Is Windows On a Mac Really Drawing in New Users?

In the past few days, I’ve read of a few stories of people switching to a Mac for their next computer system, and I’ve even had a couple of friends who have decided, or at least contemplated switching over to a Mac.  Their chief reason why? It can run Windows! After years of Mac bashing with long moans of “there’s hardly any applications available for it,” and “you can’t play games,” or even the rather unimaginative argument of “it’s rubbish next to XP,” more and more people are finally realizing what a truly awesome operating system Tiger is.

In an article on tuaw.com, writer Dave Caolo has posted a story about his recent experience of being able to convince two people to buy a Macintosh, and he doesn’t even work for Apple.

Two of the employees at his work came up to him recently asking for some advice on a new computer. He, being the avid Mac user I assume he is, suggested they purchase a Mac. He showed them around the operating system and although they appeared to be pleased with what they saw, he struggled to sway them into buying one—at least until he “dropped the bomb”.

“These things can run Windows you know”, Dave said. “WHAT!?” Their eyes lit up

Since then, they’ve both gone on to purchase Macs and he says his experience leads him to believe Apple will be selling a lot of computers this year, and I for one agree. Because I too have swayed a couple of friends into purchasing a Mac, although truth be told, one of them was already half-way there.

Friend One came to me and said he was looking for a replacement for his four-year old PC. He’s well aware, as most of my friends are by now, that I’m a huge Mac lover/geek and would always recommend buying one. I suppose he came to me in order to get the thumbs up on buying a new computer. We all know how undecided friends do that, right? But before he decided to purchase anything, he asked me a few questions about the whole Mac experience. I told him first off about the cool applications that come bundled with the system, including iLife - iPhoto and iMovie appealing to him the most. I then mentioned the way most popular peripherals, such as cameras, printers, scanners and USB sticks, for example, don’t require any additional drivers to be installed, as there’s already hoards built into the system—it quite literally is plug-n-play.

However, as with Dave Caolo, he wasn’t entirely sold until I mentioned he could use his XP system on the new Macintosh if he ever wanted to. His facial expressions and voice pattern changed to that of excitement, followed quickly by, “I want one of those Mac Mini’s!”

Friend Two, who is a long-time PC user, much like I was, had recently purchased an iPod somewhat hypercritically after all the Apple bashing he had done over the years. He loved the design of the iMac G5 too. (Probably because it reminded him of his iPod.) Yet he never thought of investing in one due to the cost involved. However, after seeing the new black MacBook, his passion for Apple hardware began to grow again, and although the money is something that is a question for him, he is after a new computer. Still in doubt, it took just this sentence to sway him completely.

“It can run Windows you know, mate.”

And again, the key sentence in selling a Macintosh has struck gold, another Mac sold.

So in the space of about a week, there’s four clear cases of long-time PC users making a switch to the Mac platform. And for all four of them, the selling point wasn’t the beautiful architecture or aesthetic appeal, nor was it the world’s most advanced operating system that tickled them, oh no. The selling point was that these new Mac systems can all run Windows - easily and effectively.

So there’s one reason why I believe Apple will be selling well this year. The other reason, however, isn’t one that Apple have created, rather, one that Microsoft has created.

Microsoft this week announced the specifications required for Windows Vista, Microsoft’s much-doubted, up-coming operating system due for public release in the first quarter of 2007.

The basic system can run on most modern PC’s with at least 800Mhz processor and 512MB of RAM. A lot of Windows zealots will have you believe this is more than fine, but it’s not. The operating system may be able to run on that power, but what about using applications such as Dreamweaver and the heavy handed Adobe Photoshop? My opinion, no chance, especially as Windows XP struggles to do that. So in order to get all the fancy shenanigans running on Vista, as well as actually opening up an application, users will require the following (according to Microsoft):