It is my deepest conviction that bloggers and others who create content can sway purchasing decisions. This was reaffirmed when I experienced this first hand.
We held out as long as we could, but my wife and I decided it is high time for us to buy a new home computer to replace our trusty four-year-old Dell desktop. As we started to explore our different options we took a trip to our local Apple Store. We both immediately fell in love with the iMac G5. And who wouldn't? But just as we we're about to commit, I decided we should research our Windows options further. So my head told my heart and my sweetheart to be still while I study up.
My natural inclination as a blogger looking to make an informed purchasing decision was to turn to my fellow brethren. Dan Gillmor, a die hard Mac fan, yesterday noted that the chasm between Macs and PCs is widening thanks to Google, which is launching an array of desktop applications that right now only support Windows.
In addition, over the past few weeks Microsoft’s army of webloggers, including Robert Scoble, have been raving quite a bit about Windows Media Center 2005. Now I realize of course they are biased, but I also know they’re good geeks. Chances are they are raving about the product because it is insanely great (geek pun intended!).
So yesterday I was sitting on the fence, knowing we need to make a decision really soon. Our PC is living on borrowed time. That’s when - thanks to blogger buddy Marc Orchant - I stumbled upon two videos on Channel 9. The videos spotlight the team behind the new Windows Photo Story 3. One of our biggest motivations in buying a home PC is that we want to do more with our mass of digital photos. This is what lead me to gravitate to the iMac and iPhoto in the first place. I have owned many Macintoshes over the years and I know just how good iLife is.
But Channel 9 swayed me. As I watched the video and saw and heard the passion of the Photo Story developers, their design goals and the effort that Microsoft is taking to make managing photos easier, I saw that we really would be better off if we remained with Windows.
So to Robert Scoble, Jeff Sandquist, Lenn Pryor and the entire Channel 9 team, thank you for helping me learn more about your products so that I can make a more informed purchasing decision. I am going to buy one of the Dell Media Center PCs. If you email me I will tell you where Bill G can send the commission check. Maybe if Apple’s employees blogged as much as Microsoft’s do, my technological vote might have gone the other way.
