Apple Demands Microsoft Pull Laptop Hunter Ads

[RTee]

Come on!!

No way some unnamed Apple legal guy called up and said this, it's a beat up, spin or could even be some random calling in a hoax (that's even if there was a phone call)

It doesn't seem at all credible to me at all, not even for a second.

No point getting all worked up, it'll only give this BS legs.

 

[Gershon]

No way some unnamed Apple legal guy called up and said this, it's a beat up, spin or could even be some random calling in a hoax (that's even if there was a phone call)

It doesn't seem at all credible to me at all, not even for a second.

No point getting all worked up, it'll only give this BS legs.

you do know what Apple is famous for, no?

 

[204353]

I just noticed that this Microsoft webpage is titled 'PC Computers' (see in the browser window title)... Personal Computer Computers? That makes sense...

I guess they're really trying to make 'PC' a brand name comparable to 'Mac'?

 

[uberamd]

I just noticed that this Microsoft webpage is titled 'PC Computers' (see in the browser window title)... Personal Computer Computers? That makes sense...

I guess they're really trying to make 'PC' a brand name comparable to 'Mac'?

PC stands for Pretty Crappy, so it says Pretty Crappy Computers. A common mistake.

 

[204353]

PC stands for Pretty Crappy, so it says Pretty Crappy Computers. A common mistake.

Ah, now it makes so much sense! Thanks.

 

[thisday]

Are you serious here? A vast majority of consumer 15" laptops have 1280x800 displays, rarely do you come across a 1440x900 display in a 15". Having 1280x800 in a 13" is good, and if you tried to pack 1440x900 in there as native, it would simply be too small for a lot of people to see and bumping the resolution down by hand to 1280x800 could result in a less sharp, blurry picture.

Heck, get your facts straight a lot of 17" consumer laptops have 1440x900 as their max resolution and a majority of consumer 19" LCD displays are also 1440x900 max.

I know the majority is 1280x800 but new laptops are moving up 13xx etc. I mentioned this since the mbp 13 just updated. So unitl next year it will have the same resolution. My point is that i want a 13xx you want 1280. With better screens we are both satisified. You will go down the res i ll keep it full up.

 

[uberamd]

I know the majority is 1280x800 but new laptops are moving up 13xx etc. I mentioned this since the mbp 13 just updated. So unitl next year it will have the same resolution. My point is that i want a 13xx you want 1280. With better screens we are both satisified. You will go down the res i ll keep it full up.

*I* don't want 1280x800. As a matter of fact, I have a 15" MBP that is 1440x900, and my desk at home as dual 1680x1050's. But thats me. My sister, who is not much older than me (I am 21) thinks 1280x800 is perfect for 13". Your typical consumer doesn't want to have their face pressed up against the screen to view the text they are working on during class for example.

And yeah, you can bump the resolution down but then the quality suffers. At least it does on LCD's I have used. If you don't use the native resolution, it gets blurry.

 

[thisday]

I saw this link in digg comments from a related topic
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=346
Wow indeed arrogance, not even a sorry. Thats not cool. I believe more now that they made the call.

 

[CrazyAfrican]

You don't seem to get the ads at all. They're not just about prices, they're about CHOICE *and* prices. Sure, a MBP 17" isn't comparable with an $800 Dell but the point is that the customer wanted a 17" laptop, and Apple doesn't have any 17" laptops other than the MBP. If the customer wants a sub $1000 notebook, all they have is the bloody whitebook with its thumbnail sized screen and jumbo pixels. None of the laptop hunters wanted a 13" so they had to compare with whatever Apple had to offer in terms of 15" and up, and all they have in that range is MBP 15"/17".

So when is the comparison "fair"? Should Apple's competitors be forced to only compare to the 13" whitebook because that's the only consumer laptop Apple can be arsed to produce?


What do you think PCs ship with? A bare bones installation of the most basic version of Windows? All computers come loaded with a bunch of toybox applications for managing photos, creating DVDs and all that hobbyist crap. The value of iLife is absolutely zero to me personally, I'm on my third Mac and I don't use any of the iLife apps (no, not even iPhoto). When I buy a new computer I install Adobe CS, Office and a bunch of audio apps and plugins and that's where I spend my time. All I need from the system itself is file management and a versatile media player.

Anuba, you are missing the point. The "customer" said, I want a large screen, power and a lot of memory for under $1000. Well, the price knocked out the 17" Macbook Pro. The power should have knocked out the laptop he chose in the end, but it didn't. That is where the lie resides. The laptop easily met all the requirements except the price. After the Macbook Pro was disqualified, the original requirements were no longer used. The result, the customer didn't get what he originally said he wanted. That is the whole formula for these ads. Start with lofty requirements at an impossible price for those requirements. Exclude the Mac because of the ridiculous price requirement with those specs. Then immediately stop using those requirements.

They say that they got what they wanted. That means that they either never wanted power and RAM (that is not old and on a slow architecture), or wanted the money from Microsoft, but didn't actually care about meeting the spec requirements other than screen size, or they lied and didn't get what they actually wanted.

As for finding no use for iLife, you are in the minority. You also can't say that Windows machines come with apps like iLife and then say iLife doesn't matter or count. Many use iLife. iLife is light years ahead of what comes bundled with Windows. iLife integrates all your media in an elegant fashion. You "don't use iLife",so how are you qualified to talk about it in comparison to Windows bundles?

 

[belvdr]

Are you serious here? A vast majority of consumer 15" laptops have 1280x800 displays, rarely do you come across a 1440x900 display in a 15".

I would have agreed with this until I visited HP's and Dell's homepage for the home laptops. Strangely, it appears they modified the resolution to 1366x768 now, and there are some 1440x900 screens in there.

I do recall the 1280x800 displays being the norm. Actually I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 with that resolution.

 

[uberamd]

I would have agreed with this until I visited HP's and Dell's homepage for the home laptops. Strangely, it appears they modified the resolution to 1366x768 now, and there are some 1440x900 screens in there.

I do recall the 1280x800 displays being the norm. Actually I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 with that resolution.

Ah finally they are making a transition into higher resolution screens. However there are still copious amounts of Macbook Pro 15" owners who b***h because they think they should have a 1680x1050 display on their 15".

 

[belvdr]

Ah finally they are making a transition into higher resolution screens. However there are still copious amounts of Macbook Pro 15" owners who b***h because they think they should have a 1680x1050 display on their 15".

Very true. I wish I had a Mac right now, regardless of resolution. Home ownership tends to deplete the entertainment funds.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

What I'm saying, if you feel like reading, is that for some reason ( i think we know why ) macs don't have the same track record for falling apart that many many PC makers computers do.

Powerbook G4 1.5/1.33 Lower Memory Slot Failure
iBook G4 Video Distortion Recall
Macbook 13" Temperature Sensor Failure/Random Shutdown
eMac Video Scrambled Video Recall
PowerbookG4/iBook/Macbook/Macbook Pro Battery Recalls
Powerbook G4 1.5/1.67 Video Distortion Recall
Macbook Pro Video Card Recall
Power Mac G4 Power Supply Recall
iMac G4 non ALS Power Supply Recall
iMac G4 non ALS Video Distrotion Recall

etc.. etc.. etc..

Be careful about what you say. I love Apple but I am no fool. Being a Genius for almost 3 years, the bulk of our work was fixing Apple Repair Extension Programs (REP).

 

[uberamd]

Powerbook G4 1.5/1.33 Lower Memory Slot Failure
iBook G4 Video Distortion Recall
Macbook 13" Temperature Sensor Failure/Random Shutdown
eMac Video Scrambled Video Recall
PowerbookG4/iBook/Macbook/Macbook Pro Battery Recalls
Powerbook G4 1.5/1.67 Video Distortion Recall
Macbook Pro Video Card Recall
Power Mac G4 Power Supply Recall
iMac G4 non ALS Power Supply Recall
iMac G4 non ALS Video Distrotion Recall

etc.. etc.. etc..

Be careful about what you say. I love Apple but I am no fool. Being a Genius for almost 3 years, the bulk of our work was fixing Apple Repair Extension Programs (REP).

Mac's break, but PC break more it seems. At work, I warranty PC hardware almost on a daily basis during the school year. Our faculty/staff Mac's in circulation are problem free. We just got 2 new Unibodies in (13" and 15") a few days ago as well that we will be distributing.

 

[RTee]

you do know what Apple is famous for, no?

sure do, nice to see some originality from MS..

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

Mac's break, but PC break more it seems. At work, I warranty PC hardware almost on a daily basis during the school year. Our faculty/staff Mac's in circulation are problem free. We just got 2 new Unibodies in (13" and 15") a few days ago as well that we will be distributing.

You also have to look at the numbers. At my job we have a 300:1 ratio macs to PC's and our techs are just as busy with the Macs. Its not necessarily the hardware but a lot of the time the integration with being part of an enterprise.

I remember though one day at the Apple Store we had over 50 iMac G4 non ALS computers awaiting repair for power supply/logic board fixes. That was rather disturbing. I think the iPod/Laptop Battery recalls, Emac REP, and iMac REP's were the biggest nightmares we faced. Apple makes amazing computers but I do think that the numbers are about equal with issues. Considering also the fact that almost all the components in a Mac are the same found in almost every PC.

 

[mcaruso95]

My take on it that as always Microsoft executive lies on stage to get a crowd reaction and general "feel good" about the direction his ****** company is going.

I have been plagued with using Windows for years as many businesses (including mine) use software with no Mac or other OS equivalents.

Luckily I was able to switch to a Mac at home and am very happy.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

My take on it that as always Microsoft executive lies on stage to get a crowd reaction and general "feel good" about the direction his ****** company is going.

I have been plagued with using Windows for years as many businesses (including mine) use software with no Mac or other OS equivalents.

Luckily I was able to switch to a Mac at home and am very happy.

Remarks like this are idiotic. Microsoft is more than Windows. Exchange runs the business world and does it well. People need to get off the whole Windows = Microsoft crap. Also as a corp. Apple and Microsoft internally are very similar you'd be surprised.

 

[Eidorian]

Mattie Num Nums I think you're talking about the iMac G5 non-ALS and not the G4.

 

[RangerXML]

LOL, legal department demanded that MS stop the ads because they're misleading now. Apple dropped the price of its notebooks so the ads are no longer accurate...'cause we know that $100 price drop is enough to actually compete with Windows based notebooks.

 

[Superdelphinus]

Microsoft is no longer financially in a position to strong-arm Apple and they know it

bonkers

 

[tnash]

10 Ways Microsoft's Retail Stores Will Differ From Apple Stores

http://www.pcworld.com/article/1595...ill_differ_from_apple_stores.html?tk=rel_news

 

[jettredmont]

OF COURSE Microsoft's ads would be about OLD Apple Macbooks! People don't just create ads on the spot and air them the same day. They have to be recorded, edited, and a whole lot of streamlining. So of course these ads would include old macs as they were made BEFORE the mac refreshed. Therefore, at the time the ad was videotaped, those prices and models were current. Yes, Microsoft aired them late, but why waste money redoing something just because your competitor decides to change a little....

Ummm ... because if you continue to air those ads with old data you are violating advertising rules and subject to fines?

If you don't want your ad campaign to be at the mercy of another company's pricing whims, you don't include the other company's pricing information in your ad, or make absolutely clear that the prices were only accurate as of a particular date in the past (the latter is legally more risky; you are still fairly likely to be subjected to fines in some instances and jurisdictions).

IMHO, Apple has apparently notified Microsoft of the descrepancy; MS's COO has admitted such on tape. Anyone who sees the particular MS Laptop Hunters ad aired on their local TV should file a complaint with the FCC. It would go something like "Microsoft is airing an ad stating that Apple is selling their 15" MacBook Pro for $1999 with 2GB of RAM, yet Apple offers their 15" MacBook Pro for $1699 with 4GB of RAM."

It's simple, folks. If you don't like MS lying about things, file a complaint with the FCC and they will get fined. That's the only way to make them stop.

On the other hand, if these ads are web-only (which I had thought they were; I don't have a TV so I don't know if they air on TV) then MS is likely to escape any fines because the FCC doesn't control web ads. You can lie your face off in a web ad with little or no repercussions.

 

[ShiftyPig]

Anuba, you are missing the point. The "customer" said, I want a large screen, power and a lot of memory for under $1000. Well, the price knocked out the 17" Macbook Pro. The power should have knocked out the laptop he chose in the end, but it didn't. That is where the lie resides. The laptop easily met all the requirements except the price. After the Macbook Pro was disqualified, the original requirements were no longer used. The result, the customer didn't get what he originally said he wanted. That is the whole formula for these ads. Start with lofty requirements at an impossible price for those requirements. Exclude the Mac because of the ridiculous price requirement with those specs. Then immediately stop using those requirements.

The term power is subjective. Does the PC have enough "power" for video editing? Yes. Is it the most powerful laptop on the market? No, but that isn't the basis.

Mac's break, but PC break more it seems.

I have owned two uMB's and both had to be returned to repair massive technical issues within the first 30 days. I have a PC laptop from 2004 that, with the exception of the battery I refuse to replace, has worked perfectly.

This thread needs to be locked - it's turned into a farce. Some of the poor arguments put forward in here are an absolute disgrace. I love my Macs, but if having some objectivity regarding MS makes me a troll then this board is an embarrassment.

 

[Colrath]

Really hate the Ads. Who wouldn't pick up a free laptop as long as they didn't get ab MBP? Far to missleading.

Argumenativly, Apple did ask for it. I just dislike MS ads in general, it's like they feed off misinformation and BS.