The Mac Effect

For all those stuck in the eternal Mac vs Windows debate, I have just one piece of advice – You have to use it to believe it! There’s a lot more in a MacBook than just the aesthetic appeal that every Apple product embodies. I jumped on the Mac bandwagon three years back.

How it began?

January 2017. Annual Cultural Fest of my MBA college. A classmate from the cultural committee was live-streaming street plays on the FB page. He asked me to take a few DSLR shots for some online posts. When I went to handover the images, he requested to transfer and post on his behalf and hurried past me for some other errand. I glanced at the laptop on the desk. It was a sleek and compact MacBook Air. It took me some 15 minutes to complete the chore. In that time, I fell in awe of the aesthetic and compact design, smooth user interface and fast performance that the MacBook manifested. That was the first time I tried my hands on a MacBook and I was mighty impressed.

I spent the following summer in Meerut, a small town in North India. I was interning in an FMCG company which had given me a benchmarking project for improving their brand’s direct coverage. This meant going from lane to lane, mapping 876 retail outlets in sweltering heat for two months. I had my mid-review planned one month into the internship. Back then, I was using a Dell Studio model for doing my work. Being old, its fast draining battery and slow performance would really get on my nerves. Coming back from field after spending the day in scorching heat, that was the last thing I wanted. I don’t know if it was the heat wave or crashing excel sheets, but they did seem to synergise what followed as more frustration surged through me.

The day I got my first stipend, I knew just what to do with it. I rushed to the only mall in town that had an Apple store. It was located 10 kms away on the outskirts. I went straight to the counter and purchased a MacBook Air to put an end to my woes. That’s how the relationship started, influenced by the trust gained in merely 15 minutes of using the brand 4 months back. Apple typically does that to you. The brand pulls you in. Where else do you see long lines of people camping outside retail stores to pick up pre-ordered products on the first day of sale?

When it comes to Customer Support, Apple rules the roost

Two weeks back, I was struggling to transfer my Apple Music songs from iPhone to Mac. I placed a call back request online and within seconds their representative was on the call, enquiring about my safety during the on-going COVID-19 crisis and explaining the nitty gritty. I really admire how deeply Apple gets involved in ensuring the users’ issues get sorted through in-person call support for the simplest of problems.

Why Mac?

• Power and Feel: Without offence to all the sleek notebooks out there, it would be hard to argue Mac doesn’t have a great design and style. It stands out in terms of aesthetic value.
• Seamless Software and Hardware Integration: If you are part of the Apple ecosystem (iPhone, MacBook, AirPods and more), there is seamless integration across platforms and it keeps getting more expansive every year. Photos, Music, Documents, Apps in your iPhone automatically sync over iCloud without any external software. You can also wirelessly send all these and more in seconds through AirDrop. Write any note on your MacBook and continue it on your iPhone. Browse any website on Safari in iPhone and there would be a Siri suggestion in Safari on your Mac to open the same site. Send messages and receive calls from your iPhone directly on your Mac while you work. It’s a long list. Other players do try to replicate this experience but the way Apple goes about it is pretty much its USP.
• Long-lasting Batteries: MacBooks have long lasting batteries and are war horses in terms of average life.
• Excellent in-person Customer Support
• Routine software patch updates and improvements

In the end, the Mac is an electronic brand and it needs to be worth the money for customers. Securing top rank in customer satisfaction surveys for more than a decade is no mean feat given the price. The pro versions are expensive. But the Air is just as good for day-to-day work. You also have the option to buy slightly older variants on e-commerce platforms which are just as powerful and at cheaper prices. I am a content Mac user and a strong brand advocate. More recently, I pushed my Dad to go for MacBook Pro. “Is it really worth the price?” he asked. “Knowing what you are getting justifies your choices,” I said.