Apple Demands Microsoft Pull Laptop Hunter Ads

[xlii]

I really don't get the whole point of the laphunter ads. I have to assume that they are retaliation for Apple's "I'm a Mac, your a PC ads"...

A better ad from MS would be positive and educate potential computer buyers that they can buy an Apple machine and run windows, microsoft office, games... in fact any software that runs on a pc will run on a mac. You can even plug in your Zune, and when Windows 7 comes out you will be able to run that too.

MS focus should be to sell more software... the above paragraph attempts to do that.

 

[xlii]

In fact, to continue... Apple could use the same add to educate PC users that they can buy a Mac and still run all the PC software that they have acquired over the years. I don't know why we don't see that ad.

 

[makingdots]

ALL Apple products are overpriced...

and yet people buy them because it's worth it! Considering that there are tons of alternatives out there.

You guys believing that Apple will actually call MS and said "stop those ads" LOL. You people will believe anything so funny.

 

[arlecchino]

Lawyers just don't do that...

Lawyers just don't do what Turner is claiming. I know, I am one. I would never call a competitor's COO and complain, least of all how he claims Apple's lawyers complained.

Lawyers write letters, and they only spend time writing letters when they have a colorable (no, not necessarily legitimate) claim for legal action. If they have a claim against a company like M$, they certainly are not sending a letter to the COO, but to corporate counsel, who I am sure they know and deal with regularly about a host of matters.

I personally think the ads are misleading mostly because Microsoft hasn't really bothered to edit what the shopper says in an attempt to be "off the cuff" in the ad style.

So if it happened, it wasn't the legal department, but Turner is as good at spin as Ballmer. People in the legal field know he just sounds like a tool.

 

[Anuba]

The ads are misleading in many ways though...I can understand why mac is upset. I don't think they should be calling and asking for the ads to be removed that is just asking for it to be thrown in their face. It is a shame that the laptop hunter ads are working, because all they do is convince people to buy a windows laptop without actually offering any evidence or credible data to support it. I know the ads piss me off when I see them because they don't ever compare the two laptops feature for feature. It isn't illegal but it is crummy what Microsoft is doing.

Oh, and I suppose Apple's long running Mac vs PC ad series isn't misleading in the slightest? Aside from a few grains of truth, those ads are based on wild exaggerations, myths and lies. Truth wise, they stoop to the level of those late night ab trainer and tooth whitening infomercials. They also indirectly mock PC users (they can say all they want that Hodgman and Long aren't supposed to be actual people, but that excuse is about as transparent as OJ's insistence that he cut his hand on some broken glass).

The Laptop Hunter ads don't really lie at all. Sure, the featured computers are crappier than they're made out to be, but what they're saying about Macs (which is the part that Apple complained about) is true. They are ridiculously expensive with very little to show for it.

 

[bruinsrme]

I really don't get the whole point of the laphunter ads. I have to assume that they are retaliation for Apple's "I'm a Mac, your a PC ads"...

A better ad from MS would be positive and educate potential computer buyers that they can buy an Apple machine and run windows, microsoft office, games... in fact any software that runs on a pc will run on a mac. You can even plug in your Zune, and when Windows 7 comes out you will be able to run that too.

MS focus should be to sell more software... the above paragraph attempts to do that.

MS makes a ton of money supporting OEMs. Why would you want to piss off your biggest customers by directing them to Apple as opposed to Dell, HP, Toshiba, Sony and so on?

 

[DELLsFan]

... Lawyers Paralegals and Secretaries for "lawyers" write letters, and they only spend time writing letters when they have a colorable (no, not necessarily legitimate) claim for legal action. If they have a claim against a company like M$, they certainly are not sending a letter to the COO, but to corporate counsel, who I am sure they know and deal with regularly about a host of matters...

Fixed. I can't remember the last time my lawyer did ANYTHING except sign something his staff researched and prepared for him.

 

[maxp1]

Indeed. Legal depts don't call competitors' COOs to verbally complain if their issue is a misleading ad campaign. This story is full of holes. Not to say apple didn't contact MS in some way about this, but I guarantee you it didn't happen like this guy said.

QFT. This story smells like bad fish. No company I've ever heard of would call a competitor to ask them to stop running ads. That would be admitting the ads were hurting you and give the competitor more reason to continue to run the ads.

I can see the legal dept writing a letter if the ads were factually inaccurate. I'm betting that's what happened here. An embellished story about embellished ads.

 

[L0s7man]

Yeah, M$ (I hate M$ but I hate Apple too; just in a different way) should do ad like this:

- Look mom, look! It's an Apple!
- No son, it's just a fancy PC!

I've been saying it all along. It's still x86, so it's a PC. The only difference is SOFTWARE!

 

[hagjohn]

A PC with a 2.66GHz Quad Core is probably more expensive than a PC with a 1.2 GHz Pentium 4...my point is mac is a higher end machine and the price difference is not that different if you compare it to a higher end windows machine. And again...I dont want to have to defend myself. If you think that you dont have to direct it at me.

Mac's are not higher end. Mac's have a great case and OS X. The hardware in it, is not higher end than a PC. It's the same hardware that you can get in most any computer.

 

[Hmm]

At first I said, "Is this a joke? Who are you?"

It's strange that no name was provided, just "Apple legal." Like

"Hi, this is Apple Legal. We need you to stop running those ads because we lowered our prices. So stop running them. They're very legally annoying to those of us here at Apple Legal, so we're legally telling you stop now because that's what we here at Apple Legal do. Also, we have an uncle in Nigeria who is in possession of 3 (three) million dollars and requests your assistance in moving this money to the United States for which you will be greatly rewarded."

 

[AdeFowler]

The guy admits he was doing 'cartwheels down the corridor' ?

Exactly how worried are the mighty Microsoft about little Apple and their <10% market share? Strange times indeed

 

[Anuba]

Mac's are not higher end. Mac's have a great case and OS X. The hardware in it, is not higher end than a PC. It's the same hardware that you can get in most any computer.

Yeah, the internals are just midrange junk. The multi-touch trackpad is pretty unique, though... for now. But it's funny (and sad) how powerful the placebo effect of a brand and a nice aluminum exterior can be. It really sells the illusion of high end.

 

[kernkraft]

Typical Apple hypocrisy. Smug, but at least arrogant...

- Hi, I'm a Mac!

- And I'm a PC.

- Stop it, PC or I will sue your head off!

- But I just...

- S T O P I T! STOP IT! You are uncool! You are unreliable! Everybody hates you! You are a piece of junk!

- Err, actually, it's not true, beca...

- Enough, I'm calling the legal team!

 

[OutSpoken]

As much as I love Apple products, I think the MS ads are healthy competition for Apple.

And at the end of the day tactics like this should force Apple to up their game, offering us the consumer more benifits with their products..whether thats more value for money or better innovative features.

So apple fan boys should really stop complaining.

I watched the commercials and had a right ol chuckle

 

[jayenh]

Mac's are not higher end. Mac's have a great case and OS X. The hardware in it, is not higher end than a PC. It's the same hardware that you can get in most any computer.

i think his point is that microsoft adds compare lower spec PC's to Macs. they don't do an exact hardware match. like the chick who wanted to do video editing. didn't she buy a PC with 3gb of ddr2 ram, while the mac they compared it to came with 4gb ddr3?

i don't think he was arguing that macs have special uber hardware in them.

 

[arkitect]

WTF Apple?

Seriously.
After years of I'm a Mac vs I'm a PC ads Apple feel aggrieved by Microsoft's advertising campaign?


Perhaps the ads cut just a tad too close to the bone for Apple, Inc's liking.

 

[Alastair]

Genius on Apple's part to con Microsoft into continuing to waste their advertising budget promoting Apple hardware.

 

[chuckiej]

Very bizarre story. Sounds like BS to me. Maybe someone called with a very specific complaint about a particular claim? Even that sounds iffy.

And that's the reason he knows they are effective? Because Apple legal called? They don't have metrics that tell them whether this ad money was well spent? If there is truth to this at all this is something small that was blown out of proportion.

Yeah its gotta be total bull. This guy has no proof it was actually Apple that called and Apple Legal has "been doin' this for years", knows the game, and would not call MS about the price issue. Gimme a break. Apple can fight back with ads much better and the price drops already helped some of my friends go Mac.

More likely call:

Apple: "Hey, we noticed the clouds don't move"
MS: "So?"
Apple: "You claim the girl and her mom went and shopped for a while and decided on a certain notebook and then came back outside, when really you filmed the whole outside part at the same time."
MS: "Oh, you noticed that did ya?"
Apple: "You are such a nub"

 

[urbanlung]

Naaaah

Surely Apple can't be that dumb. This story must be bull.

 

[racer1441]

This is really suspicious.

1) It's one quote from one of those untrustworthy Microsoft guys.

2) Why would you want these ads pulled? They are horrible for PC's. It makes PC users look like stuck up, snobbish, or just simply moronic. IF you're asking the guy at bestbuy about the computer that's going to keep you working, you don't deserve to remain in society.


The funny funny part is that Microsoft is so bent about going after Apple, and in the mean time, Google is sneaking up behind them with the knife.

 

[Anuba]

Apple can fight back with ads much better and the price drops already helped some of my friends go Mac.

And by price drops, do you mean the modest US-exclusive price drops or the international price hikes? 'Cause, you know, over the last 6 months the prices on Macs have gone way up outside the U.S. Sure, the US dollar has recovered a little, but it's still only worth half of what it was when it peaked during the Clinton days. Apple must be using some currency exchange matrix that they made up during a crack smoking session because the prices on other American computers have not gone up by 15-20%, they've remained the same.

It makes PC users look like stuck up, snobbish, or just simply moronic. IF you're asking the guy at bestbuy about the computer that's going to keep you working, you don't deserve to remain in society.

Could you contradict yourself a little more, please? What you said there at the end was about as snobbish as it gets. In the previous sentence you suggested the laptop hunter ads make PC users look stuck up and snobbish, which is quite possibly the strangest interpretation of those ads I've ever heard. You're alone there. Everyone else thought it made PC users look like poor people. Hence the parody where a homeless guy goes looking for a new PC.

 

[jsado13]

Genius on Apple's part to con Microsoft into continuing to waste their advertising budget promoting Apple hardware.

Now THAT would be funny

 

[Mac21ND]

Most likely, Apple Legal probably made some type of standard inquiry about Microsoft's advertising. It's just the usual chest pounding between legal departments of corporate companies. It's not like Steve called Bill and said, "Please stop it, I beg you!!!"

The Turner guy just played it up in front of a pro-MS crowd, just like Apple plays it up at WWDC. If you're going to give a little, you've got to take a little too. Typical school yard junk.

 

[no.1 Apple Fan]

microsoft is helpless.