Mac vs. PC Apple Macintosh

Mac vs. PC

Apple Macintosh vs. IBM PC

For the Apple Mac user, the graphical and easy-to-use interface, advanced operating system functionality for managing music and video files, and strength of system integration all contribute to creating one of the world's most loyal customer bases. Mac OS X is superior to Microsoft Windows 7 on many usability and performance benchmarks for example (Mansfield-Devine, 2008). For the IBM PC and compatibles user, the legacy of open architecture, broad software support and a breadth of options make it a platform many companies, form very large to small, prefer (Sumner, 2007).

Evaluating Biases of the Apple Macintosh vs. PC Compatibles

The most common biases of Apple Macintosh users are most commonly associated with the streamlined, powerful and intuitively created user interface honed over nearly ten generations of operating systems (Mansfield-Devine, 2008). Apple is also well-known for its depth of expertise in graphics software applications and the development of leading publishing programs, in addition to imagery and digital content creation (Mansfield-Devine, 2008). As a result of these common biases, Apple often gets a reputation has having a customer base of eccentric graphic artists, designers and creative collaborators that is far beyond the mainstream IBM PC and compatibles customer base. The Apple customer base has also known to be so passionate that they will completely test a new product in the first hours of its release and write entire analyses of performance compared to comparable systems. This passionate focus on products and the user experience they deliver also differentiates the Apple from IBM PC and compatibles user as well. All of these biases help to create a stereotype of Apple being for a very specific type of customer with a highly unique series of attributes and characteristics. IBM PC and compatible users likewise have many stereotypes attributed to their identity. The tendency to see PC users as being more rigid, less flexible, less creative and non-linear in thought processes is commonplace. They are also seen as being more from the accounting and finance side of a business, less from the creative and "cool" areas of a company (Sumner, 2007).

Guarding Against Biases in Survey