You can search “perceptual symmetry preference” and “processing fluency theory” - plenty of peer-reviewed work.)
And on the whole mission of “trying to convert your friends”: that’s where psychology is even more blunt. There are decades of research on
psychological reactance showing that
forcefully or repeatedly trying to change someone’s decision often makes them
less likely to change — even more resistant.
People push back when they feel their autonomy and freedom is being challenged. Using controlling persuasion usually backfires harder than saying nothing at all.
Hardware preferences are fine. Trying to make other adults live by your choices
isn’t. That’s where the argument stops making sense.