Need Advice on Convincing Friend's Wife to get a Mac

[Wild-Bill]

Ok,

So one of my old military buddies lives up in Coos Bay, Oregon, a sleepy little town that unfortunately doesn't have an Apple Store around the corner, or any other big retail chains that carry Macs. My buddy and I have played guitar together for years. After I switched all I did was profess to him up and down how great Garageband is and it is a perfect fit for those of us who play music by ourselves. Selfishly, the main reason I want him to go Mac is so we can share Garageband projects together.

I want to put together a DVD I will send him that highlights the reasons why she should say YES to Norm getting an iMac. For their purposes, I think a 20" iMac is the right way to go. As he travels for business, I encouraged him to stop by a Best Buy or Circuit City so he can get some tactile feel for the iMac, so he can determine whether or not the 17" or 20" would suit him better.

There's a program out there that will record what's happening on screen. I plan to use that. I also plan on illustrating how one would take digital pictures, connect the camera, open up iPhoto and make calendars, picturebooks, etc. At the end of the movie I'm going to film myself popping out the DVD from my Powerbook and I will then say "By the way, I made this entire movie using iMovie and iDVD.

So, my question to all of you is what points should I bring up while "convincing" her to let him switch to the Mac? Working to my advantage is the fact that their current computer is an older HP laptop that has had to be reformatted three times in the past. Working against me is the fact that one of her friends "used to" have a Mac and complained of compatability issues with Windows. I plan on highlighting the use of NeoOffice to handle that, and will bring up BootCamp and Parallels.

Thanks!

 

[JAT]

So, he didn't get any balls in the military? Guess those commercials are crap.

Tell him to grow a pair and get a Mac, she can use the HP POS.

 

[miloblithe]

As fun as the project sounds, I'd try good old fashion talking. Listen to her reasons. Explain your argument. It sounds like you've done some of that, but make sure she goes into the idea with as positive an attitude as possible. It sounds like she'll be the primary user of this computer at times if he's in the military, so her needs are primary. What does she want to use computers for?

 

[Sun Baked]

Compatibility problems are not really a major issue, since DataViz still is updating

http://www.dataviz.com/products/maclinkplus

Plus there are the "free products" that allow you to open a lot of the Windows files.

MacLink Plus will do wonders for those that insist on sending Mac User's WordPerfect files.

 

[Wild-Bill]

Great reply JAT. You're about as useful as a poopy-flavored lollipop.

My buddy is out of the military. He lives in Oregon and I in San Diego, so its not like I can have a sit-down with her.

Since I'm sending him a CD of music I've been working on, I thought throwing in a DVD would be the best way to address her. I was just looking for some other points from other members to mention.

 

[MAcNIAC]

here's one

http://www.theage.com.au/news/secur...vistas-defences/2007/04/04/1175366299799.html

 

[tristan]

You really have to see and use a mac to get convinced. It also helps if you've had some bad experiences with a PC. Start by using an IBM tactic, FUD (Fear Uncertainty Doubt), and mention all the problems with PCs to prevent that purchase. That buys you more time to sell the mac.

Wow, never thought I'd be using evil vendor FUD techniques for good.

 

[belovedmonster]

Just send them the links to the various videos on the Apple site that show you how to use iLife and Mac OSX. Watching those shows you all the fancy things they can do and how easy it is.

Aside from the videos on the product pages there's also a bunch of how to videos in the support section. I think they are called iLife 101 or something like that.

 

[Wild-Bill]

You really have to see and use a mac to get convinced. It also helps if you've had some bad experiences with a PC. Start by using an IBM tactic, FUD (Fear Uncertainty Doubt), and mention all the problems with PCs to prevent that purchase. That buys you more time to sell the mac.

Wow, never thought I'd be using evil vendor FUD techniques for good.

Thanks everyone for the replies (except JAT of course). Tristan, you bring up an excellent point and the reason why I thought of doing a movie. I can use iShowU software, run though some Mac basics, record a slap-sticky commentary, and send the DVD off to them to watch. As I said in my original post, there aren't any Macs readily accessible to them so I figured this would be the best way.