Are you a fan of Apple?

Are you going to get another Apple gadget for Christmas? And do you really like him? From this point on, you can officially consider yourself one of those loyal fans of the Cupertino company, idolizing Steve Jobs, whom you have so far been treated with contempt.

Ten years ago, there were two types of people: PC users (so-called “ordinary people”) and Apple fans. At least that was the case from the PC owners.

Macs were beautiful, but were not considered by us, PC users, since their prices were too high, they did not support a sufficient amount of software and hardware, were too complex to configure, optimize or repair, and were almost completely unable to use as gaming devices.
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The world was black and white. You could only be on the Mac or PC side. Now everything is much more complicated.

In 2001, Apple launched the iPod. After some resistance at the beginning, many PC users purchased this player. For example, I bought myself one of the first devices. Then more and more. They were great gifts for my family members. And it took a little time for several iPods to appear in our house.

But owning an Apple player didn't make me a fan of the Apple Company. I and all of my family members remained full-fledged PC users for most of the decade.

When the iPhone became a hit, I was fascinated by its user interface, but was not thrilled with AT & T, call quality, and overall performance. The next phone I got after the iPhone was the BlackBerry Pearl. I loved this phone because the quality of the connection was excellent and the size of the device was surprisingly small. The pearl trackball has become the biggest innovation in mobile phone hardware. And it was very convenient for me to use the SureType system, which allowed me to place two characters on the key, despite the miniature size of the phone.

I was happy. But on July 10, 2008, Apple did a really insidious thing - it launched an iPhone app store.

In one of the most powerful steps, Apple turned the iPhone from a gadget used by the units into a truly mass device. Friends, colleagues, popular bloggers, discussed one application after another, most of which were free.

Like millions of other PC users, I got my iPhone and really love it. I am interested in several other platforms, primarily Android, on which applications are abundant and the number of different devices on its base is constantly growing. But it's hard to give up the iPhone partly because it is extremely convenient to find and download new applications.

And of course, when the iPad became a hit this year, I bought it myself. As a regular iPhone user, I was very familiar with the iPad interface. And not disappointed.

Like many PC users, I was completely shocked by the 13-inch MacBook Air, which came out in October. I would buy it if I hadn’t purchased an iPad by this point. I just could not understand how to justify a new purchase.

Meanwhile, without my knowledge and permission, Apple trained me. For example, the iPad keyboard taught me to use the “Command” key for copying and pasting, instead of the “Ctrl” key.

When I bought Apple TV for Christmas, it dawned on me: what did I become? Of course, I still use the powerful Sony VAIO 18-inch laptop as the main system. I'm still a PC devotee, but surrounded by Apple devices: iPods, iPhones, iPads, and now Apple TV.

Changes have occurred with my family. My wife now works in the Apple store. She has her own MacBook Pro, and she uses a 27-inch iMac at work. My eldest son, once the ideological PC user, now has an iPhone and iPad, Apple TV and iMac.

My Sony VAIO still works fine and I have no problems with it. But if he was to die today, I’m sure I’d get a replacement at the Apple store.

This is how it happens. You do not become a fan of Apple, having received some kind of "religious" epiphany. The angels did not sing, the light did not condescend to you from the clouds, and even you did not make a conscious decision to use Apple products all the time. You just woke up once and realized that the name of almost every favorite gadget that you have begins with a lowercase “i”.