Microsoft Takes Cheap Shot At Apple In New Ad
For those who haven't seen it, here's the overview. A typical 20-something, named Lauren, is dressed and positioned to look like a stereotypical Mac user that would be found in one of Apple's older "Switch" commercials or even the newer "I'm a Mac" plugs. She hops in her Volkswagen -- which is overwhelmingly considered to be high on the list of Mac using car shoppers -- and heads off to find a 17" notebook for under a thousand dollars. Not surprisingly, she first stops at an Apple store, only to bolt out moments later exclaiming that the only machine in there with an MSRP under $1,000 had just a 13" screen.Undeterred, she heads off to Best Buy in order to try her luck there, exclaiming during the drive that she "just isn't cool enough to be a Mac user." Once inside, she forces a smile and pretends to act elated about finding a cornucopia of options. With no real sense of planning, she selects a $699.99 HP Pavilion and pays cash. And with that, the spot wraps up with Lauren suggesting that "I'm a PC, and I got just what I wanted."
Obviously, we're big fans of PCs here. We love a little thing called "PC gaming," and we all know the Mac is
downright dreadful in that category. That said, this plug is just laughable. For starters, what does "coolness" have to do with not finding a product in your price range? Nothing. Next, we're curious as to what kind of specifications were on this magical 17" notebook for $699.99. Specifically, how many more pixels were on that 17" screen versus the 13" screen on Apple's MacBook? Oh, and we suppose Lauren won't mind integrated graphics?All in all, we can't argue that PCs are cheaper, in general, than a Mac. But it's quite literally comparing Apples to oranges. Has Microsoft really resorting to playing this on price alone? Can it really not think of any outstanding Vista features that trump those within OS X? Has it really come to the point where the only solid argument Microsoft has for Vista-equipped PCs is: "they're cheap"? Have a look at the ad yourself below, and feel free to let us know just how right / wrong we are here.
Lauren is merely pointing-out that Mac's are expensive. This Microsoft ad is rather tame when you compare it to Apple's Mac Vs. PC ad HERE. M$ is finally starting to fight back and I love it!
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lol... all the apple adds are in essence selling the Idea of a Mac, and well you get what you pay for, most of the time.... |
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I agree with Super Dave. Apple commercials remind me of political commercials, all they do is bash PCs and exaggerate the truth (greenest computer blablabla). A bunch of the PC commercials from Dell and others just show the product and how good it is. I thought the commercial was good and true. You can't by a Mac for 1000 dollars, so? It is not apples to oranges as you say. Both are laptops...isn't that Apple's claim? It is Simple, Apple has to attack PCs because they need to take away market share. |
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>> we're curious as to what kind of specifications were on this magical 17" notebook for $699.99. It's actually *not* too horrible... But you would want to immediately put Linux on it, or hit yourself in the head with a hammer until Vista Home Basic feels good. |
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Apple commercials sell the idea of the computer, nothing more. Apple has a philosophy that you should sell the emotions attached to rather than the physical specifications of a product. You can see this in their early iPod commercials. Only recently, with the App Store and other related iPhone commercials have they changed tactics. |
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>> Apple has a philosophy that you should sell the emotions attached to rather than the physical specifications Actually, they use the emotions to sell ease-of-use. Non-techies don't understand specifications, so it's the best way to get the message to them. [View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQv_D4BfAyg]
This is my favorite, though: [View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-22EpQOm8c] |
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All I can say -- we should coin this "Battle (of the) Billionaire Babies" (I was going for a B-theme and referring to the immaturity level of both sides' marketing parties.) |
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I think it totally right where consumers are as far as shopping. What do they look for? Looks and price mainly or what there freinds have hence the whole mac is cool ad logo. Thats what MS was shooting for was that she didn't have enough money to be with the cool crowd who have macs. everyone knows that it's the way most of consumers think it's brainwashed into to them since school. People want the expensive stuff there freinds have cause it's the cool thing to do. Take shoes for instance. In order to be cool you have to have a certain brand that costs $100 not the $20 pair from payless. |
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Nelson hit the bullseye on this one, IMO. |
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I dont think this is any lower than the mac ads. The mac ads are more fun to watch though. Also yeah nelson wins. |
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In regard to this I don't think MS went over any huge lines...its as I said above very fun to watch these two quarrle. To quote the office: Dwight: Tit for tit. Jim: That's not the expression. Dwight: Well it should be. |
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Dwight and Jim battle > Microsoft and Apple battle |
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I'd say MS has a good point, a PC is generally cheaper, even at the same specs. You pay for the Apple logo, which I cannot understand, as I would personally never use one, even if I was given it for free (apparently it would be easy enough to pawn off though). I guess it is cool that Windows actually has some competition now. Vista's debut and Macs somehow becoming cool have left MS looking badly, which is what I bellieve is driving them to make Windows 7 so fast. So, good for us in the long run. |
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I though it was decent attempt to attack Apple, good AD IMO. |
I think you may be taking it a bit far there buddy...if someone handed you a free macbook pro, you would just laugh and throw it back at them? Part of the apple tax is non-sensible yes, but all the same they (Apple) have one of the MOST robust and well-put-together OS's on the market so its definitely nothing to shake a fist at
I think MS is just following their trend of releasing a new OS roughly every 2-3 yrs; XP was the ONLY exception ever to this rule. 3.0 (1990), 3.1 (1992), 95, 98, ME/2000, XP (2001) ... long break ... Vista (2006), 7 (2009) |
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