Apple Demands Microsoft Pull Laptop Hunter Ads

[f44control2]

'Cause Get a Mac ads weren't misleading at all.

Choose a Vista ad: Starter and Enterprise aren't available to the general public in the US, which shows Apple is giving misleading information about how there's too many versions of Vista. Yes, I would agree there's too many, but not as much as Apple is saying in the ad.

Point of the matter is Apple has said misleading things too and they can dish it but can't take it. I'm a MacBook unibody user and I'm not biased.

 

[frjonah]

Interesting idea... but probably not possible

Now that I'm thinking about it (just went and watched the laptop hunters ads I hadn't seen yet), doesn't it seem a bit stupid to have advertisements with people who have obviously never tried Macs to tout the advantages of PCs over Macs?

It's rather like having someone in a Chef Boyardee commercial saying, Olive Garden sucks because it's more expensive... yeah, those breadsticks might be pretty, but look at all the food I get for $4!

...leading to the point of being able to find some of these laptop hunters "stars" (i.e. just regular people, right?) and actually let them work with the Apple counterparts to the machines they chose. Then, if they so choose, let them discuss their experience in a 60s clip...

I'm sure that they signed all sorts of agreements with MS to not do such a thing, but wouldn't be funny if this actually happened I can certainly confirm that, in my case, I didn't know what I was missing until I actually bought a Mac (ostensibly to dev. iPhone apps)... it was downhill from there.

 

[coleridge78]

At least Apple is enjoying a monopoly by not licensing their software to run on any other hardware but their own.

That word you keep using... I do not think it means what you think it means.

 

[Anuba]

Yes, diamonds do usually fetch a higher price than fossilized turds. And apparantly a lot of idiots like them turds, they like 'em gewd!

Wait... this MBP 17" in front of me is a diamond? So why did they wrap it in a turd?

Let's see. It has hinges that only barely support the screen. The screen flexes, despite all the lies you've been told about how rigid the uMBPs are. the bottom is razor thin, if you press it just under the hard disk it buckles like a soda can. The battery was at 91% health out of the box, and after several calibration attempts it won't go above the 94% mark. The "8 hour" battery life is a big fat lie, try <4 hours, or <3 running Windows which is less than any PC notebook I've owned. The matte keyboard coating is already wearing off, a few of the keys are 'balding'. The soundcard has a ridiculous amount of DC offset which results in nasty pops every time the OS toggles its power on/off. It has bizarre frictionless feet that cause it to slide off any surface that isn't perfectly flat. The edges are sharp like knives, after 30 minutes of typing on this thing I look like I've tried to slash my wrists 10 times. The keyboard backlighting is really great for illuminating everything except the letters on the keys, as 98% of the light is wasted by leaking out from the sides.

And then there's my iMac 24" that died after a year due to a fried PSU despite having been plugged into an APC surge arrest. It took a whopping 3 weeks to have it repaired, after which it worked for 30 minutes before dying again.

The Mac Mini is the only that hasn't acted up, it actually works as advertised.

Diamonds? No, Chinese garbage. And that's fine, because the market is swamped with that stuff, but it should cost no more than other Chinese garbage. If you fancy yourself the "BMW" of computers, then make sure your computers are built in Germany with the same quality control. Slapping BMW badges on KIAs doesn't cut it. I'd pay $1750 for another one of these MBP 17's, but I'm never ever paying >$2500 again. You do not get anything near what you pay for.

 

[Wikinerd]

yes, but do you post in Banana Republic forums with your signature including all the BR apparel you own?

Make troubleshooting easier? List out all the specs, etc.?

(This method may have originated from Apple Support forums, where there's an unspoken etiquette for including computer models in your signature)

—Also the number of computers are also an indicator of how many computers you've worked with; experience.

Or they just do because they want to; or can't think of anything else to put on there...

 

[paulman592]

apple reply.

why doesn't apple find those same people in a year, and see how their user experience has been? have they gotten a virus? has their computer broken down. is it as quick as when they purchased it? then look at customer satisfaction when calling up dell/hp/compaq/toshiba

 

[Peace]

I don't understand why Microsoft is so afraid of Apple. I mean they have a 90% share in the O/S and Office suite market. Apple only holds 8%. Whats the big deal MS ??

I think Microsoft has an identity problem. They are unsure of themselves. This tells me they aren't real sure they're going to hold on to that share.

 

[gloomcookie1]

I think the only problem I have with the Get a PC commercials is Microsoft doesn't build PC's yet Microsoft is spending the advertising money on hardware they don't even build and not even mentioning the software/operating system. Which, I guess if anything the PC makers are getting some free advertising from Microsoft. And judging by the commercials looks like HP is the biggest winner.

 

[belvdr]

I think the only problem I have with the Get a PC commercials is Microsoft doesn't build PC's yet Microsoft is spending the advertising money on hardware they don't even build and not even mentioning the software/operating system. Which, I guess if anything the PC makers are getting some free advertising from Microsoft. And judging by the commercials looks like HP is the biggest winner.

It's possible HP contributed financially to it.

 

[tntmac fans7]

Whatever

All I'm gonna say is that the price often reflects the product.

My parents were looking into buying a new computer recently. Torn between PC and Mac, they eventually chose the PC because it was a mere $500. Brilliant, right? What a deal! Well, as soon as they went home and turned it on, they were prompted to install Norton Antivirus and soon afterwards, everything went downhill from there. Virus problems, 3Ghz and exceptionally slow, all the usual symptoms of the ill PC—and I doubt many of its problems are virus related!

Now, finally, two years later, they are considering buying a Mac mini. They just can't take their PC any longer.

So, it just goes to show that Microsoft can keep running their ads, convincing people to buy PCs because they're cheaper. But it won't be too long before those customers all switch over to Mac for the suffering and pain their PCs have caused them.

Yes, I don't think Apple has the right to tell Microsoft to shut down their ads, but they also don't have anything to worry about. It'll all work out in the end.

 

[ktappe]

why doesn't apple find those same people in a year, and see how their user experience has been?

That's actually an excellent idea. See how many sold their PC's for the money.

Further, Apple could go to them in 9 months and offer to give them a Mac. All the ones who take them up on it would then report after a year "I switched to a Mac from that PC Microsoft bought me." Such an ad would be devastating to MS and just about as accurate as the MS ads were.

 

[coleridge78]

Wait... this MBP 17" in front of me is a diamond? So why did they wrap it in a turd?

Let's see. It has hinges that only barely support the screen. The screen flexes, despite all the lies you've been told about how rigid the uMBPs are. the bottom is razor thin, if you press it just under the hard disk it buckles like a soda can. The battery was at 91% health out of the box, and after several calibration attempts it won't go above the 94% mark. The "8 hour" battery life is a big fat lie, try <4 hours, or <3 running Windows which is less than any PC notebook I've owned. The matte keyboard coating is already wearing off, a few of the keys are 'balding'. The soundcard has a ridiculous amount of DC offset which results in nasty pops every time the OS toggles its power on/off. It has bizarre frictionless feet that cause it to slide off any surface that isn't perfectly flat. The edges are sharp like knives, after 30 minutes of typing on this thing I look like I've tried to slash my wrists 10 times. The keyboard backlighting is really great for illuminating everything except the letters on the keys, as 98% of the light is wasted by leaking out from the sides.

And then there's my iMac 24" that died after a year due to a fried PSU despite having been plugged into an APC surge arrest. It took a whopping 3 weeks to have it repaired, after which it worked for 30 minutes before dying again.

The Mac Mini is the only that hasn't acted up, it actually works as advertised.

Diamonds? No, Chinese garbage. And that's fine, because the market is swamped with that stuff, but it should cost no more than other Chinese garbage. If you fancy yourself the "BMW" of computers, then make sure your computers are built in Germany with the same quality control. Slapping BMW badges on KIAs doesn't cut it. I'd pay $1750 for another one of these MBP 17's, but I'm never ever paying >$2500 again. You do not get anything near what you pay for.

Even Windows-friendly sites like Anandtech have been amazed by the UBMBP in a number of departments, but most especially the battery. In their tests it exceeded the claims, and no other laptop could touch it. You have a defective unit.

You seem to have a lot of electrical problems with your equipment. It's either horrendous luck, bad wiring in your home or workplace, or some form of abuse. Notice I'm not ruling out horrendous luck, but that seems... less likely.

 

[Wikinerd]

Talk about blatant false advertising on Apple's part! This is definitely the pot calling the kettle black. At least Apple is enjoying a monopoly by not licensing their software to run on any other hardware but their own. I can't wait to see the $800 Netbook. That is going to be a joke. My 12 inch HP tablet PC with a touch screen, 4GB of RAM and dual core AMD processor cost $1,000. Get a grip Apple. Stick to iPhones. At least you are doing phones better than anyone else.

Apple didn't "blatantly" falsely advertise because most of their arguments in their ads were figurative and subjective. They relate to the consumer. Microsoft? Blatant advertising? Yeup. In one of the ads (Lauren and Sue) they even put a MacBook 13" with a $2000 MBP price tag. And now that the prices are different, there's an OBJECTIVE point where they are inaccurate.

As for the "monopoly", technically they're a hardware manufacturer. Their profits are based on hardware sales.
You should get to know what "monopoly" means before actually using it in an argument.

Wait... this MBP 17" in front of me is a diamond? So why did they wrap it in a turd?

Let's see. It has hinges that only barely support the screen. The screen flexes, despite all the lies you've been told about how rigid the uMBPs are. the bottom is razor thin, if you press it just under the hard disk it buckles like a soda can. The battery was at 91% health out of the box, and after several calibration attempts it won't go above the 94% mark. The "8 hour" battery life is a big fat lie, try <4 hours, or <3 running Windows which is less than any PC notebook I've owned. The matte keyboard coating is already wearing off, a few of the keys are 'balding'. The soundcard has a ridiculous amount of DC offset which results in nasty pops every time the OS toggles its power on/off. It has bizarre frictionless feet that cause it to slide off any surface that isn't perfectly flat. The edges are sharp like knives, after 30 minutes of typing on this thing I look like I've tried to slash my wrists 10 times. The keyboard backlighting is really great for illuminating everything except the letters on the keys, as 98% of the light is wasted by leaking out from the sides.

And then there's my iMac 24" that died after a year due to a fried PSU despite having been plugged into an APC surge arrest. It took a whopping 3 weeks to have it repaired, after which it worked for 30 minutes before dying again.

The Mac Mini is the only that hasn't acted up, it actually works as advertised.

Diamonds? No, Chinese garbage. And that's fine, because the market is swamped with that stuff, but it should cost no more than other Chinese garbage. If you fancy yourself the "BMW" of computers, then make sure your computers are built in Germany with the same quality control. Slapping BMW badges on KIAs doesn't cut it. I'd pay $1750 for another one of these MBP 17's, but I'm never ever paying >$2500 again. You do not get anything near what you pay for.

Blimey, that's a lot of problems with Macs, or any kind of computer in general. You're sure that your local distributor isn't ripping you off selling damaged stuff?

 

[uberamd]

I think the only problem I have with the Get a PC commercials is Microsoft doesn't build PC's yet Microsoft is spending the advertising money on hardware they don't even build and not even mentioning the software/operating system. Which, I guess if anything the PC makers are getting some free advertising from Microsoft. And judging by the commercials looks like HP is the biggest winner.

Bingo. I agree that this is basically advertising for laptop manufacturers, and has little to do with Microsoft. I wish they did a side-by-side comparison of the Mac system and PC. How funny would that be, nice sleek aluminum Mac sitting next to a large, thick, plastic, clunky {insert PC here}.

Also the ads never bash the Mac OS (after all, what would they say?), but only the price which is now much more competitive for, in my opinion, higher quality hardware. Yeah they say the laptop looks nice, but its too expensive for them, then they 'settle' on a PC.

 

[belvdr]

Bingo. I agree that this is basically advertising for laptop manufacturers, and has little to do with Microsoft.

Not true. I've googled, and can't find it at the moment, but the majority of Microsoft consumer sales are from new PCs. The majority of PC users can get a new PC for the price of just buying the OS, so they get new hardware.

 

[Wikinerd]

why doesn't apple find those same people in a year, and see how their user experience has been? have they gotten a virus? has their computer broken down. is it as quick as when they purchased it? then look at customer satisfaction when calling up dell/hp/compaq/toshiba

Probably they're actors who have their mouths tied up by NDA's... They probably didn't actually receive a computer either... I'm guessing it's possible that the ad agency took them back...

 

[Anuba]

You seem to have a lot of electrical problems with your equipment. It's either horrendous luck, bad wiring in your home or workplace, or some form of abuse. Notice I'm not ruling out horrendous luck, but that seems... less likely.

Err... where do you get "a lot of problems"? I have tons of equipment, and my equipment is exceptionally spoiled in terms of non-abusive treatment. The only thing that ever broke in here apart from the iMac was a 3 year old Dell gaming PC whose motherboard died. It's not a 'dirty power' issue, if I had power surges in here the lightbulbs would be popping like mad but they don't. It's just a bad iMac that was poorly repaired. As for the MBP, it had a bad battery out of the box so that's hardly my doing.

Blimey, that's a lot of problems with Macs, or any kind of computer in general. You're sure that your local distributor isn't ripping you off selling damaged stuff?

Not sure where a "local distributor" fits into this, my Macs were bought via the online Apple Store and shipped from the nearest European Apple depot in the Netherlands.

 

[Wikinerd]

Not true. I've googled, and can't find it at the moment, but the majority of Microsoft consumer sales are from new PCs. The majority of PC users can get a new PC for the price of just buying the OS, so they get new hardware.

Microsoft signs contracts which license Windows to manufacturers... Once these contracts are signed the manufacturer are free to sell as many copies on computers as they can, i.e. not ratio-royalty-like payments.

But point still stands where Microsoft can sign better contracts of Laptop sales increase.

Err... where do you get "a lot of problems"? I have tons of equipment, and my equipment is exceptionally spoiled in terms of non-abusive treatment. The only thing that ever broke in here apart from the iMac was a 3 year old Dell gaming PC whose motherboard died. It's not a 'dirty power' issue, if I had power surges in here the lightbulbs would be popping like mad but they don't. It's just a bad iMac that was poorly repaired. As for the MBP, it had a bad battery out of the box so that's hardly my doing.

It's your dealer then. He/she/they must've been cheating you.

Having worked in school tech support that is an insubordinate amount of problems in such concentrated occurrence for computers in general, let alone macs...

Or that you're just extremely unlucky.

PS. You're sure it's not an environment problem? Extreme temperatures? Humidity? Placement? Abuse? Magnets?

 

[uberamd]

Not true. I've googled, and can't find it at the moment, but the majority of Microsoft consumer sales are from new PCs. The majority of PC users can get a new PC for the price of just buying the OS, so they get new hardware.

Apple's commercials attack the OS, Microsoft's attack the price of the hardware. The laptop hunter commercials don't have someone going around and saying "Uh, OS X sucks, look at this Windows Vista, its the awesome!"

 

[macjay]

Just read this, skip the 17 pages:

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/21807/

For those of you who want to know the REAL reason why Apple likely called Microsoft, read the above link.

The Microsoft COO isn't telling the whole story – just an entertaining one.

 

[JGowan]

First, I don't buy that the call ever was made -- sounds like an exec was trying to rally the troups with the "we got 'em on the run" speech. I call BS. Not Apple's style. Apple doesn't get mad - it gets even.

Second, the thing about the $100 off is not true. There were varying prices all the way up to $700 for the MacBook Air -- the product was updated to better specs and then, given a deep discount. So, the blanket $100 statement is completely off.

Lastly, these "totally unscripted" commercials always seem to put Apple computers into the "cool but pricey" category... how can that be? Seems like the people are coached.

You find it, you keep it. Who in their right mind wouldn't go in and buy something under the limit. I'd buy a PC if I knew it was free. These people seem happy, but they know going in that whatever they get is a gimme.

And for the true hardcore "I'd-never-buy-a-PC,-even-with-your-money" types, we never see that interview. Surely, they run into those kind.

As for me, given the choice of getting something or getting nothing, I'd be getting a computer --> and then ebaying that mother!

 

[Unibody5]

I think Microsoft has an identity problem. They are unsure of themselves.

They always have. Examples:

- They have too many of the same programs, for example, they have four different email clients.
- Windows versioning system is inconsistent and flawed. If you're a computer noob, you'd never know which is newest just by the names. I hope MS retains the numbering system with 7.
- They change stuff too much. The method of turning disk caching on or off is different in literally every Windows version.

Just things like that, they don't know who they are or what they want to be.

 

[jayducharme]

It's rather like having someone in a Chef Boyardee commercial saying, Olive Garden sucks because it's more expensive... yeah, those breadsticks might be pretty, but look at all the food I get for $4!

LOL! Great analogy!

I don't understand why Apple's legal department would go after MS on this. All they could accomplish is to make MS look stronger.

 

[belvdr]

Apple's commercials attack the OS, Microsoft's attack the price of the hardware. The laptop hunter commercials don't have someone going around and saying "Uh, OS X sucks, look at this Windows Vista, its the awesome!"

And new PC hardware sales equate to sales for Microsoft. Very little of new PC sales are for Linux or have no OS installed. So they can attack the hardward and still work on increasing sales.

 

[Victor Odin]

The cult of Apple is showing cracks. IMHO, they may very well have peaked.

I think they will own the MP3 player market for a good, long, time ... but the computer market may be seeing it's best days right now.

$1,299 at Best Buy for an Asus 2.66Ghz I9 with 9GB of Ram, a 1TB Hard Drive and a GTX 260 graphics card.

$2,699 at Best Buy for an Apple 2.66Ghz I9 with 3GB of Ram, 640GB Hard drive and a GT 120 graphics card.

Twice the price, half the hardware.

It's just not making sense anymore, kids.