Use a Mac, and Still Be You.  [video]

In Apple’s latest Get a Mac ad, Elimination, the customer makes her greeting to the Mac by saying, I’m a Megan. And that’s why the Mac builds such enduring loyalty among its customers. You can be you. With a Mac, you don’t need to take on a new life fighting viruses, system crashing and headaches. As my wife BB says, you don’t fit the Mac, it fits you.

See two more of the Apple Get a Mac ads, Customer Care and PC Choice Chat.

A new Get a Mac Ad

Apple introduces Easy as 1-23, a Get a Mac Ad inside the web browser. The message: PCs take longer to do things then Macs. And, they have no viruses.

See the ad below on the YouTube video or you can go to the Wired site and see it (for as long as Apple runs it). Now it’s at the NY Times.

The 23 steps
1. Remove unneeded bloatware
2. Configure security settings
3. Download and install OS security patches
4. Restart
5. Download / install extra security programs
6. Restart
7. Download / install drivers for peripherals
8. Restart
9. Remove optional Windows components
10. Update new virus list
11. Run full system virus scan
12. Update new malware list
13. Run full system malware scan
14. Download / install application updates
15. Restart
16. Clean out system registry
17. Repair corupt system registry
18. Defragment hard drive
19. Free up disk space
20. Scan disk for errors
21. Run system file checker
22. Read online instruction manual
23. Cross fingers

The biggest opponents to Mac conversion will be with the IT people. Why?

They don’t understand the Mac, and more importantly, it threatens their job security. Macs rarely break, so IT becomes the proverbial Maytag repairman waiting for a support call.

With a Mac, there is no need to understand the mysteries of DLL registries. There are no viruses or malware. But the best reason for convert are the productivity savings.

Another one bites the dust.

Michael Schneider, CEO of Fluidesign, a Los Angeles-based interactive agency, reports for PC World his experience upgrading his operation to the Mac. Some excerpts here…

In the summer of 2006, I upgraded about 80% of my company’s computers to Macs; we’re a design agency, and so most people wanted Macs anyway. I kept hearing about their strengths – how the OS never crashed, how it just worked, how you don’t need to reboot every day – and dismissed them as blind lust from googly-eyed Apple enthusiasts.

But then he converted to Macs.

But something changed. People started doing things quicker. Work started flowing faster (I estimate by about a third)… Words can’t describe how much productivity rose, including my own. The same machine, two years later, sits on my desk and operates flawlessly every day.

This is one of many positive reports of PC to Mac conversion. And where do you read about people converting from a Mac to a PC?

See the full report here in PC World…

PS- About the only reason left to stay with PCs is managing mail with Microsoft Exchange. Apple reportedly will have this neutralized by the fall of 2009. The other reason is if your IT pros have managed to build their server apps on the proprietary Microsoft standards. Woops, more job security.

I love it. Why? I have been using the Mac since 1984. Those early days were glorious as we Mac users found a “PC” that was usable and practical, especially if we were right brained creatives. Meanwhile, Microsoft was selling gazillions of left-brained DOS (non-Windows) machines into the corporate market. Whether you were left or right brained, that’s what they made you use. Then, in about 1987, Windows 1.0 was finally shipped (late as usual). Over the years, the corporate users drove us into the hills. We spent the years of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s living in caves, not seeing the sky.

Now times have changed. The Mac is cool again, and actually recognized as a great platform. We are out of the caves and back in the green grass, with sunny skies. We can now proclaim openly, without derision, Long Live the Mac!

I have posted one of the new ads I especially like, called Time Traveler.

You can find the other ads here at the Apple site.