San Francisco or Vegas?

Mac or PC?

Fruity Pebbles or Nabisco Shredded Wheat?

It is concerning to read the reports on Steve Jobs’ health.  (I too wish him well.)  But oh the irony that he is struggling at the time of his takeover of the world.  From what I have read about him … probably only a temporary setback.

Take over the world?

Well, I say that but let me qualify that I have two floors in my office. The bottom floor has Macintosh.  The second floor has PCs and my Wi-Fi router.  There was a time when those 15 stair steps represented a chasm between intellectual property and business philosophy.  To this day, if you watch the TV ads, both sides still try to stereotype the differences.

But I have news.  The war is over.  Apple has won the consumer game … we just don’t know it yet.  Go dig inside your kid’s pocket and pull out their music device.  What’s that logo that they see about 2,000 times a day?  Oh, and if your child opted for the iPhone to keep up with the in crowd, they probably see the logo about 10,000 times a day.  Branding.  Apple is the staple for a generation.  But it isn’t just the kids.  Check out the older gentleman on the stationary bicycle beside you.  Hmmm … his earbuds are white too.

Does the dominance of the MP3 world, and 3G phone wizardry translate to computer sales?

It is going to, and it is.  Apple may have been known as the preferred flavor for the creative types for years, but it’s brand has always meant quality, user-friendly performance and reliability.  I bought my first Apple computer 20 years ago, and I have bought several since.

Guess what.

All of them still work!  So why do I own PCs?

Number one — price!  When I looked at the specs of an Apple PowerBook, compared to the HP Pavilion I tote — they were configured similarly, but the price difference was about $500.

Second, there was a time when I did Apple entirely in my business, but time and time again Word attachments sent from my my Macs were not visible to my colleague who were on PCs (almost exclusively).  So, conforming to peer pressure and wanting to be able to make a living, I bowed to the PC empire.

Certainly the two platforms communicate back and forth much easier these days.  And obviously, the PC world has bent over backwards to make their computers look sleeker, hipper and more friendly.  Software pretty much is available for both.  No more waiting  six months for the Macintosh version.  And there is a multitude of cool creative software for PCs … enough to make any graphic artist or video producer hyperventilate.

So what’s the point?  Well .. like I was saying with the new dominance in customer loyalty, created with iPods and iPhones and now being migrated to desktops and laptops … I think the war is over.  We have reached the tipping point.  It is just a matter of time.

During the holidays, I marveled at the number of conservative looking shoppers hauling out Apple boxes from my neighborhood Apple Store.  Gone were the long-haired leaping gnomes of Mac Christmases past.  Like never before, Mac is mainstream.

Certainly there are hangers-on, clutching their QWERTY Blackberries, so they can press keys instead of brushing a letter on a screen of their iPhone … but it’s over.

All of this is relevant to my industry because this week there are two annual migrations.  The opinion leaders are all hanging out in wine bars of San Francisco for MacWorld and then everyone descends on Vegas for CES — if it uses electricity … it’s there.  So now more than ever, there is that dilemma — Frisco or Vegas?  (Upstairs or downstairs in my office.) Apple or Windows?

I blog for a living, so I couldn’t do both.  I chose Vegas.  We shall see how that decision pans out.

On a final note … this may be a sign.  Yesterday friendly PR types from around the country were pitching their clients’ stories to me and inviting me to stop by their booths at CES.

Here is a glimps of things to come.  One of the products promoted to me is a new Skype application.  As I considered requesting a sample of the product, I read something really interesting.  The Skype 2.8 application has two new Macintosh features that are not available in the Windows versions.

It seems the tables have turned.

Know what I sayin?