Apple Demands Microsoft Pull Laptop Hunter Ads

[Mr. Giver '94]

I actually think Apple got more advertisement than Microsoft in those ads.

Every single one started off with the person/people going to check out the Macs. Clearly that shows that people want Apple computers and are forced to settle with other brands because of Apple's pricing. I know consumer appeal is extremely important in any industry, and these ads are a fail on Microsoft's part in my opinion because people don't want to buy PCs.

Just sayin'!

 

[kernkraft]

Apple - just a bunch of hypocrite bullies.

This is good news for Apple customers. Apple makes a great product, and, in turn, they have high price tags. There's nothing wrong with the competition, whether they're offering the same quality or not, saying, "Hey, that stuff is really pricey." All that's going to do is drive the prices down on Apple products. It's sort of basic macroeconomics. My work laptop that runs Vista sucks hard even though it's new, and I love my new aluminum 2.4 ghz MacBook, but hell, if the competition is going to knock the price down then great. What was it Austin Powers said? "Yay Capitalism!"

I also have a unibody MacBook. I'm talking about the prototype that does not have FireWire, but has an extremely poor screen and constant fan noise, noisy HDD and misaligned keys. Similarly to my CPU-whining Air and our 2.53GHz Pro with a faulty graphics card, it was extremely overpriced at the time. Did we get quality computers? Nope. Apart from the alu case with the trackpad, there is nothing to differentiate the hardware. Perhaps the lack of certain processors, BluRay and at the time FireWire (an Apple development, how ironic is that?!) and now Express Card. Apart from these, it's the same worker-abusing Chinese sweatshop stuff.

On the other hand, Apple became such a bully in the industry that gates never dared to dream of. 8 percent and having the most aggressive legal team in the sector? They should spend more money on quality testing and getting proper plastic for these portables and iPhones.

 

[RTee]

I will say that the PCs are easier to deal with when they break. Mac is a pain, unless you love talking to teenagers at the Genius Bar.

-jt2

Are you serious? where else in the world can you take your computer, under warranty or not and get free support from the company that actually makes it? Assuming of course you have a store near you.

Got a PC issue, you better be good at google searching, got an issue with your Mac take it to apple?

Does Asus have such a service? an Asus store? I think they would laugh in your face if you called them up and asked for half the service and support that Apple gives you.

Teenagers at the Genius bar? I'd put the average age at least at 25, but I don't see how that's relevant.

This phone call never happened as far as I'm concerned and ads are ads so I don't care either way about them.

 

[kernkraft]

Apple customer service is also deteriorating.

Are you serious? where else in the world can you take your computer, under warranty or not and get free support from the company that actually makes it? Assuming of course you have a store near you.

Got a PC issue, you better be good at google searching, got an issue with your Mac take it to apple?

Does Asus have such a service? an Asus store? I think they would laugh in your face if you called them up and asked for half the service and support that Apple gives you.

Teenagers at the Genius bar? I'd put the average age at least at 25, but I don't see how that's relevant.

This phone call never happened as far as I'm concerned and ads are ads so I don't care either way about them.

You are just the man that I need! Perhaps you could tell me the reason for the constant fan noise in my MacBook (mentioned a few comments earlier), the high pitch sound in the Air and the occasional shut downs with our MacBook Pro. I called Apple, I went to the Apple Store, but in the store they haven't even realised, that the previous generation of 2GHz MBs did not have backlit keys. On the phone, they are searching from a website. I went through several calls, I think it's Apple's official Support site. You would get that level of service with anything these days. The only difference was that I didn't have to talk to India. Here, in the UK, Apple uses Italians, Greeks, Irish and Canadians (at least in my experience). God, those Italians are difficult to understand! Personally, I prefer Indian call centres.

Meanwhile, perhaps you could explain the reasons behind Safari being annoyingly slow and crashing. It's ironic to claim that PC owners need to search on the web to solve problems, when Macrumors has probably hundreds or thousands about technical glitches.

 

[JuBe]

Angry Angry Angry

I find myself to be incredulous to the truthfulness of this story. Hmmm. No paper proof or recording when you know they "record for quality insurance."

grr! Angry voice/tone to fit in with the rest of the posts... but actually they record for quality "assurance," not for insurance purposes. yep, i'm that cool.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

I'll my experience with Dell tech support, just because i feel like typing.

I had the fan sensor die in a tower. It was still in warranty, so i called up Dell. They said they have to order the parts and they will call me when it comes it. Two days later i got a call letting me know they have the parts and wanted to know what times worked for me to get it fixed. The very next day the tech came out and replaced the parts, tested it out, and left. All i had to do is wait 3 days and make one phone call, all at home.
If a mac breaks here i have to call apple, set up and appointment with the Genius Bar, drive 40 minutes to the mall, and leave it there while they order the parts and fix it. Then i have to run another 40 minutes there to pick it up, and another 40 back home. To get a mac fixed i have to spend at least 2 1/2 hours on the road, wasting time and ergo wasting money.

 

[gunraidan]

This thread is absolutely ridiculous from both sides.

 

[iEdd]

2 Requests please:
1. Can MacRumors change the article to include the word allegedly? The more I think about this, the less believable it is.
2. Can the keyboard happy newbies, PLEASE read the whole article. It is obvious that a lot of you have just read the title and assumed that Apple don't like the Mac vs PC ads that Microsoft have used. If that were the case, then yes it would be hypocrisy, but the claim is false advertising, NOT "pull the ads because we don't like you attacking Macs".

Thanks

 

[oban14]

Nothing higher end? Hmm, digital audio out, illuminated keyboard, magnetic power cord, unibody aluminum construction, slot loading optical drive, etc come to mind...

Those are all bells and whistles, some are nicer to have than others, and there are plenty of laptops out there by other companies that offer other bells and whistles that a mac doesn't offer.

Some would say a slot loading optical drive that can't read/write blu rays is anything but high end, especially in 2009. Aluminum body macs dent incredibly easily. Don't get me wrong, I own several Apple products for a variety of reasons, and like any other consumer I weigh the bells and whistles of the different laptop companies, the OS, the compatability with my other computers, etc...

But don't think you're getting some special machine built by hipsters in Cupertino. It's commodity ram, hard drives, CPUs, circuit boards, and the same crap you'll find in any Dell from the same factory in China.

 

[mandis]

I'm really surprised to find people here who will defend apple's pricing scheme.

Could you please explain to me why the low end mac mini costs 639 euros ($900) in the EU?? http://www.e-shop.gr/show_per.phtml?id=PER.904083

It comes with no extras or accessories and compared to any other modern mac it is seriously handicaped and underpowered. If you compared it to a similarly priced desktop pc you'd be getting at least a high end Core 2 Quad or even the i7 920 with a state of the art GFX card and 3 times the amount RAM and HD capacity of the mini.

I was under the impression that the mini was created for those users who could not afford the more expensive imacs/ibooks. Steve Jobs even made that claim when he introduced the mini in one of apple's annual presentations. So what has changed??

I've been a mac user for 5 years now. I bought my powebook g4 in 2004 and i'm very happy with it. Back in the day of course i could justify the price tag on the uniqueness of the system's hardware and aesthetics. Simply put there was nothing else like it on the market. Nowdays however macs use generic x86 pc hardware like everyone else. So why the higher price tag???? It makes no sence to me and i wont be buying another mac untill the prices come down.

 

[newyorksole]

How does this story not seem strange to you guys? You actually think Apple would call Microsoft up and say that? This story doesn't seem at all unbelievable to you guys?

 

[TripHop]

Actors Take The Cash Then Return The PCs For Refund Then Go Buy Macs

I imagine a scenario where the actors in the ads - I do not believe they are real people - take the cash from the production company to buy the crappy Vista PC then as soon as the production company leaves they return the unopened PCs for a refund and march over to the Apple store to buy a Mac for a few hundred dollars more of their own money.

Who in their right mind would want to keep a Vista PC - especially if they got it 4 free?

 

[charlituna]

Wrong. The $1699 is with the Geforce 9400. Apple DOWNGRADED the MBP to make it cheaper (something that is frankly, massively under mentioned in this place).

1. doesn't change that there is not $1999 and $2499 as the price options anymore but the ad still claims as much
2. doesn't change that they may have actually been showing a 13 inch unibody macbook at that price (can't prove it since they don't show the port side but several sites claim it is true)

as for the downgrade, honestly how many folks outside of the tiny portion of ubergeeks on sites like this actually used the 9600 enough to make it so important compared to the added ram and I believe also added harddrive space and slight bump in the processor. I suspect not that many on that lower 15. the geeks probably sprung for the upper model that still has it. cause that's part of what geeks do. get the top of the line model whenever they can.

If that is the case Apple should have complained to whomever,who takes care of misleading advertising......Complaining direct to MS was not a good move.

actually complaining to MS is the only move they can use. because the ad agencies aren't going to listen to the competitor over the person giving them the money. So apple couldn't just call CPB and tell them anything. They would have to contact MS and point out the error and see what happens. which is more likely what happened over any whining. a gentleman's call to let MS correct their oversight (assuming no intentional ill intent by MS) and if they don't fix it, move on to the formal letter, lawsuit etc. Its the kind of move that is uncommon but not a total shock when you consider all the patent suits, Psystar etc that Apple Legal is dealing with right now

 

[chrono1081]

How does this story not seem strange to you guys? You actually think Apple would call Microsoft up and say that? This story doesn't seem at all unbelievable to you guys?

+1 this is completely made up. Companies do this all the time to boost morale.

 

[ShiftyPig]

Excellent mod work cleaning up the flamage in the thread.

If MS's COO said this in the same breath

Those are completely unscripted commercials.

then are we really supposed to believe the call claim? I would have hoped he had received a more important call than that in his business career.

 

[Synthetickiller]

I see a lot of crying over something that doesn't actually affect anyone here, unless you're a major stockholder in either company.

Who cares?

Wow, laptop hunter ads work, really? The economy sucks, people have no money. And you guys think its warranted and justified to spend $1000+ on a notebook to do nothing more than internet, document creation & music? No wonder something like this would come up. It's also no wonder Apple is lowering their prices.

I recently purchased a 2.1ghz c2d lenovo thinkpad. Dropped $50 on 4 gigs of ddr 2 and will probably spend another $150-$175 on a solid state 30gig - 60gig drive. The laptop cost $460 w/ shipping & tax, so that's $660 - $710 with all the upgrades. Apple can't compete with the performance of that laptop for the cost, bottom line. Plus I think the lenovo has a higher build quality, plus you're not limited to only a touch pad, those things suck.

 

[hegor]

Nothing to see here move along.

Laptop hunter ads suck.

Mac vs PC ads suck for that matter.

People will buy what they want, Apple will do well and be profitable. PCs will still outsell Macs, but will suck for everything except for gaming.

 

[Stevamundo]

IF Apple actually made that call to Microsoft, either it's the one of the most STUPIDEST OR BRILLIANT things that Apple has ever done.

Hear me out here. I saw those Ads and they're very dumb. About 95% of it are focus to say “We PCs are cheaper than Apples. So? NONE of those Ads NEVER REALLY gone into the quality of the PC itself.

So it might be a brilliant move by Apple pretending to be mad at Microsoft thus really encouraging Microsoft to make more of their stupid Ads.

On the other hand IF Apple was really mad at Microsoft and called them, that would have been about the most STUPIDEST thing that Apple has ever done. What in the hell does Apple expect anyway. Gates saying “Yes Mr. Jobs, anything that you want Mr. Jobs.”

 

[LowEnder]

800+ posts later: people still believe that call was made?
simply not credible

 

[Stevamundo]

800+ posts later: people still believe that call was made?
simply not credible

You're probably right.

 

[BongoBanger]

800+ posts later: people still believe that call was made?
simply not credible

You're right. That denial from Apple has just sealed the issue.

...

Oh they haven't made one yet?

Oh dear.

 

[iEdd]

Apple could still be in the process of some internal searching, to see if an employee, completely unauthorised to make that call, made that call.

OR ruling out the possibility that someone at Apple made the call. Either way, they'd look stupid if they denied it if some low level employee made a call without going through proper protocol.

 

[radesousa]

LOL.... this is amazing... what a waste of bandwidth over an alleged complaint by Apple. So far there's not been a shred of proof Apple made any complaint to Microsoft. Microsoft must be laughing at the uproar it's created. People are so gullible.

 

[jbernie]

LOL.... this is amazing... what a waste of bandwidth over an alleged complaint by Apple. So far there's not been a shred of proof Apple made any complaint to Microsoft. Microsoft must be laughing at the uproar it's created. People are so gullible.

welcome to reality where the media report anything regardless of proof or proper research to confirm what they are saying.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

Unfair of Apple to try to do that.

The ads are accurate, Apple needs to drop their prices.