Real Estate Technology Coach

In parts one and two of my new Real Estate Technology Focus series, I examined how successfully OS X and the iPhone can be used in your real estate business.

I’ve had many people tell me how much they love their Apple products and how much they have Microsoft Vista and Office 2007. I completely understand their reasoning and my points remain valid, but now I’m going to take a look into how Microsoft is actually losing customers by listening to them.

1. OS X Is So Much Prettier Than XP

I’ve been hearing this one for quite some time now. It’s perfectly true, OS X looks much prettier than XP. From a tool standpoint, who cares what it looks like as long as it gets the job done. I look at esthetics also, and I understand why people love OS X and hate XP. So what did Microsoft do? They created Vista.

According to many long-time Apple fans, Vista was a complete rip-off of OS X in terms of appearance. Search in the start menu is a direct copy of Spotlight, the sidebar was a pathetic knock-off of Dashboard, icons look like OS X – the list goes on.

So Microsoft listened to their customers who said they wanted a prettier interface by almost directly copying OS X. Now, XP users do everything they can to avoid upgrading to Vista because it’s too different and/or confusing. So people begin to question themselves and say “since I have to completely change my usage, why not just go to a Mac? They’ve been so pretty for so long”.

2. OS X Is So Much More Secure/Safe Than XP

Again, Microsoft listened and added in endless user prompts into Vista asking “Are you sure you want to do that?” Yes, it gets old. But even Firefox, which I have loved for some time, has a prompt to install plugins with a time-delay. It’s proven effective in preventing malicious hardware from installing itself.

3. Vista is too hard to use, I should just switch to OS X

HUH?! I’m unwilling to spend 15 minutes learning the ONE major difference between XP and Vista (hint: search is integrated everywhere) and instead I’d rather go use a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SYSTEM?! Down to the mouse and keyboard, Mac’s are COMPLETELY different. Not impossible to learn, but you might as well go try Ubuntu Linux – you can use a 5 year old computer, it looks pretty, works fast and is FREE.

4. Office 2007 is too hard to use, iWork is SO much easier

Again, spend the 15 minutes it takes to learn it and you’ll be faster and happier with 2007. iWork is great, but for the power-user, I have found them to be limited in their feature set. And again, a completely different interface from Office 2003, so if you really don’t like the idea of switching from 2003 to 2007, why does it seem okay to switch to iWork?

5. Office 2008 (for Mac) is WAY too complex, again, I’ll just use iWork

I agree on this one, I have no idea why there are so many tool bars in Office 2008. It is a pain. If that were my only choice, I would ditch Microsoft and go with iWork as well.

6. The Hardware

Okay, I’ve usually just shoved my ugly Windows desktop underneath a desk or in a closet anyway, so I really didn’t mind this at all. But let me tell you, my Mac Mini looks good on my desktop. The Macbook Air is really pretty. You don’t mind leaving them out, whereas I’m always hiding my laptop and trying to hide my desktop. The few companies who are trying to make PC’s look better are apparently only able to do it on their higher end machines, which end up costing more than their comparable Apples and have far worse reputations.

My Conclusion (for now)

For the real estate industry, I really like the iPhone (and am planning on getting one of the 3G versions when they come out), but I would personally hold off on OS X. As soon as your MLS allows access via Safari and you are self sufficient enough to develop your own postcards/flyers/etc without needing to rely on someone who may be using Publisher, go right on ahead and switch. It is prettier, it is (currently) less virus-prone, but it honestly freezes on me as much as Vista does. I’m just waiting for a tablet…

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