In Apple's recent Mac vs. PC ads, a geeky-but-endearing "PC guy" encounters a hip young "Mac guy" in various computing situations where Mac guy outshines him again and again. Poor PC guy is plagued with viruses, spyware, crashes, jerky apps, and tricky assembly. Mac guy, on the other hand, is invulnerable to viruses, resistant to crashes and spyware, loaded with powerful apps, and ready to go straight out of the box. The humorous ads say it all: the Mac is better than the PC in almost every way.

So why doesn't everyone use a Mac? Ten years ago, if you were a Windows user, the idea of switching to a Macintosh would not have seemed enticing. While Apple fans always praised the Mac for its creative advantages—from movies and music to layout and design—to everyone else, the Mac's longtime incompatibility with Microsoft Windows was a deal breaker. Most IT managers never even considered Macs for business.

Much has changed in a decade. Like PCs, today's Macs run essential business productivity programs like Microsoft Office. More importantly, Mac users now have the option of running Windows or the Mac OS X operating system, and can even switch back and forth between them. This multiplatform capability is made possible by Apple's recent switch to Intel Duo Core microprocessors.

But despite the buzz concerning the resurgence of Apple, the PC is likely to dominate the computer landscape for the foreseeable future. The PC is firmly entrenched in business markets, holding well over 96 percent market share. Nevertheless, more and more analysts are optimistic that Apple's multiplatform computers, with their superior rich-media capabilities and rock-solid stability, have an important role to play in the future of computing