Apple Mac or PC?
PC’s have long been considered the de facto standard for business use, due to the fact that the vast majority of leading business applications were only ever available on the Microsoft Windows platform.
Today this is no longer the case and you will find most applications are available for either Apple Mac or Windows platforms, including the complete range of Microsoft Office applications, Adobe creative suite and any web based apps such as Xero accounting, MYOB and IMS Payroll.
Longevity of Equipment
In the IT industry the general rule of thumb is that you should replace a PC every 4 to 5 years, which is about the time PC components begin to fail, but also because new revisions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems tend to demand faster and newer hardware. Mac users are more fortunate in this regard and machines that are up to 7 years old can still run the latest Mac OS just fine. Case in point, I’m writing this article on a 2014 Mac mini running Mac OS 12.
Security
IT security is another factor that needs to be taken into consideration and there’s no getting around the fact that the majority of cyber criminal attacks tend to occur on Windows based PCs, which is not surprising given they make up 90% of the computer market. Besides this, the Mac operating system itself was designed from the ground up with security in mind and comes from a Unix foundation. In addition, every app that makes it into the App Store has to pass stringent security checks to ensure it doesn’t contain any malware or malicious code.
Up until recently the underlying hardware of both Apple Mac and windows PC’s was largely identical with both centred around the Intel X86 architecture. This made it possible to run Windows 10 natively on Apple Macs via a system called BootCamp. However a year ago Apple announced that they would transition all of their Mac line across to the same ARM architecture as their iOS devices. Apple Silicon technology tends to be much more power efficient than the Intel counterparts, enabling the latest MacBook Pro’s to run off battery power for up to 17 hours – not to mention phenomenal processing power.
Which is best for me?
Choosing the best platform for your small business may ultimately come down to personal preference and what you’re most comfortable using. If you’re already using an Apple iPhone, then the chances are that you’ll find the Mac OS user interface to be quite familiar, whereas Android users might find that they prefer the Microsoft Windows layout. If you do go with a PC, ensure to install a good enterprise grade Anti-virus product, such as the excellent Bit Defender product.