Apple Demands Microsoft Pull Laptop Hunter Ads

[LagunaSol]

engadet is starting to P*SS me off its starting to really be a PC Fanboy zone 90 percent of apple fans make a solid point about apple is low ranked

Engadget commentary completely went down the crapper a year ago. There is no discussion there - there is only low-ranking of pro-Apple comments and high-ranking of anti-Apple rants and Microsoft slobberings.

"ZUNE HD??? MUST HAVE!!!!!" (Highest Ranked)

"iPod? Get off your knees and quit schlobbing Jobs' knob!" (Highly Ranked)

"I just dumped my WinMo device and bought an iPhone and frankly I think it's the best device on the market right now." (Lowest Ranked)

It's a complete Redmond love fest. I particularly like the comments that say stuff like "I can't wait to get rid of my crappy iPhone" when it's clear from that commenter's dialog over the past many months that he doesn't own an iPhone and would never dream of doing so. Etc. etc.

The smell of astroturf is thick over there.

Yet everyone gripes about Apple fanboys. Sheesh.

 

[PaperMacWriter]

I think MS should have to take some down, like ones where they say "a 15" mac starts a 2000 and has 2GB of RAM", which is now a lie. Lieing in ads isn't good. But when all is still true(sorta), MS has every right to keep them up. Just what I think. If it makes matters different, I would fall under "fanboy" and hate the ads.

SG

 

[aquaibm]

HAHA,this is the funnest thing I have heard this year,maybe.

 

[314631]

I'm a MSFT shareholder ( selling all my shares within the month and staying liquid for a while ) but i've been grinding my teeth at the junk willy wonka, i mean Steve Ballmer has been peddiling so far ever since Bill left.

Personally I'd hold on to them for awhile based on how well Windows 7 is selling across the world. And Office 2010 is right around the corner too.

Remember Bill Gates oversaw Vista and we all know how that mess turned out. Windows 7 has been in development since he left. It looks like Microsoft might be able to deliver better products without his day-to-day involvement.

I don't know the legalities around false advertising, but its one thing to twist the truth and another to tell an outright lie, and with the price changes all of the commercials are moot in their legitimacy. You can't air commercials comparing todays products to yesterdays prices. They might as well have a Macintosh Classic (The 2MB Ram /40MB HD version retailed for $1499 in the 90's) and say that some crappy HP celeron machine that cost 299 bucks on black friday is a "bajillion" times faster than a comparable mac machine.

Get real it happens all the time. It's hardly false advertising to run ads that might mention prices from a few weeks ago. And the $100 price reduction (on some product lines) still doesn't really alter the basis of the arguments Microsoft makes in its commercials. They are not twisting the truth when they say the HP/Dell/Lenovo machines are substantially cheaper than the MacBook alternatives.

I love my new 17" MacBook Pro (bought with the reductions + student discount) but I know I could have saved a lot of money if I had gone with a Windows laptop instead.

 

[Toadtilley]

Apple Tax B.S.

I am so tired of reading, even on this forum, about the supposed "apple tax." Since Apple transitioned to Intel the price of an identically spec'd machine is so competitive as to be a laughable discussion. And we are talking guts only not build quality which is always in Apple's favor--I know I build computers. If you are looking for cheap Apple is not going to have what you are looking for, but they are not overpriced (KNOW THE FRIGGIN' DIFFERENCE).

The reality is that most people still look at the amount of RAM and the GHz to compare computers and they have no idea about differences in RAM type, HD differences, processor differences, etc.,.

MORE importantly, forget the hardware, try pricing out Windows Sharepoint and Exchange for 100 users versus OS X Server and Kerio.

 

[LagunaSol]

So I don't see how hyping Blu-Ray would hurt the 360 sales......

Um, because the PS3 comes with Blu-Ray and the 360 doesn't???

Seems pretty commonsensical to me...

 

[upinflames900]

This could be really bad looking for apple if they don't clarify this quickly. I mean here they are trying to do a similar type of ads and then complaining it is not fair when MS does it. Apple could be in the right, but it won't look like it.

 

[briantology]

I agree that MS put a spin on the story. This also means I don't know what exactly Apple said, but it doesn't seem to be in their nature to ask MS to stop airing whatever commercials they come out with. Apple should just use the talent and creativity they have to come out with better ads. You can't win a war by asking for a truce, you simply must use better tactics.

 

[wesrk]

have apple do a witty ad about the costs of sending your pc to be repaired a few times a year, plus losing all your data, plus having the latest virus around, show the way a pc crawls after a few weeks/months use, etc., just show that.

 

[314631]

Engadget commentary completely went down the crapper a year ago. There is no discussion there - there is only low-ranking of pro-Apple comments and high-ranking of anti-Apple rants and Microsoft slobberings.

"ZUNE HD??? MUST HAVE!!!!!" (Highest Ranked)

"iPod? Get off your knees and quit schlobbing Jobs' knob!" (Highly Ranked)

"I just dumped my WinMo device and bought an iPhone and frankly I think it's the best device on the market right now." (Lowest Ranked)

Even Leo Laporte (one of the most respected tech personalities) who is self-professed Apple "fan boi" loves Windows 7, thinks the Zune is a cool device, and has been impressed with the Zune Pass experience.

I think some of you just need to accept Microsoft has somehow started to do a good job again.

 

[KurtangleTN]

Pricing has always been Apple's achilles heal. It's about time Microsoft banged a few goals inside the open net. The ads are not even unfair. They don't deny the fact Apple machines are beautiful, cool and fashionable. They just emphasize the point if you're shopping on a budget you're likely to leave the Apple store disappointed and without any kind of computer.

Apple is vulnerable to attack for the first time in awhile. The bad economy weighing on purchasing decisions, and the fact Windows 7 is such a fantastic piece of work. I'm amazed how they have turned the Vista disaster around so quickly. Microsoft has every reason to be confident and to go after Apple in a variety of different ways.

Healthy competition is good for all of us who are not APPL shareholders.

Great post and exactly.

I love the ads to be honest and I do think they are effective, it just further continues the notion that Macs are too pricey and don't offer enough choice, and it doesn't take long to see that.

 

[Shookster]

To be fair, Apple isn't entirely out of the misleading or stretching the realm of perception either. Remember that disclaimer commercial where like half of the 23 steps listed were talking about running defrag. Pretty sure I find myself running Disk Utility on my new iMac pretty often to clear up quite a few things. That, of course, would be the Mac version of a defrag. There are other examples, but I'm not going to get in to it. That's just the first one that comes to mind that stood out the most for me.

Why do you have to run Disk Utility often? I run a permissions repair only when I'm experiencing an issue that could be related to permissions - so maybe once or twice a year. I run a disk scan if I'm experiencing a problem I suspect may be caused by damage to the file structure on the disk (although these tests have always come out clean for me). Occasionally I'll clean out some caches too but this is rare also.

If you have 10.4+, the daily/weekly/monthly tasks are handled for you. There are literally no tasks you need to run manually on a regular basis on the Mac.

 

[upinflames900]

]I think some of you just need to accept Microsoft has somehow started to do a good job again.

When did they start doing a good job?

 

[LEStudios]

When did they start doing a good job?

Microsoft couldn't do a good job even on their day off!

 

[LagunaSol]

have apple do a witty ad about the costs of sending your pc to be repaired a few times a year, plus losing all your data, plus having the latest virus around, show the way a pc crawls after a few weeks/months use, etc., just show that.

The difference between the Apple ads and the MS ads is that Apple is telling people what they already know (Windows is a major PITA) and offering them an alternative.

Microsoft is telling people what they already know (Windows computers are cheaper) yet somehow treat this as a revelation.

Basically, the statement is "Pssst, you already know that Windows is a PITA, but hey, it's cheaper! And frankly, you don't deserve better."

In my opinion, these ads are ultimately damaging to Microsoft's brand, not Apple's. Of course they don't realize this yet...

I still love the one about the "filmmaker" who can't spend more than $1,000 on her editing machine the best. LOL!

 

[lazyrighteye]

Pffft

Yeah right...

 

[RiverFox]

i call ********.

(1.) There was a poster in this thread (forgot your name fella), that states, if this was a legal matter, it would have been done through the mail, not by telephone.

(2.) MSFT doesn't make computers. So the whole concept of these commercials are pretty lame if you ask me.

(3.) Pound for pound an Apple and a PC would cost the same given the same hardware.

What it comes down to (IMHO) is the nameplate of the machine. You buy a Dell - you're gonna pay Dells' price. You want an Apple, the same rule applies. Different people like different manufactures and how they "feel" and "run". Look at how many automobile types there are... Not everyone drives a Model 'T' anymore...

 

[upinflames900]

The difference between the Apple ads and the MS ads is that Apple is telling people what they already know (Windows is a major PITA) and offering them an alternative.

Microsoft is telling people what they already know (Windows computers are cheaper) yet somehow treat this as a revelation.

Basically, the statement is "Pssst, you already know that Windows is a PITA, but hey, it's cheaper! And frankly, you don't deserve better."

In my opinion, these ads are ultimately damaging to Microsoft's brand, not Apple's. Of course they don't realize this yet...

I still love the one about the "filmmaker" who can't spend more than $1,000 on her editing machine the best. LOL!

The question is do people see it this way or do they just see cheeper and lets go shopping? I see your point though...very true.

 

[LagunaSol]

I think some of you just need to accept Microsoft has somehow started to do a good job again.

I'm not sure what that has to do with the anti-Apple rage that dominates the Engadget comments board...

 

[quagmire]

Um, because the PS3 comes with Blu-Ray and the 360 doesn't???

Seems pretty commonsensical to me...

Again, this is a PC vs Mac ad. Not a PS3 vs 360 ad. Stating a PC has Blu-Ray where a Mac doesn't won't hurt 360 sales as well.......

 

[314631]

When did they start doing a good job?

Well IMO Windows 2000 and Windows XP were both great operating systems. Office has been the top productivity suite for more than a decade. I know die-hard Apple fans who love Outlook so much they run Windows in a virtual machine just so they can use it.

I'm looking forward to seeing Exchange support in Snow Leopard. Maybe that can persuade a few more people they don't need VMware Fusion to run a decent email client in OS X.

 

[ikramerica]

Apple: whiney but right - and I pointed this the first night it happened

It's amazing how uniformed MS is about Apple products, and how uninformed so many people are about WHY MS ads are false and different than the "mac v. pc" ads.

Ease of use, "better" claims, things like that are subjective. But price is OBJECTIVE. MS, when they created their ads, was not lying about price. But they continued to run the ads after Apple lowered their prices and upgraded their products, and by doing so, MS was acting in bad faith. They were falsely advertising, an actionable civil crime in every state in the USA. They can be fined. By refusing Apple's request to pull or alter the specific ads that make false claims, MS may have dug themselves a hole.

The main ad in question is the filmmaker who claims that there is "only one model under $2000, and it has 2GB of RAM." That is a FALSE claim, and MS continued to run that ad for weeks after knowing it was false, including during the NBA finals. That's blatant.

As for prices being cut "$100 or something" that's just an MS tool not knowing his competition. Prices were cut by far more, and features were added, including the oh so important 4GB of RAM.

That makes MS's advertising objectively false, not subjectively false. That's the difference, and that MS ignored this request means they are very likely liable for their actions. Each and every time this ad ran after being notified of the claim, they could be fined by every state it ran in, as well as be required to pay Apple damages.

That the MS tool is bragging about breaking the law is hilarious. He should be proud...

 

[briantology]

I still love the one about the "filmmaker" who can't spend more than $1,000 on her editing machine the best. LOL!

Never saw that one lolz, you'll probably be spending more than that on software!

 

[MacLover4491]

i never had to do disk defragment on my windows laptops.

 

[LagunaSol]

The question is do people see it this way or do they just see cheeper and lets go shopping?

Based on Apple's success over the past few years, apparently people see the cheap PC that's sitting on their desk, think about the complete hell it's given them for the past 3 years, and decide that "cheaper" may not be the best strategy anymore...