The Battle of Titans: PC vs. Mac – Which is Better for Business?

The world of technology has more rivalries than one could ever keep up with. The products are endless and fans of each are diehard in claiming their item is the best. But there is one rivalry a head above the rest. It invokes battle cries from each side and endless debates to which is the superior. This rivalry is none other than PC vs. Mac. Each side inspires a furor compared to that of a sports rivalry. Aside from the conflict, which is better when paired with business?

Rescue a CEO and CEO Blog Nation asked entrepreneurs whether they prefer PC or Mac for business.

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Advantage – Mac

With a hubby that's a Microsoft .NET software developer (and total Microsoft fanboy) I had always been a PC girl. A few years ago we bought a big iMac so he could learn iPhone development but it never really happened, so after a while I decided to trade in my old PC for the giant expensive Apple that was sitting around collecting dust… totally scared and thinking I wouldn't survive, I made the switch to Mac-land and now I'm SO glad I did. I was initially worried there would be programs I needed that wouldn't be ‘apple compatible' but I've found just the opposite – there are so many amazing low-cost & free programs for Apple that I've never had an issue. There was a bit of a learning curve at first but I believe it was well worth it, and for business it's the little things, like the nicer interface and not having to worry about viruses, that I love.

Thanks to Katrina O'Neale, EcoWise LED

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Advantage – PC

Though I love my iPhone and I've never met a Mac owner who didn't love their computer, I've always been a PC person and I'll probably stay that way with my next computer. Historically, most of the rest of the business world used PC, so there were always less compatibility issues with PC software. And as a speaker, I never had to worry about an adapter when I plugged my PC into an LCD projector. Sure these may be outdated issues, but what isn't outdated (at least not yet) is the thousands of dollars of PC software which I run. And don't want to repurchase.

Thanks to Barry Maher & Associates

Advantage – PC

As a small business owner my preference has always been a PC. I use a variety of different programs, and always find more of them available for Windows than for Mac. While I enjoy my iPhone and it works very well with my Windows laptop if I need to sync items or similar, I've always stuck to PC's. Perhaps, its because I've started off with PC's and always avoided the work that comes with transferring to Mac and learning the new platform.

Thanks to Anita Hodzic, BA House Cleaning

Advantage – PC

Traditionally, many businesses in our industry use Macs, but it's important that we see the websites we develop, manage and promote using the same operating system as about 90% of the visitors to the sites. That way we can be confident that these sites look their best and operate perfectly for the vast majority of users. We therefore use PC's on a daily basis. We have occasionally worked with graphic designers and other developers that use Macs and have found this to be problematic, only very recently a designer attempted to send us a font that was installed on his Mac but the way Macs store fonts is bizarre so this just wasn't possible. The vast majority of our customers also use PCs so it's helpful to remove the possibility of compatibility issues when sharing files with them too.

Thanks to Anthony Chaffey, Ballyhoo Ltd

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Advantage – Mac

We're an all-Mac studio at BuzzFarmers. I used to re-build Dell and Gateway computers in my youth, but over the last eight years Apple has turned me into a loyalist with the quality of their products. The biggest reason we Macs in our office is because all of our laptops, phones and tablets can sync easily on iCloud. So, we can move from one device to the next and never worry about moving files around or forgetting files on one computer. We have three to five devices per person and co-work a lot of different locations so that part is important. The simplicity of it all just makes at least one thing easy about running a small business.

Thanks to BuzzFarmers, Amanda MacArthur

Advantage – PC

I perform most of my business functions on a PC – I'm a former Computer Systems Analyst and “grew up” working primarily on PC's, so that's where the bulk of my experience (and admittedly, my technical bias) is. That said, I also have an iPhone and an iPad2 and use all of them in my business. I love the portability of my iPhone and iPad2 and the way they can interface with my Windows-based laptop. They each have a different place in my technology plan (and my heart) so I worked to ensure they would all interface together. I love the storage and the huge screen I have on my Windows-based laptop, and all the functionality I have with business applications which were formerly not available on the Mac platform. That is no longer the case, but switching at this point for me would be very difficult and something I don't intend to dedicate the time to. Now that I've achieved a comfort level with my programs and the way my “pieces” work together, I see no reason to do a complete overhaul.

Thanks to Dianne M. Daniels, The DivaStyle Coach, Inc.

Advantage – PC (and occasionally Mac)

In our office we have over 40 members of staff who use PCs over Macs, this is entirely because of the network set up and the fact that our staff are fully trained in using Microsoft packages. Our PR & Communications department also use PCs for word processing and day to day tasks, although we use Apple Ipad 4 minis for social media management and communication with our sales team out on the field. Our sales team out on the field use Ipad 4 smart devices to showcase portfolios, latest newsletters, statistics and other information that will help the potential seller or buyer understand the methods we use. We use technology constantly with in all our departments, using drop box to transfer data, which is easily accessible through applications that Apple provide.

Thanks to Wayne Dissington, Preferred Commercial

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Advantage – Mac

For many years my firm's office was all PC with a large PC server. In a word, TROUBLE, never ending trouble, running Microsoft's server software. The problem was that we had a large investment in software, even more than hardware. Specialized software for design and literature creation, etc.. Finally one day, a little over three years ago following yet another server crash, a colleague and Mac adherent dragged me to the Apple store. My challenge to them was simple. If we can create all of the types of work we do, without spending a fortune to replace all of our specialized PC software, I will convert to Mac. I nearly fainted as in minutes I was not only seeing, but myself learning how the standard $100 Mac software suite could produce everything we needed from print to slide presentations, audio to video. The only weak component was Apple’s iWeb program and we now use the free WordPress software for web development. I converted the entire office, workstations, server, backup, router…the works. Since then I have been able to focus on getting work done, not administrating the office network. And the best part, Mac’s are intuitive. Life is GOOD!

Thanks to John Di Frances, Di Frances & Associates, LLC

Advantage – PC

For my business, I prefer to use PCs. I have always been a PC user and my entire team uses PCs. PCs offer great technical support. They are user friendly and easy to navigate. The Windows operating system is amazing and is simplistic while offering multiple capabilities. MACs were always very confusing to me. One of the most frustrating thing about MACs is that there is no right click button so you have to know which buttons are linked to which commands (i.e. you can't right click to copy and paste, you have to use CTRL + another key)

Thanks to Tiffany Gillespie, To the “T”, LLC

Advantage – Mac

At Better Boards Australasia we run the entire business on Apple Mac. We have five staff who are running a mix of Apple desktops, iPhones and Laptops, plus we have a MacPro running as our server. Prior to Better Boards Australasia I had a design background where I used both Macs and PCs on a daily basis – the PCs I had to use always had issues that created down time in my workflow. When the business was started we chose the Mac as our platform because we knew it was reliable. Reliability is something that is really important in the critical systems our business uses on everyday. We deal with hundred s of CEOs and Board Members every month in the course of organizsing events and managing our membership. Everyday we hear stories from our clients about how their IT systems are not working or constantly having issues, in every case so far they are always running a PC based system. We really love the Mac. If we ran PCs and had as many issues as some of our clients we would have gone out of business.

Thanks to Raphael Goldsworthy, Better Boards Australasia

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Advantage – PC

PC has always been the winner for me. I have used Mac probably three or four times in my life and it's a little tricky. Mac has different audience since originally Apple target's market is home consumers. On the other hand, business consumers are more conscious about functionality and price. Mac has a tremendous popularity due to Apple's extensive spending on marketing and advertising as well as great customer loyalty. However, as technology is developing and innovating everyday, many PCs have similar functionality and modern/sleek design as a Mac does, maybe even better. The problem with many Mac users is that they love Mac too much to accept its deficiency. As a result, they fail to see the benefit that a PC could offer.

Thanks to Chris Sinclair, The Anthem Group

Winner: PC with a 7-4 victory. Comment below to defend your machine.