It's ironic. Despite my publicly proclaimed faith in my Lenovo Thinkpad, I've been feeling this angst in my belly as one, techcentric CEO after another these days shows off their new Mac Pros. When using the Parallel Software, it runs OSX and Windows pretty close to seamlessly.
But two events have occurred today that will stop me from straying from my Thinkpad monogamy. First, Manish Hira left a comment here, showing that he too received a new computer after registering complaints about the one he had and the support that at first he was not getting.
Then Shel Holtz, my friend and namesake described how Apple has lost him as a customer because their ludicrous efforts to not support him in a crisis put him through Shel Hell.
Both of these incidents reminded me that the hardware and software, the OS and security issues are really no longer the issue. It took them long enough, but Windows and Office work pretty well for most of Microsoft's hundreds of millions of customers most of the time. The same can be said for Apple Computer whose customers have remained the most passionately positive for as long as I can recall.
Where the rubber meets the road is in those rare times when things don't work well. Shel was in a crisis. His disk went dormant, if not dead. He was traveling. He had deadlines. Lots of us feel the pain.
Apple responded with disdain, with inconsistency on what to do, with no appreciation for the urgency of a customer's problems. This is enough to keep me away from becoming more than an iPod customer in the foreseeable future. I want to do business with companies who will be there for me when their products let me down. I just got a case of someone I trust getting helped by Lenovo and screwed by Apple. That's all I need to know to decide.
BTW, anyone from Apple Computer wishing to join this conversation is free to do so.
