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At this year’s Software Industry Conference in Boston, USA, I gave a presentation on The A to Z of Online Marketing. Letter M dealt with the Mac.
Chances are that you don’t have or use a Mac, and aside from seeing them in a store, you probably only know one or two people who have one. I’m guessing they’ve already told you how amazing a Mac is, right?
The reasons for there being less Mac users than Windows are simple.
Macs have limited software, limited hardware, limited availability and higher prices.
So why do people buy Macs?
Many Mac users will tell you that PCs are unstable. And they’re right.
If they relied on their computers to keep them alive, stability would be worth paying three or four times more for. But most Mac users use them for the same thing that you and I use PCs. And if you dig a little deeper, the non-evangelist Mac owners (a rare breed) will admit that their systems aren’t quite as reliable as some like to think.
So why do people buy Macs?
The Mac website is aggressively going after PC owners, and until recently had a large headline of “Why your next PC should be a Mac.” Much of the website and their ongoing ad campaigns focus on Macs being more reliable, easier to work and more secure.
Having never worked with a Mac, it may well be more reliable. But it won’t be easier to work with, as most of my software won’t work on it. So aside from the fact I’ll have to buy a lot of new software, many of the applications that I work with on a daily basis won’t work.
Of course I could run Windows on a Mac, but why would I want to?
So why do people buy Macs?
They’re quieter, they look nicer and they’re supposed to be fast.
But what’s in it for me? Aside from a major increase in costs (I can buy a PC for less than $300), having to live without most of my software and a massive investment in time and familiarisation?
The Mac website addresses many of these questions in an incredibly slick and evasive way.
Can a Mac run Windows and Office - yes it can and “most other popular applications are available for the Mac too.” Can they really say that??
Is a Mac safe from PC viruses? “Yes, a Mac is 100 percent safe from viruses designed to attack PCs.” Beautiful! And “Apple continually makes free security updates available that can be downloaded automatically.” Why does that sound familiar?
So why do people buy Macs?
They’re definitely cooler. They look good, and they’re cooler, and they look really good. And if I’m really, really honest, I want one.
I suppose it must all be down to marketing. Who’d have guessed it?
I’ll be giving a revitalised version of The A to Z of Online Marketing in Berlin next month, at the European Software Conference. I hope you can join us.
>>The reasons for there being less Mac users than Windows are simple.
I often wonder how the numbers would look if you took out all the corporate pcs which will never have anything installed on them besides Office and a web browser.
Certainly from our perspective deciding which platform to target is not as straight forward a decision as it was five or six years ago.
I switched to a Mac a couple of months ago. Still happy with it.
Main problem is indeed software availability. But since I am mostly using web-apps (Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, etc…), this has not been much of a problem.
Give me a good code editor (Aptana), FTP client (CuteFTP), browser (Safari), Twitter app (TweetDeck) and I’m up and running.
BTW: we are doing Mac editions of our software and have seen the percentage of Mac profits increase over the years, from 4% (5 years ago) to 15% (last month).
Due to the high number of inaccuracies in the above piece I can only assume it is flame bait to drive up blog traffic from the Mac boys….
No offence, but I’m a bit confused seeing this post here – what prompted it Dave?
No offence taken Mark.
It’s taken from a talk I gave at SIC. From my perspective, I think that most users don’t need a Mac; they want one. There’s nothing wrong with that. I have a nicer car than I need, more space in my home than I need, and eat more food than I need.
But I find it intriguing that many Mac owners justify their want as a need. I think it all boils down to exceptionally good marketing by Apple. Any company that can turn users into evangelists are to be admired… at least by me. After all, when’s the last time you heard a PC user anywhere near as passionate about their hardware? Full credit to Apple.
Speaking as someone with two Macs and a PC on my desk, with two other Macs elsewhere in the home, I’d definitely agree! I think the decision around most non-essential purchases (anyone really need a recent model PC? organic food? latest cel phone? a big ass TV? that new Viking range?) has some degree of convincing at least yourself that it’s at least partly a need. But you’re right, Apple does manage to take that to almost an unheard of degree.
Having said all that, as a software marketing person, you should be particularly attracted to people who seem willing to spend money on non-essentials! :-;
Oh trust me, I am Mr non-essential purchase. I can see my BlackBerry, Kindle, phonecall recorder, digital SLR, Nespresso coffee machine, three monitors and four printers without even turning my head!
But I must disagree with you on one thing. I’m not attracted to people willing to spend money on non-essentials. Our clients, yourself included, make awesome software. People only need try it to see that it is well and truly essential
> Many Mac users will tell you that PCs are unstable. And they’re right. But…. [snip]
I originally converted to Mac because of its low-level BSD kernel, as it was yet another flavor of *nix, and I could develop software on it as such. But over time, using the more popular apps, it does seem more stable, and less troublesome, than the PC which my wife still uses. I have often considered getting her a Mac simply because I’m tired of being the IT support guy when the printer driver malfunctions, or something gets messed up because of a virus, or something gets disabled because she didn’t read the antivirus warning clearly before reacting to it and so on, and so on.
If it was nothing but marketing, the romance would wear off shortly after the purchase, and your next computer would NOT be a Mac. But that’s not what I see happening.
people buy macs because the want to feel a part of something special
I have sort of hated macs for a while, but now i am thinking of switching to one, this is mainly cause i can easily run windows mac and linux all at one time. Macs are way over priced though and the variety in software is just horrible, I used linux as my main operating system for 2months once and was in love with it, besides the fact that i missed all my software.
I hate mac commercials and love them at the same time. They are funny and what not but they use little twists in words to make computer illiterate people think macs are what they need to get.
for example,
“Yes, a Mac is 100 percent safe from viruses designed to attack PCs.”
What about ones designed for Macs?
There are plenty just search google. The only reason you will usually find ones for windows users is because the majority of computers are windows based, so hackers design their viruses to attack the majority.