hats off to switch campaign... another submissive triumph

[MacLuv]

Once upon a time I thought the switch campaign was garbage... a feeble attempt at attracting strangers to the cult... of course, those were my initial, personal feelings...

I posted a poll in Systems: Are you a full-time OS X user yet? The response so far has been weak considering this is a forum of ~10,000 members... but the poll at this time seems to be struck down the middle--half say yes to full-time OS X use, the others say nay, I'm keeping Classic around.

It then came to be the problems associated with a niche market and the irony behind it--although Mac users take pride in using "innovative" products, the truth is that most users are afraid to switch to OS X. This farce pretty much sums it up for OS 9 users who were pissed off.

Initially I was pissed off at the introduction of a new OS, especially since all of the software I need to get my work done isn't available yet (namely Quark), but I've been waiting for this change for a very long time, maybe more than some, because frankly, it's about time the Mac cult had a stable, fully operational battle station.

I'm still not really impressed with the speed, but we'll see what happens as the pressure to perform comes down hard on Apple's head with this new software.

But from a business point of view, I have to take my hat off to the switch campaign, which I really see more as a way to tell existing customers and loyal users to hurry up and get on the bandwagon. PC users will always trickle in without all the hubbub, but I can imagine with all the negative attitute towards OS X that Apple needed a surefire way to make sure everybody gets on board. And what better way then to spell it out for everybody on a continued basis:

SWITCH

It's almost like the draft poster "uncle sam wants you" that everyone knows so well...

So, I have news for all the OS9 lovers out there... sooner or later the peer pressure will be so great that you won't be able to resist... especially when a PC user, someone who just starts using Macs, ends up with a better system than someone who's been using them for over a decade.

To all those people that aren't switching, I say this: If you really love Apple, hurry up and switch... the sooner we're all on the field we can really start to play ball. Dig?

[edX]

while i agree with the spirit of your post, i must disagree with your concluding this based upon your poll. i am not a "full time" os x user by your definition. i still have a few things that i use classic or os 9 for - like scanning or certain games. i haven't bothered to pay to update my quicken so i still balance my checkbook in classic.

but i am booted into os x 99% of the time. i use it about 95-98% of the time. i am hardly scared of making the switch. i would definitly consider myself an osx user as is almost everyone who visits this site.

however, i know that many mac loyalists are not switching for one reason or another. one big reason being the expenditure of money for a new mac that can handle it. macs tend to get a longer life than pc's and there are still alot of old macs that work perfectly for what people use them for that can't run os x.

and while i have long thought that apple must have the worst advertising agency on the planet, the ads seem to be working. even those degrading ipod ads of awhile back. At least apple is investing in advertising these days, something they waited far too long to do. i mean, i don't think they ran an ad between that first one during the super bowl and the introduction of the imac. at least not on TV. and while i find these swithcers to be laughable, i think pc users must be able to relate to them. maybe i can't because i've never put myself in their position of not having a mac.

but yea, i mutter little stuff under my breath every time i see a developer who releases something for os 9 without an os x version, or anything else that is only supported under os 9. and i think "how sad" when i hear of someone still using os 9 that hasn't learned the joys of os x.