What is your deciding factor for buying into Apple?

[Endorphine88]

If you had to pick one top reason, what is your selling point?

For me it has to be integration - being able to easily connect everything and seamlessly transition from one device to another.

 

[Glmnet1]

I picked build quality but it's actually my 2nd reason. #1 is macOS.

 

[44267547]

I’m adding some options that are _not_ listed in the Poll. When I look at Apple products, I realize I’m paying a premium, I expect quality hardware, reliable/secure software, all backed by their customer service, which has always been stellar. With those three ingredients, there is a reason Apple has me loyal.

 

[BenTrovato]

Apple has the best design / aesthetics and integration in my opinion.

MacOS or OS X used to be superior now it's on par and sometimes (lately) I think not as good.

 

[Volusia]

My reason, total frustration with Windows. Every time I wanted to use it I had to wait for updates, then something won't work until I rebooted. With Apple, it just works - plus, now that I am in the Apple ecosystem, I love how it all integrates

 

[vkd]

Design of the OS, design of the iMac hardware, integration of the OS with the hardware

 

[Tech198]

I had to pick "Design" as i don't entirely agree with any others on the list..

Their are good Samsung phones to, and while you could say "better build" quality on iPhone, I would really disagree.... It really comes down to how we handle devices....

"You don't have to spend that much, you just need to take better care of it."

OS is simpler, but i could go either way, because i'd rather Windows more open and i know what i'm doing.. where as with Apple and iOS. the limitations as well on Mac and different way to accomplish same thing all in the name of "security" goes too far even when its got noting to do with security at all.

Apple is just protecting the user, but if users knew what they are doing they wouldn't need that. For instance, on iOS, allowing multiple photos to be attached in email as link the same as PDF's and NOT inline, as tits look ugly when you have 6 photos in body...

Apple Mac is the same... and there is no security behind that one... It's just how Apple is. While its not giving the user the opportunity to say "We know what we see as a link" because we added it ourselves.

I could go on with not playing friendly with non-Apple hardware, and tricks you must use to get around it. sometimes makes my bang my head, but that's Apple for ya.

 

[B.Bain]

I just purchased my first Mac (although I used an iMac for years as an iOS advisor) and feel the build quality of Apple products are vastly superior to 90% of other manufacturers of phones/tablets/computers. This is coming from someone who preferred to build his own computer systems. Windows is cumbersome while OSX simply works.

For a longtime I was running a Hackintosh but decided to tear apart the desktop and get a MacBook Air at a discount.

 

[960design]

None of those.
Registered Unix compliant backend was my deciding factor.

 

[KindOfDaz]

Integration. Build quality. Design/Innovation. I don't quite get the "Conformism" option in your poll. Did you mean "Snobbism"?

 

[Endorphine88]

Integration. Build quality. Design/Innovation. I don't quite get the "Conformism" option in your poll. Did you mean "Snobbism"?

"status symbol" would be snobbism. Conformism as in my mother-in-law got an iPhone "Cause everyone else has one" - her words quoted verbatim

 

[Falhófnir]

The designs are really gorgeous - both hardware and software. The surface line comes close on hardware but still doesn’t quite match Apple’s sleek industrial design. MacOS since Yosemite has also been arguably the most eye-friendly desktop OS (though I liked Windows 7 and 10 isn’t bad by any means).

 

[AidenShaw]

If you had to pick one top reason, what is your selling point?

For me it has to be integration - being able to easily connect everything and seamlessly transition from one device to another.

It would be interesting to see the counter-poll - "Why have you avoided or left the Apple universe?"

Mine (avoided) would be smug users and the first PPC Macs.

 

[Clix Pix]

In the autumn of 2005 I was frustrated with Windows and with my apparently poorly-built PC, and so began looking at the Mac. Came home with the G5 Rev B and was immediately enthralled by the beauty of the machine itself and the ease with which I was able to make the transition from Windows to Apple's OS, which at that time was 10.4, Tiger. I didn't really start to get a feel for the whole seamless integration thing until I bought my first iPod not too long after that, and finally figured out what iTunes was meant to do. On Windows it was a confusing mess. As it happened, when the message really hit home about the seamless integration was the day in June 2007 when I bought my first iPhone and realized how easy it was to have my contacts and other information on that little device in my pocket just as it was on my iMac and my MacBook Pro at home.

Years later I am still as enthralled with Apple and its products and how they fit into my life and how useful they are. That seamless integration has gone on to continually work beautifully as I've added new devices to my household and as technology has evolved. I really cannot imagine ever using anything other the Apple products. I'm so happy that I discovered them when I did!

 

[Endorphine88]

In the autumn of 2005 I was frustrated with Windows and with my apparently poorly-built PC, and so began looking at the Mac. Came home with the G5 Rev B and was immediately enthralled by the beauty of the machine itself and the ease with which I was able to make the transition from Windows to Apple's OS, which at that time was 10.4, Tiger. I didn't really start to get a feel for the whole seamless integration thing until I bought my first iPod not too long after that, and finally figured out what iTunes was meant to do. On Windows it was a confusing mess. As it happened, when the message really hit home about the seamless integration was the day in June 2007 when I bought my first iPhone and realized how easy it was to have my contacts and other information on that little device in my pocket just as it was on my iMac and my MacBook Pro at home.

Years later I am still as enthralled with Apple and its products and how they fit into my life and how useful they are. That seamless integration has gone on to continually work beautifully as I've added new devices to my household and as technology has evolved. I really cannot imagine ever using anything other the Apple products. I'm so happy that I discovered them when I did!

This is very interesting.
I was a major Apple-hater most of my life and through half of college. Once I gave it a try I switched completely and never looked back. It's funny how much of a switch it's been when I think about it, but like you say - it just all works and I don't have to fight to make it work !

 

[Clix Pix]

That was what hooked me.....it "just worked," even with things that had been issues and conflicts on Windows! The first example of that for me was when I brought the G5 iMac home and was ready to set it up. In the store the young man who was helping me asked if I had a wireless network and I said, "yeah...." He assured me that I would have no problem getting my new iMac hooked right into it. I smiled politely and nodded but was thinking, "oh, yeah, riiight!!! I'll probably be up most of the night just trying to get that working, never mind anything else!" I had had a major hassle getting the network set up with my Windows desktop and Windows laptop and really was rather dreading this part of bringing the new computer into my household.

Well....I set the iMac up on a table, plugged it into a wall plug and turned it on and began going through the initial setup process, including registration, etc, etc. At some point it suddenly dawned on me that hey, I was online and it wasn't a hassle AT ALL!!!!! In fact, I was able to start actually having fun with my new machine within a short time and wasn't spending hours being frustrated just trying to get it on the internet. WOW. Right then and there I fell in love......

 

[Pakaku]

I run a Windows desktop, and an Apple laptop. My main reason for getting Macbooks used to be the build-quality and hardware UI, but hearing so many horror stories of the newer machines (such as the faulty Macbook Pro keyboards), as well as arbitrary removals like Magsafe and the battery life meter LEDs, Apple's decisions have turned me off the idea of any new Macbooks.

OSX is still worth using, so my desktop PC is built with hardware picked for hackintosh purposes, even if I mainly run Win7 instead for the time being. But... that means no actual Mac desktops in my future either, as far as I can imagine.

The ecosystem is a mess as far as I'm concerned, and I could not care less about trends or status symbols as long as it does what I need it to do.

 

[maflynn]

I didn't vote because my decision matrix includes a number of things, quality, design, user experience, innovation.

 

[jjohnstonjr]

I've been using Apple since the iPhone first launched. I have gone back and forth between Apple and Android and always returned to Apple. Since my mom uses Apple and her and I message every since day I cant go anywhere else(not that I want to).

 

[StarShot]

If you had to pick one top reason, what is your selling point?

Windows back in '08, give or take a year or so. If I were making that choice today, I might very well have remained with Windows as I'm seeing more and more quirks in iOS and OS-X the past year or so.

I think you need Windows as one of your options.

 

[elf69]

Personally none of the options.

I was a windows user since school with a dabble on mac back when 10.4 came out.

But windows 10 made me swap to OSX full time.
10 just made windows cumbersome and less intuitive.

windows 7 was last version I liked using.

OSX just does what I want with little to no head aches!

Have an ipad as they are superior to android in smoothness but use android phone for mobile usb support the ipad lacks.

horses for courses...

 

[Tech198]

I reckon the issue of "it just works" it fading more and more over the years.. It only "just works" because it's all Apple stuff..

The moment you add some other manufacture in there for hardware in between, Apple automatically blames the "other" manufacture" for not implementation of a good job of say Bonjor,

It forces the user into getting *all* Apple only, and you really have no other choice, if you want noting to go wrong...

That's the only snag i hate, but apart from that, i'm all Apple..

I just wish they opened their support up more to third parties so users owning these hardware devices, will work flawlessly with Apple hardware. (etc QNAP, Synology, and Dell)

 

[AidenShaw]

I just wish they opened their support up more to third parties so users owning these hardware devices, will work flawlessly with Apple hardware. (etc QNAP, Synology, and Dell)

And Nvidia GPUs and CUDA.

 

[ProTruckDriver]

Design of the OS and easy to use.

 

[goslowjoe]

I chose design and while there are some areas that Windows-based machines have caught up with, I am still absolutely bowled over by the trackpad, both on the notebooks and the Magic Trackpad for iMacs. Since your interaction with the Mac is mostly via the trackpad, apart from just viewing the screen, there is nothing else that comes even close to the Apple trackpad concept.

Silent clicking and force touch are just simply wow, and my frustration levels fly through the roof when I have to use any other device, such as my lone Windows notebook, an Acer, and experience the lack of control there that I take for granted on the Mac. Not physically having to click down is fantastic.

For overall design, I admit others are catching up - the Asus Zen notebooks look amazing.