How Channel 9 Convinced Me to Remain at Camp Microsoft

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.

Comments

[Marc Orchant]

Steve: Happy to help ;^)

My son and I just had a similar decision and, like you, he's decided the gap between the Mac and Windows (from a usability perspective) has narrowed to the "doesn't matter" level while, for him, the support for the games and web-based stuff he wants to do (including using Picasa/Hello) has him certain the PC is the way to go.

I showed him Photo Story last night and he flipped out!

[Rex Hammock]

Oh, Steve, you fickle lover: (http://www.flickr.com/photos/steverubel/563742/) I've blogged this before: Being a Mac owner for 20 years has led me to understand what it must be like to be French, knowing you're superior but not being able to convince the rest of the world. By the way, I also hear that Ford is narrowing the gap with Porsche. I'll stop there because some of my best friends are Microsoft people. ; )

[Steve Rubel]

I am definitely fickle and swayed by good marketing!

[Neil]

Steve, you look like a man who could afford two new machines:) Get one of each! I'm wrestling with the same dilemma but I'm thinking of taking a load of software weight off my old Gateway and letting it buzz away in the corner of my office (doing useful web-browsing things) while I also buy a shiny new iMac G5 which I'll hook up into my wireless network. (and here I'm hoping someone will tell me if this won't work)

[Elisa Camahort]

[snip]
"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."
[snip]

Boy, having been a high tech marketer, I stay far away from passionate developers, design "goals", and teams making "efforts."

It's not just the developers and evangelists (engineering or marketing) that get any product to market, and I've seen lots of great intentions left behind to meet ship dates or business goals.

And Microsoft is no different. They have not been immune to schedule slips and unmet expectations.

Meanwhile, I bought my first Mac a few years ago when the "iLamp" version of the iMac first came on the scene: seduced not only by industrial design, but by what iPhoto and iTunes could do right then...and what iLife continues to do so well.

In fact I wrote a little blog entry early this year about how Steve Jobs should take me to every meeting as his pocket evangelist. I AM the target customer they need: lifelong PC user, semi-techie, but not too geeky, female, enough disposable cash to buy his more expensive computers.

Too bad he's so short-sighted he didn't take me up on the idea :)

http://homepage.mac.com/elisa_camahort/iblog/C1894745042/E899877125/index.html

[chris holland]

congrats Steve :)

I'm no Apple employee i'm however a heavy Mac user who switched in 2001 from the sturdy windows 2000 (win NT before that). I help my Girlfriend with her work XP laptop once a while, like, most recently, setting-up an 802.11x card.

i'd like you to take a look at Apple's iSync.

Then, you might also wanna look at something that'll be able in "first half of 2005": Spotlight

Those are just a couple of underrated, very cool OS X technologies, i could list a myriad, but i invite you to poke around the Apple site.

... and ... if i haven't totally bored you yet, i've got a wee rant about philosophical approaches to security.

There are many Apple users who blog, they happen to blog about other things than just Apple and OS X, and they're not Apple employees, they're actual users, like me. If you're interested I'll try and compile you a list :)

may your new computing endeavors bring you joy!! :)

[Joe]

I still believe that the Mac is still quite far from the PC. A lot more people use the PC, therefore more programs will come out for the PC. Same goes with playing PC games.

[Josh Bryant]

Well, now that you are getting a windows machine, here is a list of some essentials you will need.

Spyware Software
Adware Software
Anti-Virus Software
A crap load of free time to keep the computer running so you can use it when you need it.

Don't forget about checking every day for all those updates you'll need.

Enjoy it ;)

[Brady J. Frey]

>>I still believe that the Mac is still quite far from the PC. A lot more people use the PC, therefore more programs will come out for the PC. Same goes with playing PC games.<<

Is this a quality versus quantity arguement? I've seen the write-ups on Photo 3 - and while it looks easily like a step off of iPhoto, much like MS online music has looked to iTunes... regardless, you have to admit that macs are essentially much more user friendly. Simple to install and run -- easy and elegant to use, with the advanced needs of developers who want a little more. I used PC's in a print environment until about 98/99 -- and have been a Mac lover ever since. I understand that most of you users aren't working with 1gig photoshop files -- but if you're working with digital graphics, Macs have far superiority. Just ask the Microsoft Design department, they're mac users.

[Daniel]

Hmmmm...it seems Photostory does the same thing with photos that iMovie does utilizing the "Ken Burns Effect" It really is to bad your research only led you as far as online evangelizing and not the kind you could get at your local Apple store where I am sure they would show you more about the same features outlined in the Microsoft video. Maybe it is not too late to chamge your mind?

[Mark Coffman]

I've also enjoyed using Photo Story 3. I've got a ton of guides and tutorials at Windows Photo Story.