“Many SMB entrepreneurs have discovered that switching to Apple from Microsoft incurs far less hidden costs than anticipated and brings productivity and cost savings despite slightly higher purchase price on Mac computer tags,” Jack M. Germain reports for MacNewsWorld. “‘In short, switching to a Mac infrastructure has been far less disruption than I imagined, with far greater usability and far smoother operation,’ Stever Robbins, CEO of the Stever Robbins Company, told MacNewsWorld. He runs a Massachusetts-based business skills consulting firm.”
Germain reports, “Robbins, who founded or was an early team member of nine startup companies over 25 years, switched his company to the Mac side of computing around the end of last year. He has not regretted the decision. He was toying with the idea since Apple released Macs capable of running both the MacOS and Windows XP operating systems. ‘I kept waiting and putting it off. Then my Windows computer kept crashing. I lost three-and-a-half days of my billable time as a consultant in getting my PC working again,’ he explained. ‘The Mac changed my life, truly. I can’t imagine voluntarily switching back to Windows.'”
“After days of fighting to salvage his misbehaving Windows installation, Robbins decided that as long as he was going to have to do a complete Windows reinstallation to solve the problem, he might as well do it on a dual Mac. In the last three months he hasn’t spent any time dealing with crashes,” Germain reports.
Germain reports, “Some business users in the past were critical of switching to Macs for their lack of software. That is no longer the case, according to Griswold and Robbins. Prebundled software gave Robbins an integrated address book, calendar, e-mail and other business applications that synchronize with his PDA and with the Internet. ‘What cost me hundreds of dollars to cobble together poorly on a PC comes built-in with the Mac, all working smoothly,’ said Robbins. ‘Overall, the total cost of software and hardware is not any more costly [on a Mac] than it is on Windows.'”
Germain reports, “The three biggest productivity boosts for Robbins are the drag-to-trash icon feature to completely uninstall a program, the real security provided with a Mac, and not having a problem with viruses. He spent less time managing and fixing his Mac equipment than ever before on his Windows box. ‘I figure I’ve saved at least five days so far in administrative time, which more than makes up for the price of the new computers,’ he boasted.”
Germain reports, “One big confusion that most people have about not switching to a Mac infrastructure is that basic software does not work well on the Mac, suggested Griswold. His company does much of its business using Web-based word processing. ‘Macs are fine with that. As a small-business owner all I need is available in the Mac world,’ he said.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
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Listen to the Stever.
Smart business owners migrate to Apple’s OS-unlimited Macs
(and stupid business owners keep buying OS-limited PCs from HP, Dell, etc.)
mornin Chrissy !
Actually, tho …
nice as this article is …. I wonder if MDN isnt preaching to the choir ?
maybe a little ?
Expect to hear more of these stories in coming months. I know I have been converting a few of my clients over from Windows to Macs and every last one of them sends me an email at least once a month thanking me for the advice.
JadisOne,
that’s good news.
On the ward in the hospital where I work in Berlin as a psychiatric nurse, two doctors (out of four) have changed to the Mac. Two years ago, I was the only Mac user there.
My favorite part is this quote (my emphasis):
“I can’t imagine VOLUNTARILY switching back to Windows.”
I can just imagine Ballmer reading this in his lair and menacingly responding, “then you will do it INvoluntarily, Mr. Robbins…. mwahahaha!”
I have a bicycle repair shop and run Mac OSX for every last business detail. That, and the Mac looks really cool sitting at the front counter. People always say something positive about it.
Macs are GREAT for small business!
“The three biggest productivity boosts for Robbins are the drag-to-trash icon feature to completely uninstall a program…”
Does that guy uninstall lots and lots and lots of programs????
How many times does one even do that that it effects productivity in a Mac vs Windows way?
The Windows way to delete a program:
Start > Software > Select software to delete, click delete.
Dragging to the garbage can on the Mac is what, one step less???? And that is a productivity boost?
Sure would not be one of my top 3 productivity boosts in using a Mac.
Silly.
Although there is still some improvements Apple can do to make their products more attractive to buisnesses.
1: Run most Windows apps without Windows.
2: Allow more configuration options. For example if a buisness wants 100 Mac Mini’s without cd drives, they should have that option.
3: Much better security and privacy options. Mac OS X’s record hasn’t been exactly “steller”, in fact lately Mac OS X security issues are rapidly rising as Windows has been falling. It’s because of Windows vast market share that even the tiniest of security issues becomes a plague.
4: Sheilding the operating system better from the 95% of exploits that are application based.
Third party developers are driven by marketing, they want root and demand it through some lame ass excuse for shoddy coding and start sending vital information without your knowledge or consent.
5: Take EFI under their wing and ensure it’s security. Right now any application can install something in EFI and it will download over the internet and run code before the operating system even loads!! This is a extreme violation of consumers privacy and security.
Yet no one hears about it.
Hey Mac Salesguy… I believe you are missing one important aspect. Sure, you deleted the app that way on Windows, but not the plethora of other things it installed all over the place. As opposed to the Mac where it’s – usually – just deleting the package and removing everything.
@ Wiseguy
1: Run most Windows apps without Windows— and how are you going to do that?
3: Much better security and privacy options. Mac OS X’s record hasn’t been exactly “steller”, in fact lately Mac OS X security issues are rapidly rising as Windows has been falling. It’s because of Windows vast market share that even the tiniest of security issues becomes a plague.
4: Sheilding the operating system better from the 95% of exploits that are application based.
I may have missed something but I haven’t read/experienced any serious, widespread exploits/threats in the Mac OS X since its inception. Name even 1 incident.
Your user name does not do justice to your posts. At least you can spell better this time.
“…in fact lately Mac OS X security issues are rapidly rising as Windows has been falling. It’s because of Windows vast market share that even the tiniest of security issues becomes a plague.”
hmm. i need a visual here. i imagine two liquid gauges… like thermometers, to measure security issues. one says Macintosh and the other Windows. the bottom of the gauge has a line marked as “0” (being very very good) and the top marked as “100” (being somewhat bad). the Mac gauge rises from 7 to 12. the Windows gauge falls from 96 to 91. based on these changes, which would denote a more secure environment?
Vista was breeched before it even actually went to market, there are several known viruses and exploits in the wild at this moment. OS X does not at the moment have any known viruses or exploits that can be implimented remotely in the wild and it has been that way for over 5 years.
Windows security issues havent dropped far enough or fast enough to place them below OS X security issues and would have to fall a very long way indeed to accomplish such.
so, according to what you’ve written, Macs are still relatively safe and Windows machines are very much danger unto themselves.
Windows is NOT reliable.
Any business who relies on Windows needs help.
It’s like saying anyone at randem in the developed world could get Ebola Fever. Possible, if exposed. But the chance in Europe and North America is effectively zero compared to relatively high chances in certain parts of equatorial Africa.
Stating that theoretical OS X threats, and none ever in the wild, are comparable to actual, frequent Doze exploits is ridiculous.
Charko…
That said, it is safe to say the “other 2” are nuts and could/should be treated where they work as delusional!
If they have the time and $$ ot waste on Wintel crap..then no discount for treatment.
Just a thought!
TR
@tyk—- the Mac does not delete everything related to the program when you drag the program to the trash can.
RE: “@tyk—- the Mac does not delete everything related to the program when you drag the program to the trash can”
use Spotlight to find everything (one click) and delete; 10 times faster and more accurate than the Windows way.
and no shared DLL’s that cause you to always question whether you really should de-install something in Windows.
Tempus Fugit: Criticizing Windows Vista for being “breeched before it even actually went to market” is a rather weaselly comment; by weaselly, I mean it’s not really a lie, but it is very misleading. The exploit used by that virus was patched before the commercial release. That’s kind of the whole idea of a beta release: they have problems that are fixed before the actual release. Do you normally chastise commercial software for problems that were only in their beta versions?
Behar: I do know of one serious exploit or threat that hit Mac OS X, although it might be the only one. There was an incident where malicious unix code was spread through iChat. The malicious unix code disguised itself with a jpeg icon, you had to click ‘get info’ to see it was really a unix executable. It was in the wild, and real people were effected by it.
Some links to back up my wild and crazy claims:
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/osxleapa.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_virus
http://hardware.silicon.com/desktops/0,39024645,39156522,00.htm
http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/02/macosxleap.html
http://www.macrumors.com/2006/02/16/the-first-mac-os-x-virus-a-new-os-x-trojan/
Before any of you start freaking out about real mac viruses and buy Norton for Mac, remember that Mac OS X is still remarkably secure. There would have to be many more viruses like this to justify going through the trouble of using antivirus, you are still pretty much totally safe without one. All I’m trying to say is that Mac OS X security is not completely flawless, it is at least half-a-notch below perfection.
Alas, QuickBooks for Mac severely lags QuickBooks for Windows. My business will not make the switch as long as this is so.
@”WiseGuy”… I think you might try posting a little less nonsense.
@Devil’s Advocate
Thank you for your correction. I missed that one, my mistake.
Wiseguy’s points are still nonsense.
Same comment as the 100 million iPods sold poat = damn good article; send it to all your friends and family. OK, not quite exactly the same but close.
All I’m trying to say is that Mac OS X security is not completely flawless, it is at least half-a-notch below perfection.
OK fine and since basketballs are not perfectly round no one is allowed to say they are.