Why do Windows users switch to Macs and iPhones?

Apple’s Mac computers and iOS devices have always been popular with certain segments of users. But over the years many Windows users have opted to switch entirely to the Mac, and have also bought iPhones and iPads too.

Have you ever wondered why some Windows users opt to switch to Apple’s products? An Apple redditor recently asked that question and got some very enlightening answers.

Designerspit started the thread with some questions:

Those who switched from Windows PCs, who used to hate Apple: WHY did you hate Apple? And what was the story explaining why you now use Apple devices?

We’re all closed minded when it comes to certain things. I too used to be PC-only. Just curious what things in life open us up to new “green eggs and ham.”

More at Reddit

His fellow Apple redditors responded with their thoughts about what got them to switch to Apple’s products:

_hooan: “Like any teen/young adult who gamed and went on online forums and imageboards, I disliked Apple because people told me it was bad :-). When I started programming and gave it a chance, I never went back!”

R1senfa17h: “I’ve worked in IT as a Windows systems engineer for the last 10 years at a company where only the Creative team were allowed to have Macs. Somehow, I associated the Creative team’s smug attitude and condescending smirks as being correlated with their preference for Apple products.

That’s when the company decided we were all switching from Blackberry to iPhone and I was forced to carry one as my ‘pager’ for critical systems alerting. To my co-workers’ dismay, I fell in love. It was a dirty feeling at first to be honest. I felt like I had switched to the dark side.

From the buttery smooth interface, extreme attention to every minute detail, amazing app store – I was forced to reconcile my newfound appreciation for Apple devices with how I felt about the Creative team. I realized they were just a bunch of overworked, underpaid minions whose only bright spot in their day was getting to work on a fully loaded MBP.

Since then, I’ve tried almost every other Apple product and continuously find myself impressed and satisfied – which is rare for those of us in IT. My small family now has 2 iPhones, 2 iPads, a MBP, a couple of Apple TVs, and an Apple Watch (which I still love btw). My wife just asked for an Apple Watch for her birthday next week too. I even invested in Apple stock a few years ago and am very happy with that ‘product’ as well.”

RosivDamotil: “I used to hate Apple. Had Windows till 7 and only Android. But then my wife wanted an iPad… This was the point of feeling: it works! Never what you do, it works like a charm! So my next step was an iMac as Windows AGAIN needed a reinstall and of course then an iPhone, for environmental homogenisation. 😉

This was at the time iPad2 was new…”

MarsNeedsGuitars: “Many years ago now. I always built my own PCs, but had to work with Macs at work. Eventually I tired of continuously “tweaking” my PC and trying to make it somehow better, faster, leaner. I bought a Mac and pretty much have never bothered with tweaking or pulling apart or reinstalling ever again.

So in a way you are right, the form is the function. In my case I guess a lot of that was in the OS which back then was way more stable than Windows (I’m prepared to accept that might have shifted since then), but also in the build quality. Shit just works.”

Pharos92: “I never hated them, I just remember the Power PC processors being terribly slow.

They switched to intel processors, more people developed for them and I got a Intel MBP for the comparative price of a windows laptop. Never looked back!”

5tr2: “Computers were my hobby, building, tweaking, benching, gaming, music production and graphics on the software side.

I later switched to Linux because Windows wasn’t deep enough, and for the free software spirit. Free software provided everything I needed, and the software I was already using on Windows was running way better on Linux. Gimp, Blender, early Krita etc.

In Linux land I moved to the Arch side of things over the ears and discovered minimalism for me, and it became my lifestyle as well. Around 2013 after using Linux for some years I gave up on the computer hobby, tweaking, and just wanted something simple to use and secure. Getting a bit into security topics I realized that either you limit yourself to a few ancient devices and flash it with open firmware, or you run a computer you can’t absolutely control, because the Bios/UEFI is still proprietary and made by shady companies outside of the influence of the computer manufacturers. Basically a super crappy OS below the OS.

Apple was the only company building modern computers with full control from the firmware and up, and I could still use the free software I was using in a fimilar environment, and deal with a company that repsects users privacy and doesn’t sell data.

I started with Hackintoshing my computer, and got a MacBook for mobility. Switching from Gnome to OS X was effortless, everything looked already familiar, because the desktop environments I was using on Linux were already Apple like, and the commandline is quite similar too. I ditched my tower finally and started to do everything on the MacBook.

Today I use proprietary software again, mainly Apples own stuff for minimalism reasons, and because dealing with software you rely on, which later gets axed because the devs sell out is a bummer. People complaining about iTunes, Final Cut, Logic etc. feels weird if you come from I come from. Everything is super easy to use, works without major bugs and looks so awesome that modifying it yourself would make it look worse.”

Boxedmilk: “Enrolled in a photography major, school insisted I buy a loaded MBPR. Initial rough patch but now I love it. Still use my PC for gaming but the Mac ecosystem is amazing.”

Leo-g: “Used Windows for an early part of my life and jumped when Intel came to the Macs. I felt like jumping on to Mac made me feel like i stopped putting out fires. Especially with the security stuff. I had AVG, ZoneFirewall and a MS malware scanning everyday. Made using it not awesome. Using Windows 10 with the annoying as hell security popups is just offensive to me now.”

Speedyparker87: “Many people (friends, family, acquaintances) would mention how they were overpriced and not worth it. I used them in school sometimes and as I was used to Windows, the differences annoyed me; plus I’m not sure they were on the most up to date OS versions

I changed my tune on Apple in college. First, I had to do a business research project on the company that I think warmed me up to them some. Then they announced the iPad which was pretty much the computer I always wanted. I followed every scrap of news about it, immediately pre-ordered, and eventually went all in on the ecosystem.

Apple’s design decisions also reflected desires I had. For instance, I remember modding Firefox back in 2006 to have reverse scrolling and to hide the scroll bar. A few years later, that was Safari’s natural form. A number of other features and behaviors of the OS became what I wanted too.

I probably was a “hater” because Apple was different from what I knew and grew up with and just chimed in with the others.”

Codemonkey85: “I thought Apple hardware was too expensive, I didn’t like their attitude toward their competitors or the buzzword “magical”, or the notion that they invented something or did it better than anyone when it frequently felt like neither was true. Having used an iPhone 3GS as my first smartphone, I knew from firsthand experience that things don’t ‘just work’ on iOS any more than they do on Android.

Still, it turned out the hardware was worth the extra cost. Plus, a lot of Apple’s software improved, there were still plenty of high quality third party apps on iOS, and the synergy between Apple devices is pretty amazing. All that, and Google / Android got to a point where it annoyed me more than Apple / iOS.

Now I’ve been back on iPhones for the last year and a half or so, along with an iPad and a MacBook, and I’m not planning to go back to Windows / Android anytime soon.”

More at Reddit

Why I use and prefer Apple products

It was a lot of fun to read through the posts on that Reddit thread. Most were quite positive about Apple’s products, and you can tell that Apple has done a pretty good job of pleasing a lot of Windows switchers over the years.

Hades87

I remember using Windows many years ago, and even back then I didn’t like it. Microsoft’s cutthroat business tactics and the headaches that came with Windows itself made me eventually loathe using that operating system on my computers.

I switched to Linux and found it to be quite good in many respects. However, I also had a long fascination with Apple’s industrial design and the “it just works” reputation of Apple also drew me to their products.

Eventually I switched over to Macs for my personal computers, and then later bought the first iPhone. After that I bought an iPad and upgraded my Macs and iOS devices every few years. Since then I’ve been quite happy using Apple’s products for all of my computing needs.

These days I really love how all of my Apple products work so well together via iCloud, Handoff, Continuity, etc. I can start something on one device and quickly switch to another without missing a beat. The fact that my Macs work together with my iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad makes my life a lot easier.

Apple has really gone from “it just works” to “everything works together” and I think that that has added an enormous amount of value to the company’s products. When you buy a Mac, iPhone or iPad you know that they will all work very well together in a way that no other company’s products can match right now.

I could not imagine switching back to Windows these days. All I hear are horror stories about forced upgrades to Windows 10, nagware and other Microsoft shenanigans. Thanks but no thanks, I’ll stick with my Apple products.

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