The Real Reason Apple is So Popular Right Now

By Daniel Miessler on September 23rd, 2007: Tagged as Apple | Business | Microsoft | OS X | Vista

apple_vs_windows

I was in CompUSA the the other day and noticed quite a few people in the Apple section. I realized that this was becoming increasingly common everywhere I went. Indeed, much Apple love these days. But why now?

I mentioned to an employee in the PC section that Apple interest seemed to be getting stronger overall, and asked if he had seen the same thing there in the store. He said he’d been there for around three years and that Apple awareness was at an all-time high.

I asked him when he thought things started turning around for Apple.

–

Me: Was it the new iMacs? The iPod halo effect finally kicking in? When did you start noticing a difference? CompUSA Employee: Oh, I know exactly when it was…it was quite obvious.

Me: When?

CompUSA Employee: Around the middle of January of this year [2007].

Me: Really, what came out then that made the difference? [I was thinking Apple]

CompUSA Employee: Vista.

–

The guy was totally nonchalant about it. He didn’t even seem to care. He didn’t laugh. He didn’t smile. He wasn’t joking. He was just relaying what he saw, and he was right.

Apple didn’t give OS X the popularity it has today — Vista did.:

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Comments

  • Aside from the fact that OS X is much superior os. The reasons Mac is getting more popular are not the ideal reasons...using anothers weakness should be the reason that Mac (and in that case Linux) is gaining in popularity. OS X IS just easier to use, more stable, and has all necessary eye candy. It integrates extremly well with the hardware provided, and has tons of free (both Open Source and "as in beer").
  • That doesn't surprise me - I had the misfortune of using Vista last night to help set up a mate's new laptop, and was amazed at how slow it was, even on a pretty high-spec laptop.

    It also got in my way at every opportunity, and was downright rude in some bits - prime example being clicking restart, to be given a message along the lines of "OK, well I'm going to do some updates now, I'll restart sometime later on when I feel like it, in the meantime you just sit there, don't you dare power off or reboot the machine".

    I will never, ever, ever allow Vista anywhere near any of my machines. If I wasn't already a happy Linux user, I'd be heading over to Apple right about now too.
  • xabby
    Vista is what got me and my friends to switch too. We all bought macbooks this year when we needed new notebooks. Took a bit to get used to but I'm glad I switched now.
  • I am sure Microsoft Vista has made a number of Windows users look at the alternatives like Mac OS X but that is not the reason why Apple is popular right now. In fact Apple product sales and number of store visitors has steadily increased since about 2000-2001, it's a combination of good marketing and good products, a trend that was started before Vista was even announced.

    I am sure you can Google for exact numbers or alternative graphs but http://www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/charts_grap... has a good summary of that.
  • dylan
    I hate to say it but my vista "experience" hasn't been that bad. Once I turned off Windows defender my system has run like a dream. Granted I'm running a gig of ram and a 2.8 ghz dual core processors...I rather enjoy it. I know I'm in the wrong place to give any props for microsoft, but I figured I would give my 2 cents.
  • Come on now, Vista isn't that bad. Granted its eyecandy based bloatware, and if I wanted eyecandy based bloatware, I'd go with Apple, but I don't.

    So I'd use Vista just because it keeps the same file structure and general OS functionality. Still though if you ask me, stick with XP until the last dying breath.
  • I just got Vista installed on Friday. The install wasn't trouble-free, but it wasn't that bad. It runs just fine on my machine. No crashes or hickups so far. The only major complaint is Settings. In any program (or OS) that has lots of options, organizing settings in a way that is logical and easy to find is difficult. Well, Vista is a very far step back in working to fix that problem. Settings are really scowered around like a teenagers messy room.
    Needing anti-malware is annoying. Having to actually go out and install stuff manually (instead of through aptitude) is one of those things Linux has me spoiled on as well.
    In all I don't see this OS offering anything that XP doesn't already offered. We've tested it in our office at work and we have no current plans of even beginning to look at migrating to Vista. There is simply no reason to move from XP to Vista.
  • toasty

    dunno if you ever happened to read ``american gods'', but in it, there's a discussion (perhaps more) about the two-man con. microsoft owns shares in apple, right...?

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