I’ve had a lot of people ask me over the years why I use Apple products and if I even have any experience using PCs and devices other than Apple’s.

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]First, let me say that the reason I use Apple products is very simple — they work. I don’t even know what downtime is anymore. That’s the single most important reason to use any product.

I didn’t start using Macs because we started MacCentral and I felt I should use Macs to be true to the site. In fact, it happened the exact opposite — the Mac came first and then we started the site. That carried on through Macworld and now The Loop.

Before using a Mac, I used PCs, just like many other people that are now Mac users. Like most, I found the experience frustrating and more work than what it was worth to just keep it up and running.

What’s funny is that things haven’t changed that much. I have two PCs (Dell and Gateway) in the house right now. They are probably around three and five years old, respectively. Neither of them work.

I bought the PCs so I could keep up with what was happening in the Windows world, from the operating system to music software and productivity applications.

I would like to say that it was easy to keep up, but it wasn’t. For instance, I would plug in a piece of music hardware into the PC and get errors that I was missing files or drivers couldn’t be found or other crazy messages.

I would unplug it, walk over to the Mac, plug it in and start playing my guitar. After a while, I wondered why I would even bother plugging it into the PC at all. So I didn’t.

Things are much the same with the iPhone and iPad. I get up in the morning and they work. That’s all I want.

I’ve used Sony, Nokia, BlackBerry and countless other models and companies over the years, but there was always something that didn’t work right. When the iPhone came out and I experienced the integration, the operating system and later, the apps, I was sold.

Using Apple products isn’t about loving the company, it’s about choosing the best tools to get the job done for your company. If you put all of the marketing crap aside and choose the best tools for business and pleasure you will come to the same decision I did — welcome to Apple.