Halo Effect Pushes Life-Long Windows User to Switch

by , 2:20 PM EDT, August 23rd, 2005

The iPod Halo Effect, the idea that Windows-using iPod users will so love their iPod they Switch to the Mac, is real, according to Kitsap Sun columnist James Derk, a "lifelong" Windows user who has bought his first Mac. In a column titled "The 'iPod effect' boosts Apple products," Mr. Derk said that his new iBook is to laptops what the iPod is to music, and that it is a "work of art."

The subject of the iPod Halo Effect is oft-debated, but many analysts have attributed at least some of Apple's recent increase in Mac sales to the effect. Mr. Derk himself cited a study by S.G. Cowan that found some 7.5% of iPod owners were considering a Mac, far above Apple's U.S. market share.

Mr. Derk described his iBook as being "cool," though he lamented the lack of a two button mouse built into the keyboard.

"But what has impressed me so far," he wrote, "was that [OS X] fired to life out of the box and simply worked. Of course, a Windows laptop out of the box works too, but after 50 patches from Microsoft and 10 reboots."

Mr. Derk intends to further chronicle his Switcher experience in his column, which you can find at the Kitsap Sun.