Anti-Vista Marketing at Apple Stores

[Hugh]

Too much cash!

BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD Marketing idea!

Never directly confront a competitor that is so much larger than you head-on. All Apple has to do is keep releasing hardware and OS's that are strong enough to speak for themselves.

Lets anger MS some more, maybe they will pull the plug on Office then, as they did with IE and Windoze Media. (which although I dont really like any of those products, they are necessary evils. If MS ever dropped Office, alot of us would be forced to become "switch-back-ers"

MS, will not stop making Office for the Mac. They make too much money off the Mac version of Office.

Hugh

 

[matticus008]

To me this totally strips Apple of its dignity. Negative campaigns are irrating and make you look like an arrogant ass. Perhaps things like this are why a lot of people seem to be rather anti-apple.

Everybody likes to claim that they're offended by negative advertising, and nobody says "That attack ad is why I changed my mind." And yet, every study done on the phenomenon consistently demonstrates an obvious and visible trend: they work.

Dignified or not, they are highly effective tools for any sort of marketing, be it for products or politicians. The trick is to rein in the vitriol and make the ads just jabs with only an occasional suckerpunch. That's all the advertising has done thus far (Vista 2.0, "cancel or allow," etc. are all playful exaggerations. If those are offensive to someone, he needs an attitude adjustment. Come back when the ads say "Vista kills babies" and then maybe there will be a case.

Everybody wants to win by being the nice guy, but no one ever does in business, because you'd get destroyed by the competition or completely run over. How often do total pushovers turn a profit?

 

[montom]

This kind of thing just makes me want to sing:
"Apple, Apple, Ueber Alles! Ueber Alle OS in der Welt!"

 

[dsnort]

Maybe some of us feel superior. I don't. I know that Apple products and OS are superior and I made the right decision to buy a Mac (more like several).

Right on!!!!

To all those who fear that these ads might promote the image that Mac users are smug I have a question: Why do you own a Mac?

Really, why not a PC? Then no one would accuse you of being smug, ( thereby causing large tears to form in the corners of your eyes).

The only reason I own Macs is.... I think they are better computers. And if I think they are better, why should I be embarrassed to say so? And if someone is willing to contest my idea that they are better, why should I faint from making my case?

If you own Macs because you think they are better, then don't be shy. Screw up your testicular fortitude and shout it from the mountain tops.

And also keep in mind that the phrase "smug p****k" is often used by people with inferiority complexes.

didnt we also all learn at school (5 years?), that calling names just escalates very unproductively (we can already see m$ taking little pokes back)

I haven't seen any ads where the PC character is called names. In fact it seems to me that the Mac character is always open and concerned about PC. But maybe you're seeing different ads than I am.

 

[blur35mm]

Windows Users BUY iPODS Too...

This campaign is targeted to the Windows users walking into the store who are buying iPods.

DUH....

Tastes Great, Less Filling. Coke vs. Pepsi. Rosie vs The Donald.

Kudos to Apple for creating a campaign that fires people up.

I say Tomato, you say Tomato.

 

[Hunabku]

I have to disagree. Mac are not as good as windows at caching viruses and worms for lunch and for dressing up for dinner Macs are not as good at the spy-wear thing either. There windows is better!!!!

...and we know how important it is to be better at that!!! Here in lies the essence of windows - more bloat on top of more bloat. MS continously pumps out crap to make up for a woefully unelegant code base.

How much **** does it take to make a boat that you can float on? Over 50 million stinking lines of it, with a continual spew of updates from the sewer system know as microsludge.

Like mr hanky, vista users are just emmerging from the dark xp sewer system. Unfortunately their boat is still made of ****, and when leopard comes out its gonna stink even worse!

on second thought - Mr Hanky is kinda of cool. Some of the trolls and rats running around here would do well to emulate him!

 

[transizione]

they really aren't that anti-vista.
the theme is "beyond vista"
and "it's time to get a mac".

some stores are already wearing the shirts and such.

 

[Peace]

they really aren't that anti-vista.
the theme is "beyond vista"
and "it's time to get a mac".

some stores are already wearing the shirts and such.

If Apple truly wants to go "beyond Vista" they better put out Leopard.

 

[ppnkg]

To me this totally strips Apple of its dignity. Negative campaigns are irrating and make you look like an arrogant ass. Perhaps things like this are why a lot of people seem to be rather anti-apple.

Telling the truth about how your competitor's products actually work is not negative campaign. Negative campaign is, for example, one making the dubious/exaggerated claim that a decorated war veteran and generally respectable politician is a fraud and a potential threat to your national security. Negative campaigning aims to shape/change an audience's views of someone/something by distorting reality.

But Apple's ads so far make points which reflect, quite accurately, the actual experiences of windows users. They also reflect the generally undisputed fact that Apple offers a superior product. This holds even when Tiger is compared to Vista.

 

[Spritey]

OSX deserves better than the cheap $600 Dells you and your friends apparently buy.

(Just for the record, I have a MBP... And yeah, I have some struggling friends who are psyched just being able to own their own comp, albeit only being $600. But it at least helps them get their school work done)

Apple's computers aren't more expensive, they just don't sell pieces of crap.

It might be a piece of crap to you, but not everyone can afford, or needs all the great built in features of apple comps. The point however, was that if Apple's going to diss Windows, perhaps they should offer an option to those who are only upgrading to Vista, and not planning on buying an entirely new computer just so they can avoid Vista if they want the spiffy UI or a more secure computer (than XP).

 

[cyrax83]

This whole campaign makes apple look like a little kid who wants to play with the big boys, but can't, so just has a little bitch in the corner.

Seriously apple, quit with the smear campaign and maybe improve your own products - it's getting seriously old and is making you look like a second rate company.

 

[TechHistorian]

Remember apple would have been stuck with their amazing 1-2% market share if they would have never decided to SUPPORT MICROSOFT.

Lets be realistic they are attacking a company that helped them get the shares the yalways dreamed off.

You need to review the history of the PC. Microsoft, not Apple, is attacking the "company that helped them get the shares the[y] always dreamed off [sic]."

Back in 1984, Microsoft licensed the right to use Apple's GUI. The result was Windows 1.0. At the time, the Apple ][ and the IBM PC were the top-selling computers. Every machine used a CLI except for the exorbitantly priced Lisa and Xerox Star. When MicroSoft released Windows 2.0, Apple sued. They eventually lost b/c of the wording of the license. The end result: Windows 3.1 -- which was just good enough to start erodiing Apple's edge in user interface.

If anything, Apple's decision -- in 1984 -- to support MS is what gave them such abysmal market share in the first place.

Furthermore, the introduction of the iMac, not the iPod, was what sparked Apple's resurgence.

 

[Spritey]

Oh come on the Mac/PC adds are starting to get a little old but they are still pretty funny. I use Windows from time to time and frankly am big enough to take it. Plus Vista looks to be pretty much a nightmare and Apple would be foolish not to point that out.

Why shouldn't Apple make it possible for OS X to run on a "Windows" box. Ever since OSX came out I've felt it was superior to Windows, but the last time I bought a box my Apple choices were an iMac that was priced right but not enough computer for my needs or 3K for a power mac that was more computer than I needed. So I built my own box and loaded it as a dual boot Windows/Suse system. I'm about ready for a new box and I find myself in the same place. iMac isn't enough (plus it comes with a monitor that I neither need nor wish to pay for and I can't add /remove components), while the power mac costs too much and has way more power than I need or want to pay for.

While Dell's $600 boxes may suck I have a box running openSuse in my kitchen that I put together 2 years ago for $400 that has a little less processor (single core 2.8G, 64 bit AMD) but much more RAM and video card than a mini and as such is an infinitely better box for my needs. Linux comes with it's own set of headaches that I would gladly trade for OSX, if I wasn't tied down to the hardware Apple feels I should be happy to buy

Couldn't have said it better myself...

Although interoperability with multiple manufacturers opens up a *whole* lot of new problems, it's also the best way to get OSX "out to the masses". One company alone cannot supply the world with computers.

(as far as I've heard one reason Windows is sucky is because of the extremely wide range of drivers it has to support. I'm no expert but...)

 

[sunfast]

So are you a smug mac user now?

Maybe just a little

 

[kalisphoenix]

This whole campaign makes apple look like a little kid who wants to play with the big boys, but can't, so just has a little bitch in the corner.

Seriously apple, quit with the smear campaign and maybe improve your own products - it's getting seriously old and is making you look like a second rate company.

I love the smell of irony in the morning.

funny how someone who writes so eloquently needs to resort to calling people names...

Admonishing people not to call other people names is completely idiotic. It's amusing to me that people are judged (inevitably and solely) by their actions... but if you deride a person and not the action, then you get banned.

For instance, if I tell someone that their mother looked really silly before I shaved her back, I'll get banned. But if I say that someone's actions are representative of the philosophies behind the Roman arena orgies, the Boxer Rebellion, the Nazi concentration camps, and the Cincinnati Bengals, I won't be banned. The former is a personal attack, which isn't allowed because people incapable of participating in a passionate war of words might go home and off themselves (thus not visiting the site and continuing the influx of ad revenue). The second is a far more heinous insult, at least to me, but is simply responded to with liberal quantities of s and "OMG G0dwin's Law LOL You're automatically wrong!"

Which contributes to proving my point that the world could happily survive the brutal murder of approximately 99.994% of all human beings. As Bill Hicks said in a fit of rage, "Hitler had the right idea -- he was just an underachiever! Kill 'em all!"

 

[ready2switch]

I will reiterate what someone else has said. These ads, or any ads for that matter, are not going to change some people's minds. There are Mac users and Windows users, then there are people who just want to play/work on a computer and as long as it does what they need it to, they are happy.

These last people are like my mother, who has no problem switching her long distance/cellular phone/satellite-cable/<insert other product/service with viable competitors here> if something isn't working the way she thinks it should be. The issue with the computer/OS market is that Apple hasn't been seen as a "viable competitor" to Microsoft by a large enough section of that population. These ads could very well reverse that.

And again I'd like to point out to all those people thinking this is a "smear campaign" that we haven't even seen what the campaign is yet. Something can be anti-Vista without resorting to name calling or other smears. The most recent "get a Mac" ad proves that. It was funny and made a point current Windows users could relate to. Anyone offended by that ad should take themselves a little less seriously. I mean, come on. Everyone has faults. Learn to laugh a little.

 

[TheSpaz]

Apple is just trying to stress the point that we had it first... otherwise, when Leopard is finally released, Microsoft users will think that APPLE is the one stealing the features out of Vista when it's really the other way around. They need to make it known to the masses how much Vista copied from Mac OS X so that when Leopard comes out and surpasses Vista entirely, people will see how out of date Vista is compared to Leopard. People agree... no?

 

[nxent]

i disagree with this marketing strategy...the product sells itself. someone should be in steve jobs' ear right now. course, he may be a little pissed off at how often msoft consistently rips off his operating systems...

 

[MalcolmJID]

Apple aren't the only one.

 

[sparky672]

Get a grip

Apple and Microsoft are multi-million dollar companies with thousands of employees, dozens of departments, a board of directors, and millions of shareholders.

None of this is "personal".

Each company's respective marketing departments and leadership teams will do what they think is in the best interest of their company and its shareholders.

If you seriously think these organizations are run by one man making silly, rash decisions based on something pissing him off, you've been watching way too much TV.

Apple will proceed with whatever advertising strategy as long as it continues to increase the Mac customer base.

Microsoft will continue to support Office for Mac as long as it's profitable.

 

[uNext]

Apple and Microsoft are multi-million dollar companies with thousands of employees, dozens of departments, a board of directors, and millions of shareholders.

None of this is "personal".

Each company's respective marketing departments and leadership teams will do what they think is in the best interest of their company and its shareholders.

If you seriously think these organizations are run by one man making silly, rash decisions based on something pissing him off, you've been watching way too much TV.

Apple will proceed with whatever advertising strategy as long as it continues to increase the Mac customer base.

Microsoft will continue to support Office for Mac as long as it's profitable.

Bravo finally a user with enough sense to make an educated reply.

 

[gregorsamsa]

Apple aren't the only one.

I think that article also goes on to say that Vista will still be the dominating OS by mere default. Fact is, big business still needs a compelling reason to ditch PCs & WS for Macs & OS X instead. I can't see it happening.

Also, Vista has a big plus in appealing to the home market: DirectX 10 graphics capability will provide awesome gaming. Where will Mac-native gaming be in a few years time? Probably dying a slow death.

I have a Mac, but I think a Vista SP1 edition PC will take some beating as a choice for my second computer. Currently, most of Apple's consumer-hardware is simply too limited to compete with what desktop PCs have to offer.

Edit: IMO, the most effective way of winning people over to your side of the argument is to explain things to them rationally, & not by belittling, patronizing or ridiculing them.

 

[TheBobcat]

Bravo finally a user with enough sense to make an educated reply.

Hey, remember when you asked me the definition of irony?

 

[uNext]

Hey, remember when you asked me the definition of irony?

Isnt it ironic, dont you think?

 

[SPUY767]

I'll make it short and sweet by saying that rubbinjg salt in another's wounds never got anyone anywhere. Microshoft knows they screwed the pooch, and the average consumer knows enough to be certain that the new Vista version fiasco is way too confusing. Apple's continued beating of the same horse will not prove anything further and only runs the risk of tarnishing their image.