One of the things you often hear about Marijuana is that it’s a gateway drug to the harder stuff. In my opinion, the same could be said about the iPhone.

Will the iPhone cause you to sell all of your possessions and end up living in a van down by the river? Not quite, but once you start on the road to Apple there is no turning back.

I know of many people who were hardcore PC users. At work, they used PCs, in their pocket they had a Blackberry, and they were very satisfied.

Then Apple decided to “reinvent the phone” and it became the new “it” device. Everyone had to have one. And once they tried it, they were happy. Very Happy.

In fact, the iPhone was such a good phone it made you wonder, what could they do in regard to desktop computers? Would they be as elegant and fun to use?

There was only one way to find out. So you dipped your toes in with a Mac Mini — it’s cheap and let’s you reuse your existing PC monitor and mouse. It’s worth a try…right?

And, lo and behold, the mac mini turned out to be a great device. The out of box (oob) experience is extraordinary. It’s clear that a lot of love went into the package design and you feel as if you’re opening something special.

When first turning the machine on you are greeted by a flashy welcome screen and it’s ready to go. Backup is suddenly as simple as plugging in a USB drive and letting time machine do its thing.

Editing pictures of the kids becomes fun again with iPhoto. Now when someone in the family needs a new machine you find yourself recommending a MacBook because you know it will be easy for them to use and less support calls for you.

Then when you see the MacBook you are amazed at how nice the screen looks. In fact, it looks much better than the screen on your high-end IBM laptop and you start to wonder — should I get a MacBook?

For a little bit you resist because you’ve used PCs your entire life. Will it be too much of a learning curve and what about all that new software you need to buy?

But the attention to detail and build quality start to pull you in. It’s the little things like the backlit keyboard which only turns on in low-light; the way it *always* sleeps properly when the lid is closed; the way that the help menu shows you exactly where something is with a little bouncing arrow.

Finally, you decide to throw caution to the wind and visit the Apple store. After trying out the high-end mac book yourself, there’s no hope. You’re a goner. Hooked on the drug that is Apple and wondering how you just spent $2400 on a laptop.

And to think it all started with a phone…