Are you Apple Mac or Windows PC?

Wed 14 Dec 2011

In a moment, we're going to invite you to help us satisfy our curiosity.

We're interested to discover the extent to which financial advice professionals use Apple Macs versus Windows PCs for work - and which they would prefer to use.

But, first, the back story. (Although, if you really can't wait, we'll be inviting you to complete a very quick three-question survey which you can visit here: Mac or Windows PC survey.)

Last week, Moneyscope founder, Richard Allum, became embroiled in a debate on Twitter which was swirling around the question of whether applications developed by investment platforms worked equally well on both an Apple Mac and Windows PC.

Anecdotally, the evidence was pretty inconclusive. However, amid the exchanges, there was a suggestion from one tweeter that there simply wasn't the demand from Mac users to warrant development of software for Mac as as well as for Windows.

That assertion piqued our interest.

We wondered whether people who'd prefer to use Macs were having to resort to Windows PCs at work in order to use some of the software out there. Then we wondered whether this, ironically, was leading technology providers to conclude that there wasn't latent demand to design for the Mac operating system.

In other words, are developers of software basing their assumptions on actual use rather than preferred use? Would more people prefer to use a Mac at work if they could only use their Macs at work? (Otherwise known as the 'chicken and the egg' question.)

And what about emerging mobile platforms? Would people already prefer to use an iPad or tablet device (where Apple and Google offer the leading operating systems, of course)?

So that's why we're inviting you to complete this short survey about the technology you currently use and would prefer to use.

There are only three questions, so it should only take a matter of moments to complete.

We're really interested to hear what people think so feel free to pass the survey link on to other financial advice professionals.

Here's the link to the survey again: Mac or Windows PC survey.

December 2011