Newbies flocking to MacOS

Dwight Silverman of TechBlog has a couple of good posts on Apple-related matters. First, Dwight blogs on the news that a huge number Macs at Apple stores are being sold to MacOS newbies:

 Earlier this year, I wrote in a blog post and column about a phenomenon I was noticing whenever I went into one of Houston's five Apple retail stores. Most of the conversations I was overhearing in the computer section were between sales people and Windows users.

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During its second-quarter earnings report Wednesday, Apple said it actually shipped 1.76 million Macs, 33 percent more than the same quarter last year. But the most interesting tidbit from the earnings conference call, as reported by ZDNet's Between the Lines blog, was that half of the 330,000 Macs sold in Apple's stores were to people who were new to the Mac OS.

A 50 percent newbie rate is remarkable, but likely is not sustained across all of Apple's sales channels. Chances are it's lower online and certainly through its business resellers, but it may approach 50 percent in other retail outlets, such as Best Buy and what's left of CompUSA.

Still, these numbers should be considered a serious shot across the bow for Microsoft, which continues to suffer from negative buzz surrounding Windows Vista.

Dwight also has some advice for those wondering whether to go with Windows or MacOS for their next PC.

I love helping people with their PC purchases. As confusing as the process is for those who aren't geeks, it's very gratifying to make recommendations, see folks act on them, then come away quite satisfied with the end result. It's easily one of the best parts of my job.

Several times a week, at least, I'll hear from a reader, colleague or friend who wants help buying a computer. And at least half the time, one of the issues they're weighing is whether to buy a Windows-based system or a Mac. The frequency of this question has increased dramatically in the last year, one of the reasons I think there's a coming shift to the Mac.

When someone asks this question, I never come out and say one way or the other. Instead, I ask him or her a series of questions and lay out some circumstances. Usually, the person ends up making a decision that fits.

Here are the questions Dwight would ask if he were advising YOU:

What do you use now?
Why are you interested in changing operating systems?
What do people around you use?
How well do you handle change?
How big an investment do you have in your software?
How technically savvy are you?
How much do you want to spend?