I was until fairly recently a Windows user, the only reason being because of the ubiquitous nature of the software when I was first getting into computers. My decision to move to Mac was based on a very delicate and ingenious advertising campaign by Apple that I failed to recognise until after I had spent close to two and half thousand pounds on their products.  Don’t get me wrong though, even though I’m conscious of this wrangling of my own will by a corporate giant, I still embrace it lovingly.

The difference between Microsoft and Apple I think is that Microsoft are complacent in their ‘you need us, because everyone uses Microsoft’ approach.  Apple however seem to have this invisible power over it’s users who, upon purchasing an Apple product will almost instantly convert (if not already) into an Apple zealot.  In a conversation I recently had with a friend who had also just gone Mac, I conceded that I needed a Mac in my life, and it was the result of any particular advert I had seen or testiment I had read, only that I knew that my life would be better with one in it.  ”Dooood” she said, “That is the Apple advertising!”  Oops.

From my own personal experience, before Mac I lusted after the clean and friendly feel, and afterward I marvelled at the engineering, design and impossible attention to detail.  It has of course turned me into a Mac zealot, and now I find myself drooling over shiny white things in shop windows that I post rationalise after buying.  I couldn’t for instance tell you why I own a Mighty Mouse - it’s rubbish, it guarantees some kind of RSI after prolonged use and the buttons are difficult to use.  It’s a complete downgrade from my delightful logitech I used to have, but I still love it, because it’s Apple, and it’s one step closer to completing the set.

I know that 22.23% of you who read my site are Mac users (thanks to Google Analytics) and I’m sure you’ll know exactly what I mean.  The other 69.24% who are on Windows will just be tutting and rolling your eyes at another sermon about why Windows is rubbish, leaving the remaining 8.53% on Linux to laugh condescendingly at how these peons haven’t caught up with you L337 h4×0r5.

So I guess that Apple’s advertising boils down to some kind of holistic synergy where you couldn’t really explain your lust for it, and that it’s greater than the sum of it’s parts.  Possibly then, some kind of magic?