Why do executives with $1,000 iPhones still use Windows PCs?
With each year’s next generation, Apple’s iPhone is almost perfectly aligned with an executive’s priorities: Easy to use, reliable, fun and extraordinarily useful. An iPhone makes just about every aspect of life and work easier and better. Getting a new iPhone is exciting, too. It’s like holding the future in your hand.
A Windows PC is very much the opposite. It’s a tool, much like a typewriter. And unlike iPhones where we gladly pay ever higher prices, Windows PCs are a commodity, and price is a race to the bottom. The two types of devices couldn’t be more different. In fact, when experts look at “big tech” and group the companies that are a part of driving major societal change via their dominance, Microsoft isn’t even included.
So why do some executives with $1,000+ iPhones still use Windows PCs? I decided to explore this question because it’s important.
I sincerely care if you use a Mac or a PC. Not because of my personal preference. It’s because I want you to be fully informed and aware of the trade-offs and impact of your choice as it relates to your priorities. Simply put, a measure of my success is if you never asking the question,“Why didn’t you tell me that?”
I received an email recently from an executive assistant with subject “Expert IT Concierge Needed.” She explained that the executive is seeking someone capable of helping them “learn more about their technology, how to use it, understand it, optimize it and make it function seamlessly.” We exchanged emails right away, and a Zoom call was set up.
The call was great.
The executive’s assistant was professional, knowledgeable, and fun. The written summary of the executive’s goals and priorities provided to me in advance of our call made the potential for a great fit and relationship clear. The executive wants to learn more about tech, become more efficient and effective in tech for work and to get more satisfaction from using tech in life including traveling. I thought, this is perfect.
Actually, almost perfect.
At the bottom of the list of goals and priorities was a reference to Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Teams, and Outlook.
If you’ve been in tech long enough, you know that Microsoft isn’t one of the first names to come to mind when it comes to improving the quality or enjoyment of your life. Office 365 still doesn’t work as well on an iPhone as Google Workspace. Outlook still crashes regularly, and search is stuck in the 90s. Teams does work, much like a Zune works when it comes to playing music, but we live in a world of Zoom and Google Meet. Microsoft simply isn’t a major player in the consumer tech revolution.
Using Microsoft products by itself isn’t a “red flag”. Nearly all Tech Concierge members still use or interact with Microsoft on one level or another, usually in the form of Word or Excel documents. That’s the reason Tech Concierge is committed to multi-vendor technical excellence; Maintaining skills, competence and qualifications on the Microsoft platform, in addition to Apple, Google and others. We have to be as comfortable and competent working on a Windows-based PC with Office 365 as we are on a Mac with Chrome and Google G-Suite. The real reason for the elevated concern is that using Microsoft Windows has a cost, and it’s important to acknowledge it up front.
In any initial conversation with an executive or executive assistant, I want to understand their thoughts/feelings/beliefs/habits about their platform. What apps, computer and smartphone do they use, and why? When they use an iPhone, the stated reason is always “It works better.” When it comes to Microsoft Windows and Outlook, it’s never because they love the Microsoft brand. The reason is always “that’s what I know” or “that’s what I’ve always used.” A decade ago you might hear “More people in business use Microsoft” or “Microsoft is more compatible with the business world,” but this simply isn’t true in 2021. This is where things can get interesting, because it’s where an executive’s preferences come into conflict with their priorities.
Putting Mac vs. PC “religious” preference and claims of platform superiority completely aside, there are some facts that make this choice even more confusing. Macs have fewer viruses. PCs are plagued by ransomware. The list goes on. When you look at why an executive would choose to still use a PC, it gets really interesting.
So let’s take a look at this from an executive perspective, not a tech’s perspective.
IBM’s “shocking” discovery in 2015.
In 2015, under the leadership of Fletcher Previn, VP of Workplace as a Service, IBM revealed that the single biggest key to transforming company culture with 400,000+ employees spanning 2,800 locations was as simple as letting employees decide which to use — Windows or Mac.
Within the first year 30,000 employees opted for Mac. Shortly thereafter that number grew to 90,000, making it the largest deployment of Macs on Earth, and it only took 5 techs to do it. The biggest surprise was still to come. IBM studied the differences between their PC users and their Mac users. Here’s what they found:
PCs drive twice the number of support calls, and PCs are 3X more expensive over a planned life of four years, even when taking into account the deepest historical discounts ever offered by Microsoft. For IBM, planning to switch 100,000 users to Mac would save millions of dollars. That’s material.
Why do executives with $1,000 iPhones still use Windows PCs?
So then why do many executives still use Windows? If they carry around a $1,000 iPhone in their pocket, why on Earth would they continue using a PC?
In my experience over 20 years and 40,000+ hours of experience working with business owners and executives, the three reasons why executives avoid switching to Mac and Google away from Windows and O365 (just using two technologies as examples- I could list a couple dozen) are:
They may be mostly unaware of the benefits measured in time returned, security, ease of use, etc. of one platform or technology vs. another (this is rarer and rarer- Now that Apple is the most valuable company on the planet, most people don't shame Apple today like they did back in the 90s)
or….
They're aware of the benefits, but they cringe at the idea of switching. In their world no one has gained their confidence that they can make the switch seamless and pain-free.
or….
They simply don't care. This can be because they don't see or expect more value out of their device(s). The computer, smartphone, etc. is just a calculator. A commodity. Usually with this kind of situation I would never be having the conversation, because you wouldn't have reached out in the first place. (This customer is not my focus)
Most executives have similar priorities.
It’s been my experience that great executives have a similar set of priorities, and that in most cases, switching to a Mac would be in their better interest. It has also been my experience that they often don’t only because they just haven’t met the right resource that can make it easy to do so.
About six years ago, I was sitting in front of an executive in her home office in California. In our first meeting, I listened to her experiences and listed up her priorities. When she asked “What do you recommend?” my first response, carefully considered, was “you should be using a Mac, not that PC in front of you, because it is the root cause of 80% of the problems.”
Her reaction, after a pause, was "will you make it easy for me?"
Making the switch from PC to Mac seamless and easy is the key.
My responsibility is to gain my customer’s trust as the most skilled, competent, passionate, professional technologist they have ever met and worked with. I am fluent in and just as competent in Windows as I am on Mac, by my own design. I have to understand Windows at a level necessary to migrate and replicate all of the functionality a customer depends on to their new Mac.
I need to help them make the move in a way that is predictable and not disruptive. Sometimes that means “titrating” much the same way a good doctor would take a patient off of a drug, little by little, preventing the shock of sudden change.
Too often, change happens when the pain becomes too great
The majority of customer referrals I receive are from executives who are in sufficient pain - and often their PC-only consultant hasn't been able to relieve the pain - so they are referred by someone who understands what I am capable of, someone like an excellent Executive Personal Assistant, or a Store Leader from Apple, or an existing Tech Concierge customer.
That said, there are about 100 reasons why, if an executive is fully informed about what to expect and afforded the hassle-free opportunity to switch to a measurably superior platform, whether it’s Mac for the simplicity and experience, or Google for the search and security, then they will switch. My objective at Tech Concierge is to take care of Windows and Mac users equally well, and discreetly and diplomatically explain the benefits of one technology over another when it needs to be discussed. As IBM discovered, Windows PCs result in twice the amount of problems that require a tech support call. And more calls means both wasted time, and higher tech support costs. This is clearly not in alignment with the priorities of any executive.
Those (rare) times where Windows does matter
At the end of the day, there will be times (fewer each year) where Windows is essential and important. Maybe it’s a legacy app that won’t run on a Mac. Then there are those times when someone does prefers the Windows experience. In these cases, I will always, happily serve them with the same white-glove service every Tech Concierge customer expects and deserves.
As a professional technologist and Chief Tech Concierge, explaining the above facts, concepts and opportunities is my priority and responsibility.
Are you an executive or an Executive Personal Assistant?
Are you an executive looking for an expert IT concierge? Or are you an Executive Personal Assistant looking to find the right Tech Concierge that complements all of the quality you coordinate in all other areas of your client’s life and work?
If so, please reach out to me here.
I truly look forward to meeting you and answering all of your questions.
