thoughts on tech targeted at helping small businesses innovate

Still buying PCs

Posted: October 23rd, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: General | Tags: , | 4 Comments »

Oh dear… Off to a client this morning who despite agreeing with me about buying a new Mac ended up buying a new PC four weeks ago. It came with Vista not Windows 7 and despite it being “cheap” (I’m yet to find out how cheap) and urgently needed (they could have just boosted their ram (at significantly less cost)) it is still in its box. Why oh why are people so blindly faithful to the PC platform? Especially in SME? Sometimes I just despair.

  • http://twitter.com/tsmarsh Tom Marsh

    Fear of change: it has taken my Dad 4 years of exposure to finally buy a mac and now he is a complete convert. He didn't like having to remember both ways of having to do everything and to this day still maximizes every window.

    Cost of ownership: new platform means new licenses for Office / Quicken etc. It might mean a hit in productivity as people learn how to use the Mac. Although the TCO may be lower over 3-5 years the initial cash hit combined with a distrust of IT promises (almost certainly with due to experience with a PC) means that selling a computer that is twice the price of a Windows box is a tough sell.

    Windows works: if you're used to waiting for a file to delete, having to deal with virus / spam bots and applications that keep data in a registry (grrrr) then you can probably get useful work done.

    It is often difficult to see the benefit of business class over coach until you've tried to get work done on plane. The price difference between Mac and PC is nowhere near as extravagant, but its just as easy to see why SMEs refuse to pay for it.

  • http://blog.nealandassociates.co.uk Peter Neal

    I couldn't agree more. Fear of change is a surprisingly powerful emotion and has often proved to be a significant inhibitor to businesses adapting to new technology and the huge benefits that it can offer them, from increased productivity and it's associated savings to the new business you can attract by using tools such as Facebook or Twitter.

    Once people switch they quickly forget how bad Windows was and frustrations are transferred over to the new OS, whatever it happens to be. Personally I've found it the same with internet speed, when I first got a broadband connection it was great, then I got 8 Mbit and it was much better, now I'm used to a 20+ Mbit connection I still find myself getting impatient.

  • http://blog.nealandassociates.co.uk Peter Neal

    I couldn't agree more. Fear of change is a surprisingly powerful emotion and has often proved to be a significant inhibitor to businesses adapting to new technology and the huge benefits that it can offer them, from increased productivity and it's associated savings to the new business you can attract by using tools such as Facebook or Twitter.

    Once people switch they quickly forget how bad Windows was and frustrations are transferred over to the new OS, whatever it happens to be. Personally I've found it the same with internet speed, when I first got a broadband connection it was great, then I got 8 Mbit and it was much better, now I'm used to a 20+ Mbit connection I still find myself getting impatient.

  • http://blog.nealandassociates.co.uk Peter Neal

    I couldn't agree more. Fear of change is a surprisingly powerful emotion and has often proved to be a significant inhibitor to businesses adapting to new technology and the huge benefits that it can offer them, from increased productivity and it's associated savings to the new business you can attract by using tools such as Facebook or Twitter.

    Once people switch they quickly forget how bad Windows was and frustrations are transferred over to the new OS, whatever it happens to be. Personally I've found it the same with internet speed, when I first got a broadband connection it was great, then I got 8 Mbit and it was much better, now I'm used to a 20+ Mbit connection I still find myself getting impatient.