peter Walsh's Profile

[quote][i]I dare you to go into any computer superstore (you can even pick one that sells Macs) and ask a salesperson, “I need a computer” and then count how many times he mentions the word “Apple” and “Mac.”[/i][/quote] I hate to admit this, but you have a very valid point. Even worse, the chances are the employee doesn't at that store probably doesn't make enough to purchase a Mac so it never enters the equation. They're clueless to the Macintosh experience. You can't sell someone something that you know nothing about. Most of the sales people I encounter know very little, it's just a job so they can survive. Once in a while I encounter someone that really knows. Also, a lot of those stores tell employees what to push. That has a lot to do with manufacturers offering incentives. Apple has never been known for this and often retailers make little of Apple hardware.

My experience tells me that people are unaware of Apple’s new OS. They get new OS’s from Microsoft (95, 98, me, 2k, XP) and they experience a slight improvement, but nothing major. They think Apple’s OS will be nothing special or different, except that less people run it, which to them is scary. Explaining to them the modern aspects of OS X and how it’s been rebuilt from the ground up and how it’s years ahead of Windows is hard for them to comprehend. Think about it. Microsoft is a giant corporation with tons of money, how can a smaller company do better. Their minds have been polluted with MS FUD. OS X has enough “Good Stuff” to easily sway basic users. I don’t think you can woo people to OS X by telling them it’s easier. I don’t think you can woo people by telling them about the killer iLife applications. If you want to woo the basic user, the receptionist, mother, aunt, uncle or friend, you have to show them that they wont have to deal with: 1. Constant virus update reminders 2. Mulitiple Spam tools 3. Updating Spam tools 4. Unexpected crashes 5. Security Even if they have to do some of these things on OS X, it’s not nearly as annoying on the Mac as on Windows. After you ingrain those 5 principals of the OS X experience into their head, you can then reinforce the ease of use. There’s one caveat: you must show them. Those that I have switched are bright people, but they IM, email, and call me all the time on how to do stuff and then they feel stupid because it’s right in front of them. They need to be shown the way. Silly little features like the slideshow in mail and being able to import photo’s from the slideshow go right by them. They never notice many of these features because they never expect it. Walking them through each step of iLife applications from ripping and burning cd’s to importing photo’s and making a coffee table book to importing video and creating a slideshow dvd. It’s simple and most of us take the time to figure them out on our own, but the majority will never open it because they are afraid they’ll run into problems. That it will be too difficult or they’ll never figure out how to add a song to their iMove. So if you want to help switch, you have to sign on as a long term teacher. It’s very rewarding to see their expression when you show them the latest tools and tricks. It’s like a light goes on.