Why Macs aren't right for everyone

I got a couple of interesting notes regarding my last post, Letters to a potential Mac user...  After reading them, it occurred to me that the people writing them had never been in sales and that they had never had to support a struggling Mac user.

A couple of years ago I wrote a piece, "What Sales Is Really All About."  In the post I offered a list of ten things to help tell if you are talking to a professional sales person.

One of the most important things that I said was the following.

A good sales person is a product consultant who has valuable information that can help you make the right purchase easier than if you tried to do it on your own.

In the case of my "Letters to a potential Mac user,"  I was far more interested in providing him with the right advice than in getting Apple one more user.  It may come as a surprise to some Mac users, but the Mac is not the right machine for every computer user.

Sometimes I actually get paid for my technology advice, and I learned long ago that it is far better to do the right thing for the customer than focus on selling something no matter how poorly it fits.  Damaging my reputation just so Steve or Bill can have another follower or paying customer isn't worth it. 

I am not on Apple's payroll, but neither am I on Microsoft's payroll.  I try to call the shots like they happen.  Some people seem to think I have made up the problems with my Macs.  I wish that were the case because I actually think that my Aluminum Powerbook was a better computer than my MacBook is.

I only bought the MacBook because I didn't want to spend a lot of money repairing a computer that was obviously not in Apple's mainstream.  I was also desperate for hard drive space and maxed out on memory on the PB G4 because one of the memory slots had died.

Now don't take that to mean that I didn't move heaven earth sometimes to get Apple products to fit when I worked for Apple.  We once worked two years to get a large engineering school to switch CAD packages and added a math co-processor to hundreds of systems just so Macs would fit into the environment.  We even arranged to have Powerbooks built in China, tested, disassembled, and shipped to the US for re-assembly just so the federal government could have American content Powerbooks.

But I'm not in that world anymore.  Telling my friends the pluses and minuses of owning a Mac is the best way for me to end up with a friend and possibly another Mac user.

If you have had more than two or three Macs in your life, you've probably had to deal with some problems.  A lot of how bad a problem is turns out to be situational.  When I worked for Apple, I also had a son who was a certified Apple technician. On top of that some of the brightest system engineers in the world worked for me.  I am also a pretty technical person who doesn't give up easily.  Generally with those resources almost any problem could be fixed with at worst a small parts order or hard work. Usually the solution didn't require reformatting the hard drive and starting over.

However, I am also no longer in that world.

Over the years  I saw enough Apple systems to know that  in the end they have parts which sometimes break or aren't put together right.  I got enough systems fixed through Apple's executive relations program to know that there are systems which can be fixed multiple times and still not work.  I honestly don't know whether Apple's hardware record is better or worse in this situation.

I do know that it is not perfect, and I seriously doubt that anyone in the industry has a very good record.  Just as in buying a car, where the dealer is important, service can be important in the computer world.

Right now I have an authorized HP service center ten minutes from me.  The closest Apple Store is over two hours away.  Is that enough to get me to switch to HP.  The answer is likely "No."  However, my risk meter be more tolerant of challenges than some folks can stand.

My friend Paul told me when I asked him if he would recommend a Mac for real estate agents, that it was okay for him but the hassles would likely be intolerable for most people. That's an honest appraisal. A strong Mac user can survive where a new one might wilt.

So When is a Mac not a good choice for someone?

I am going to go out on a limb and say that as good as Macs are, it is still important to have someone local who can help with problems. 

I have had too many calls as the local Apple guy to solve problems which some users are going to run into no matter what platform they use.  They should be able to go out and take a course, but there is no Mac course in the area.  They could hire someone to help them, but there is usually no one competent available to hire or the price is too steep.  I have heard it all.  I have taken a Saturday morning to drive a couple of hours to someone's house only to figure out that they didn't have the keyboard plugged in correctly.

I certainly don't mind helping neighbors, but sometimes the hours I have available for support need to go to taking care of my little part of the world of technology which happens to generate the money that keeps the wolves away from the door.

I personally wouldn't recommend a Mac to someone unless they have some human support other than me. If you make the Mac recommendation, you need to be willing to be that support person yourself.

You also should not suggest using a Mac where it requires jumping through several hoops that a non-technical person might not understand.  Having a non-technical Mac person talk to a Windows support person is a recipe for trouble.

Finally I would not recommend someone going to a Mac in a completely Windows environment.  The last three spots where I worked had almost no Mac users other than me.  In that type of environment, you create more problems than you solve by having a Mac.  I was at the VP level in two of those spots so sticking to my guns and using a Mac was technically and politically feasible. I survived in all three Windows environments, but I did carry a Dell laptop in addition to my Mac laptop for six months in one job.

The Mac now lets you boot from one world to the next.  I have been a multiple operating system user for sometime now.  I'm pretty good at it now, but it is not easy switching from one OS to the other so it is no silver bullet.  Most people don't do it well without a lot of practice.

As more and more applications go to the web, I think it gets easier and easier to be a Mac user in a non Mac environment.  But just as Linux for the desktop isn't there, I don't think Mac use inside a Windows world works well except for sophisticated, tough skinned Mac users at this point.

There's plenty that Apple could do to make it easier for users to take that first Mac step, but I don't know that doing anything in that arena is an Apple priority.

I sometimes think Apple needs to get back to doing a few brochures.  The first should be one that explains moving over to the Mac world for a Windows user and details how Excel Mac files are compatible and that you can read the same attachments on both platforms.  That message still isn't getting to the right people.

Some people who wrote to me about my last post thought that I made too much out of how much OS X costs.  Well, I can say from the claw marks on my back, that customers get really, really upset when they buy a new computer and find out a week or two later that the latest operating system is going to cost them another $129 a seat.

Macs for the most part are great computers, but they are not perfect, and I would rather someone know that sooner rather than later.

Where would I recommend a Mac?  They are fine in any small company as long as they already have four or five Macs and are planning on keeping their network Exchange free and plan on providing some Mac support.  If that's not the case, stick with a Windows PC and save a lot of hassles.  Small graphics shops usually are Mac centric, but if someone is working there, they already know that.

One person who is always a good candidate for a Mac is the CEO of a company.  Having a Mac toting CEO is probably the best way to get Mac support in any company.  Do a top down sell.

My great Apple tools have made creating these sites listed below very easy. I am thankful for that and hope to continue using Macs as long as my MacBook doesn't break again.  As products like Parallels continue to get better, it might get easier to use a Mac in a mixed environment if you have the experience.

View from the Mountain

Ocracoke Waves

ActiveRain

Coastal Paradise

Coastal Daily Blog

My Realtor Site

A couple of listings

290 Rollingwood, New Port, NC

126 White Heron  Lane

Pictures

Picasa Web Albums

Comments

[Tom]

Great post. Balanced, fair, and totally up front. As a former Mac owner who tried to make a 2001 iMac work in a Windows world, I also know that it just is not worth the time and trouble. Back then running Win 2000 in Virtual PC was like stirring very thick molasses on a cold day. With more modern Macs and better emulation it might be tolerable today, but why run Windows on a Mac if it's Windows apps you really need to run? If all I needed was home email, photo editing, and MS Office a Mac would be very tempting. Alas, that is not the case.

Keep up the great articles!

[Matt]

It never fails to amaze me how quickly people forget about days gone by. When I read comments like the ones posted for "Letters to a potential Mac user" I am unsure whether they are made by Mac users that have been Mac 'Hobbists' (it can sometimes feel more like a second job) prior to around the OS9 era or newbies? Anyone that has been around Macs for a lond period of time has surely done their money more than once and I cannot see how they can still have this nothing can go wrong attitude.

I must admit I have become very cynical of anything Apple related over the years. Like yourself I have and continue to spend thousands of dollars on Apple products. But in some ways it is the Apple satisfaction rollercoaster that is half the fun (looking back anyway).

The most amusing thing for me is that I used to be exactly the same, always too eager to tell everyone to buy a Mac. These days as much as I love and enjoy Macs I cannot bring myself to recommend them to anyone.

PS. If you ever have any queries whether a Mac can communicate with "Alien" networks, just watch the movie "Independenance Day". I was a Powerbook that saved the world...now if I could only connect to my printer.

Cheers,
Matt