With the launch of Windows 7 just around the corner, financial advisors will be thinking of upgrading their systems to this new Microsoft Corp. operating system.

For many, that will almost certainly mean replacing old hardware with new PCs to cope with the operating system. But although you may be considering that option, it might be worth mulling over switching over to Apple Inc.’s Mac as an alternative.

But why should you bother migrating to a Mac, especially when you’re used to your existing PC applications?

That’s a good question, especially with time at a premium for most financial advisors. But there are several reasons to give the idea serious thought. One is that, for many people, the Mac’s OS X operating system is simply nicer and easier to use, as well as being more responsive.

At the same time, the Mac boasts a feature that is becoming more attractive all the time: its tendency not to crash as often as some widely used PCs.

Windows Vista users have complained about poor performance with that system, although much of those problems are said to have been dealt with in the soon to be available Windows 7.

The other reason for considering using Macs is that there are many Mac applications that simply aren’t available on the PC, and which are a joy to use.



MAC PLATFORM IS SAFER

Finally, security is another pressing concern that is likely to become more of an issue over time. Although the Mac has been subject to some attacks from the writers of malicious software such as viruses, these have been relatively limited and unsophisticated. That may change in the future, but the Mac platform is still the safer one today, compared with Windows.

The reason is not hard to understand; Microsoft Windows has long been the dominant player in the market for PCs, and as such, is the system that malware writers most aggressively target.

Comparatively speaking, the Mac was — and still is — the underdog of the computing world, even though it has soared in popularity in recent years. The Mac was launched in 1984 as an alternative to the PC, and has enjoyed rather limited success as a machine for a small group of creative professionals, such as writers and graphic artists.



THE MAC REVOLUTION

In the 1990s, under different management, the Mac languished in the technological backwaters. Then, after ousted founder and CEO Steve Jobs retook the helm of Apple in 1997, he whittled down a product base that had become bloated and also streamlined Mac applications, making the system easier to understand for a wider range of users. He also revolutionized the design and marketing of PCs by launching the stylish iMac. Consumers were drawn to the new curvy shapes and playful colours. Sales began to soar.

However, the real turning point for the Mac came with the reinvention of its operating system. In 2001, Apple launched Cheetah, the first desktop version of the OS X operating system. It was a complete redesign of the Mac’s core software. Since then, the OS X system has been refined in six versions, the latest of which was launched this past summer under the name Snow Leopard.

Leopard, the operating system preceding Snow Leopard, was replete with exciting new features. Snow Leopard is much more understated. In fact, Apple announced the latest version of its OS X by proudly proclaiming that it had no new features.

Instead, Snow Leopard is being touted as a refined version of Leopard, with a much smaller memory footprint and faster performance — along with various bug fixes.

One of the biggest surprises in Snow Leopard is that there is no support for PowerPC-based Macs. PowerPC is the processor that Apple had used before it migrated to chips from Intel Corp. This is one reason why you will not see old PowerPC Mac users running the new system.

There is one feature hidden in the Snow Leopard version that could be useful for financial advi-sors who operate small businesses: interactivity with Microsoft’s Exchange email and collaboration system. This will make retrofiting existing Windows-based networks to desktop Macs much easier.

The only remaining challenge is to get the data from your PC onto your Mac. You can do this manually, but note that it is a laborious and technically involved process.

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THE DONKEY WORK

However, you can buy a product to take care of the donkey work of data transfer for you. For instance, Belkin International Inc. offers a PC-to-Mac cable, complete with software, which will help move the data from your crucial PC applications (such as Outlook email) into the right Mac applications (for example, Mail, which is the default email application on the Mac).

So, if you fancy shaking up your computing environment by switching to a new platform, now might be a good time to do it.

With Snow Leopard just released, the Mac now offers the most refined, highest-performance experience in Apple’s rapidly evolving history. That said, a handful of software programs are not yet compatible with the new system, so tread carefully for the first couple of months until the vendors get those problems ironed out. IE