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khisayruou said:
I wish I can say I am a true convert but there are still some things I desperately need windows for...sigh...just wish mac would do everything so I can get rid of it...other than that, I've been quite happy for over a year!

Heres hoping for another million or two or three...for 06!! :)

Just curious as to what you still need Windows for? It took me about 5 months to become totally Windows free. The biggest thing holding me back was program compareable to Microsoft Publisher. But a while back I came across a program from Belight called "Swift Publisher" and now I am no longer in need of Windows anything.

By the way I am one of the million as well.
 
Michael7k said:
Very content with the change accomplished in February. After switching at home I decided to networked a Mac into the office also. I have enjoyed the ease of use and stability of the machines.

After discovering what a virus could do on her machine my mother will be next on the list.

Michael

I'm exactely in the same business
 
arn said:
Can you really assume that growth from last year to this is due to switchers?

Well, this would be true in my case. I had not even seen an Ipod in person until 3 months ago, but I made the switch to Mac 10 months ago. So I guess you could say that I am a switcher as opposed a "Halo" (iPod).


Edit: BTW I also purchased an Ipod (G5) after I used and saw the quality of the Powerbook for 9 months. So I guess you could say that I am a reverse / converse "Halo".
 
While I'm sure switchers are increasing mac sales, I saw a graph (from a macbytes article in the past few days) that showed sales only now returning to where they were during the last transition from OS 9 to X. Macs sales are definitely on the upswing, but lets not get carried away here. When 2008 rolls around, we'll finally see a significant amount of market share.
 
I also coverted over the Mac this year as well. I bought my powerbook in May of this year!!! And let me just say that as of now I will never go back, and I don't know what took me so long to switch. Of course there are a few things I miss from windows, but nothing that would even remotely make me switch back.

Note to apple, improve browsing images in finder! That is about my only complaint.
 
urbanlung said:
Hang on, a whole bunch of them voted for Bush (apparently), nuff said.

Ciao
And the 50%+ of your country men and women who voted Bush are regretting it now:D although the few who switched from PC to Mac are revelling in the light:cool:
 
How do you define a switcher though? I got my eMac in August, 2004 after not even owning a home computer for 7 years.

After using Windows boxes at school and work, I wanted nothing to do with a computer at home until i discovered Apple. I assume there are others like me...
 
urbanlung said:
slowly the dim windows users are begining to see that there is a better way. What took 'em so long. Hang on, a whole bunch of them voted for Bush (apparently), nuff said.


Apparently a whole bunch of them recently developed a taste for "intelligent design."
 
i know like 5,6,7 people who switched to mac
last year

i know like 7 mac users and they all didnt upgrade the last year
some of them still runing os9 and g4 powermacs at work
 
TodVader said:
I'm one of them and switched from a Dell Inspiron Laptop to a iBook G4. Never regreted but I did keep a Windows Desktop (which BTW I havent used since the purchase of my iBook)

Wow incredible. I just switched 15 days ago from an Inspiron laptop too. This piece of junk was making me go nuts. The ibook is really something special compared to dell's laptops.

Wonder if owning Dell laptops can be considered as a switching factor...
 
I switched Sep '04 and this year I brought 4 with me and I have another 5 family members in my sights.

We should have a contest.

Who can get the most WINDOWS users to switch to Mac.

Winner gets bragging rights!:)
 
While I don't buy that all of the excess growth is due to switchers, I'm very glad to see that more people have switched. This means that more people are happier than in 2004!
 
Following the crowd

Although the number of switchers may not be correct, I think articles like this may make people consider trying – and buying – a Mac, feeling comfortable knowing that millions of others are doing it too.
 
amac4me said:
"According to checks with Apple Store Specialists, Wolf also said a larger than expected percentage of Windows to Mac converts appear to be purchasing Apple's higher-end systems and that their transition is fueled by the epidemic of viruses and malware on the Windows platform."

I don't believe we should delve too much into the OSX can't get a virus hype. However, we are lucky in a big difference between OSX and windows, Windows ships (the last time I checked) with ports open and services active that most people didn't need or even know about, whereas OSX ships almost completely closed. Even funnier is that all the people I know using windows (except for my aunt) have only gotten viruses that they installed themselves. My aunt got the one that was a worm and shutdown her computer every so often. So, let's be glad OSX is based on good architecture and keep our fingers crossed because as the market share grows, we become more vulnerable.
 
The growth in sales must logically come from one or more of these possibilities:

1) People buying their first computer
2) People adding another computer to their collection
3) People replacing existing computers.

If we assume that 1 is negligible, that leaves us with people buy another computer or replacing old ones. Either of these could be loosely considered 'switchers' if their previous computers were Windows PCs.

The only significant factor other than switchers will be those Mac users who have been holding off on buying new machines, but were convinced to buy in 2005.

Given the impending Intel transition, I don't think there is much reason to think that an unusual number of current mac-users upgraded this year. Although there will certainly be a small number that decided to buy the 'last of the PPC' Macs to last them until the dust settles from the transition, there will be at least as many, if not more that are not buying a CPU that's being phased out (the Osbourne Effect). So historical mac-users are not likely to be responsible for any upswing in Mac sales.

Indeed, given the predicted Osbourne Effect that was supposed to happen this year, the upswing in Mac sales is difficult to explain without invoking a lot of switchers.

I'd say this looks very good for the future of the Mac platform.

A couple of nasty Vista Viruses should seal the deal.

Cheers
 
I was an '04 switcher but the family was '05

I bought my first mac in Sept 04 (iMac G5), then this year, my wife and two daughters got Mac mini's. Then I switched laptops to a PB15. Then I got my weekend's back (don't have to "clean PC's" anymore!):cool:
 
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