I’ve Changed

26Feb09

You have to understand.

It’s been coming for a long time.

I just didn’t know that someone could change so completely their attitude and mindset.

I am an Apple junkie.

There I said it.  And I won’t apologize.

You see, if you know anything about me, I grew up in corporate America.  I bought my first PC in 1982 and it looked exactly like this:

 

I learned how to program on this dual drive baby and I loved it.  It helped pay the bills during my 22 year career.  I was always the one people called when things didn’t go as expected.

But something happened along the way.  I left Big Blue and came on staff at the coolest church in the world.  Then I met this guy.  He came on staff and brought his hippie Mac with him.  I tolerated it.  But we were still a PC church.  He was on his own.

Because of my upbringing against all things Apple, I even went as far as buying anything but Apple.  My first and second mp3 player was Creative Labs, even though the first iPods were out there.  There was just something about being anti-Mac that I enjoyed.

It took until 2006 for me to purchase my first Apple product – an iPod for my son for Christmas.  I was amazed at a couple of things right from the start.  The packaging and the end-user experience.  OK, maybe Apple products are not just for hippies anymore.

In late 2007, I purchased my first Apple product for myself.  I was taking a trip to Kenya and I had outgrown my mp3 player and I could even get one that played videos.

 

Again, a great buying and end user experience.  And I got to watch all seasons of The Office in a chair in the sky.  Nice.

My son Stephen was next.  He does a lot of audio/video stuff for the youth at our church.  He asked for a Macbook as an early graduation present.

November 2008 was probably the tipping point.  Our cell phone plan was up and we started looking around at new plans and phones.  It didn’t help that 5 of my co-workers had iPhones and AT&T.  Call it peer pressure if you want but after 3 months, I don’t know how I actually functioned PiP (pre-iPhone).  My wife calls it iCrack but the time savings I have realized by using it is tremendous.  And don’t get me started on the applications that are available for it – ok some of them are stupid.

 

 

December 2008 rolls around and it’s time for a new work computer.  I had been using my personal Dell ever since I came on staff at Crosspointe and there was a window of opportunity to get a new notebook.  PC or Mac?  There are only 2 applications I use which are PC only and have no Mac counterpart but thanks to a piece of software, I am now residing in both worlds.

This past weekend, my frustration with my wireless router reached an all-time high and I vowed to fix it once and for all.  Given my recent purchase history and the success I have had with Apple products, I purchased an Airport Extreme.  Five minutes after I unpacked it, wireless internet was surrounding my house in areas my previous routers couldn’t get to.  And with a simple plug-in of my USB drive, wireless backups are happening anytime I am on my network.

Simple customer experience.  Apple gets it.

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