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Apple Comments on Microsoft's Laptop Hunter Ads
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Kudos-Nope
MS ads battering Macs are about as éloquent as a Market stall sales person selling chinks.
MS does not equate to Kudos. The only thing I can think of that fits nicely with MS lock stock and barrel is a block of inner city flats built in the 70's.
MS ads battering Macs are about as éloquent as a Market stall sales person selling chinks.
MS does not equate to Kudos. The only thing I can think of that fits nicely with MS lock stock and barrel is a block of inner city flats built in the 70's.
It all about Average Selling Price
Just read an article that stated something like WinTel is going to die unless they can do something to increase Average Selling Price (and margins).
Recollecting (not exact, but close I'm sure):
ASP for WinTel portables year-over-year is down to $540 from $569 (i.e. lots of net books).
ASP for Apple is down to $1238 from $1250 (not quite sure, but it was $12xx, $12yy something for just a $12 difference).
THAT'S fricking amazing re: Apple in today's economy.
One point of this article is the MSFT's ads are NOT about selling against Mac as much as trying to increase the ASP of WinTel portables (Macs are just an indirect point about why more expensive = better).
It appears no one has picked up on this.
IT IS NOT ABOUT COST OF A MAC.
IT IS ABOUT INCREASING ASP FOR WINTEL PORTABLES.
Apple is benefiting MSFT by providing the means to show people that they should upsell from netbooks to a more expensive portable.
Just read an article that stated something like WinTel is going to die unless they can do something to increase Average Selling Price (and margins).
Recollecting (not exact, but close I'm sure):
ASP for WinTel portables year-over-year is down to $540 from $569 (i.e. lots of net books).
ASP for Apple is down to $1238 from $1250 (not quite sure, but it was $12xx, $12yy something for just a $12 difference).
THAT'S fricking amazing re: Apple in today's economy.
One point of this article is the MSFT's ads are NOT about selling against Mac as much as trying to increase the ASP of WinTel portables (Macs are just an indirect point about why more expensive = better).
It appears no one has picked up on this.
IT IS NOT ABOUT COST OF A MAC.
IT IS ABOUT INCREASING ASP FOR WINTEL PORTABLES.
Apple is benefiting MSFT by providing the means to show people that they should upsell from netbooks to a more expensive portable.
For the life of me, I don't get the fanboys on either side. It's a COMPUTER for God's sake. If it does what you need, be happy about it. I'm a recent Mac convert, and I think that OS X and my new MacBook are fantastic. I also happen to think that Windows 7, even in beta form, and the Thinkpad that I sometimes use at work are fantastic as well. Some people on both sides seem to take this all so personally, as if they're on the Board of Directors at these companies. Use what you use and let others be happy with their choices.
I totally agree. In the 90's I faced this all the time as a Mac user. Not everyone...but many PC users regarded Macs as trash and felt the need to point this out to me without any provocation....or if I even just said "I use a Mac" or "I like Macs." Eventually, I became a Mac Evangelist back then to properly defend my position and to help clear up some of the misconceptions that many PC users had at the time. OSX eventually made my job a lot easier....as did the original iMac. However, the Apple quality was always there throughout the company's history.
Um....that said, I had always wondered why Apple didn't try to fight back against PC fanboys....which is why I was elated once we started seeing the "I'm a Mac" ads. Though....I do have a fold out poster from 1998/99 that has the tagline "It eats Pentium Notebooks for Lunch" and a picture of a Great White shark on the Powerbook's screen.
Anyway, good for Apple in their perfectly appropriate response to MS's new ads.
Because, for some people, it's not "just a computer." For a lot of people, it can be an extension of who they are. A computer can symbolize their point of view and reflect their tastes. It can be somethging that they really enjoy and become passonate about.
EPIC FAIL.
/Applications/Utilities/Console.app
More system-level and application info than you can shake a stick at. Just because Apple has decided not shove cryptic error messages into the user's face at every turn, doesn't mean it's not there for power users. You just have to know where to look. And the Mac system logs are certainly far more descriptive and informative than the Windows system logs. I've dealt with both. Most of the Windows ones leave me scratching my head and having to go to numerous sites just to translate it to intelligible English.
Most of the stuff in that post was crap, but I'd like to single out that one. "almost every regard"?? What exactly do you do for work that Mac fails so epically at it? Play Solitaire all day?
I'd LOVE to see a list of things you need to do every day, seriously. Back that up with some solid facts.
I notice a few car analogies springing up so let's put a few things into perspective.
If you consider Macs to be BMWs then right from the 1 series through to, say, the M6 Convertible you get a good piece of engineering at a premium price. On the other hand you can consider PCs to be Fiats - they range from the cheap and nasty Panda right through to... Ferraris and Maseratis.
The point being that Macs are nice and consistent across the piece whilst PCs range from cheap and less reliable to much more powerful and far more expensive than Macs.
Just so we're all clear and stop the silly comparisons you understand.
Good. I suspect the chap in question is being dragged into Tim Cook's office for a good spanking as we speak.
If you consider Macs to be BMWs then right from the 1 series through to, say, the M6 Convertible you get a good piece of engineering at a premium price. On the other hand you can consider PCs to be Fiats - they range from the cheap and nasty Panda right through to... Ferraris and Maseratis.
The point being that Macs are nice and consistent across the piece whilst PCs range from cheap and less reliable to much more powerful and far more expensive than Macs.
Just so we're all clear and stop the silly comparisons you understand.
Good. I suspect the chap in question is being dragged into Tim Cook's office for a good spanking as we speak.
Wow that is what I use to tell people when I bought my first PowerBook and they would ask me why did I spend so much money on an Apple. I would tell them it is like buying a BMW or a Buick. Just because BMW doesn't have 90% of the automobile market share doesn't make it a bad car. And just because Buick has a larger market share doesn't make it a great car.
Everyone buys for different reasons.
Except when OS X logs nothing. Which happens more often than I like.EPIC FAIL.
/Applications/Utilities/Console.app
More system-level and application info than you can shake a stick at. Just because Apple has decided not shove cryptic error messages into the user's face at every turn, doesn't mean it's not there for power users. You just have to know where to look. And the Mac system logs are certainly far more descriptive and informative than the Windows system logs. I've dealt with both. Most of the Windows ones leave me scratching my head and having to go to numerous sites just to translate it to intelligible English.
You mean PCs aren't washed in unicorn tears?
I'm curious to hear what problems you're having integrating into a corporate environment. Outside of the obvious Windows-only software, I mean. Anything besides that?
the Microsoft ads are a joke but Apple IS slipping on the price ware
Having been an Apple fan for going on a couple decades I've noticed a pattern in the old PC vs. Mac price war. The arguments aren't new, and the Apple camp has suffered as the Mac has become more and more a glorified PC (this was my biggest concern about the switch to Intel). However, even in the pre-Intel days the trend was usually Apple release something really cool and cutting edge on a machine that when compared to an identically spec'ed PC is either the same price or better. The problem is then Apple sticks to its price while the PC manufacturer's lower their price (usually as the new thing become established and cheaper to manufacture). We are seeing Apple at the end of Intel product cycle of the Penyrn (remember they only use two lines of the Intel procs--the mobile and the Xeon) so there is now a sizable gap in price per spec between Apple and the generic PC. It would pain me to buy an Apple right now--although yes, I would still do it if I were in the market.
As others have pointed out, combine this slump with Windows 7 (haven't used it but I hear good things . . . really good things) and Apple could take a hit this year if they don't either adjust their pricing (never happen) Win7 hits before they get the next sizable tech boost from Intel (Nvidia?).
That said, never underestimate the ability of modern MS to screw up.
Having been an Apple fan for going on a couple decades I've noticed a pattern in the old PC vs. Mac price war. The arguments aren't new, and the Apple camp has suffered as the Mac has become more and more a glorified PC (this was my biggest concern about the switch to Intel). However, even in the pre-Intel days the trend was usually Apple release something really cool and cutting edge on a machine that when compared to an identically spec'ed PC is either the same price or better. The problem is then Apple sticks to its price while the PC manufacturer's lower their price (usually as the new thing become established and cheaper to manufacture). We are seeing Apple at the end of Intel product cycle of the Penyrn (remember they only use two lines of the Intel procs--the mobile and the Xeon) so there is now a sizable gap in price per spec between Apple and the generic PC. It would pain me to buy an Apple right now--although yes, I would still do it if I were in the market.
As others have pointed out, combine this slump with Windows 7 (haven't used it but I hear good things . . . really good things) and Apple could take a hit this year if they don't either adjust their pricing (never happen) Win7 hits before they get the next sizable tech boost from Intel (Nvidia?).
That said, never underestimate the ability of modern MS to screw up.
The Pwn2Own contest alone shows that OS X is not more secure than Windows, but merely has less malware written for it because of such a sliver of marketshare. No money in it.[/QUOTE]
Can clarify you "No money in it". Is that concerning the small Market share or other???
Cheers.
Can clarify you "No money in it". Is that concerning the small Market share or other???
Cheers.
No! This is the one thing in Leopard that really sucks, it's worse than Tiger. Maybe it finds other Macs easily but that's where it ends.
I have this 1 TB QNAP network drive that does AppleTalk, Samba and WINS, and another one (a Lacie Ethernet BigDisk) which works roughly the same way. In Tiger these were pretty easy to find, a little awkward to mount but at least it worked. In Windows, it's dead easy, you just use the Map Network Drive command and it's permanently mounted as a logical drive. Set and forget. Leopard, however, didn't find the drives at all. It wasn't until I disabled Leopard's firewall completely (secure, huh) that the drives finally showed up in Finder. Now, how the hell do I mount them permanently? I tried googling for an answer, only to find a thousand people asking the same question. Many different solutions were suggested. One was to write a script (yeah, great solution for newbies), which was clunky because the share no longer appears in Finder under its given network nick, but rather "smb://192.160.X.X" (this is the only way to mount the drives without disabling the firewall entirely). Another suggested solution was to create aliases and drag them to Startup Objects under your account settings, which is less clunky but extremely annoying because every time you boot up the system it automatically opens a bunch of cascading Finder windows for the mounted shares. Mounting network shares permanently is easier in a 10 year old version of Windows than it is in Leopard.
Both Companies' Flawed Advertising
This is my response to Bill EVans and Farhad Manjoo based on a Yelp! Talk thread I was a part of last week:
http://www.bravenewwave.com/?p=2624
This is my response to Bill EVans and Farhad Manjoo based on a Yelp! Talk thread I was a part of last week:
http://www.bravenewwave.com/?p=2624
Microsoft != Hardware
It was probably already mentioned, so I'll mention it again. I find it interesting that Microsoft is using ads to differentiate price in hardware rather than features between the OSes. Last time I checked Microsoft doesn't make laptops. To me this says Microsoft already knows they lost on the OS front.
Though, someone could argue that Microsoft has a large enough market share in it's OS that focusing there wouldn't be as effective as on hardware prices.
It was probably already mentioned, so I'll mention it again. I find it interesting that Microsoft is using ads to differentiate price in hardware rather than features between the OSes. Last time I checked Microsoft doesn't make laptops. To me this says Microsoft already knows they lost on the OS front.
Though, someone could argue that Microsoft has a large enough market share in it's OS that focusing there wouldn't be as effective as on hardware prices.
There's not much monetary incentive for malware writers for a market share that's less than 10%. If you can write malware for something that will have a 90% marketshare audience (conficker) or a sub-10% marketshare, which would you spend the time writing?
I found these marketing battles very similar to what happened when the iPod was introduced. During that time the mp3 was still fairly new to the consumers. Although the iPod is not the first to enter the market, but they entered with a simple and clean design. They started out as a pricy device and as people started to catch on to this new toy, although pricy, it became an icon for portable audio. After few generations of iPods, it's made better and better, and it was too late for the other mp3 portable device producers to stop the iPod. The other companies tries to differentiate their products, but their marketing was ineffective against the fruit giant.
Eventually, they started to tell consumers, "why get the ipod when you can get something cheaper and works as well?" Every other mp3 device is put on comparison to the iPod as it had became the standard for a portable mp3 device. And I think that is what keeps the iPod on the top of the mp3 battle because many people will think, "hey, if I pay a little more, I could have gotten the iPod, which is cooler and more recognizable."
It's so similar to what is happening now, where the Mac are seems to be in sync with the terms "cool" "designer" "beauty" "ease of use" and the other computer manufacturers are simply telling consumers "you can get the same for cheaper."
Eventually, they started to tell consumers, "why get the ipod when you can get something cheaper and works as well?" Every other mp3 device is put on comparison to the iPod as it had became the standard for a portable mp3 device. And I think that is what keeps the iPod on the top of the mp3 battle because many people will think, "hey, if I pay a little more, I could have gotten the iPod, which is cooler and more recognizable."
It's so similar to what is happening now, where the Mac are seems to be in sync with the terms "cool" "designer" "beauty" "ease of use" and the other computer manufacturers are simply telling consumers "you can get the same for cheaper."
Are you still spreading FUD about Mac OS X? First it was a problem with your iMac, something about you forgetting you got AppleCare and not activating it even though when purchased it is already activated, then some bit about the trains to Stockholm, the closest Apple store, being too difficult, and when someone suggested paying for your ticket, oh it was that it was too much bother, then it was your girlfriend uses this iMac that apparently wasn't working, but it works enough for her to surf and email, then it was all your precious documents you need are on your iMac, but yet it's too much of a bother to get to Stockholm as you apparently live 60 minutes away. Now it's Leopard is terrible at mounting Network drives, and paragraphs about this issue.
FUD. Seriously. All you do on MacRumors is spread FUD about Mac OS X. Why are you HERE? Oh, I forgot, you own an iPod, that is "alright", which means you like Apple, and therefore have the right in "correcting people's comments on Windows".
Love it.
In a response to something said earlier. I have nothing against PC's. I have everything against Microsoft and the crap software they make. I love in the Frank parody how he says the virus software is crap. Hilarious.
I love my mac. Not because it is expensive or shiny but because it is the most stable platform and is an amazing piece of machinery.
In a response to something said earlier. I have nothing against PC's. I have everything against Microsoft and the crap software they make. I love in the Frank parody how he says the virus software is crap. Hilarious.
I love my mac. Not because it is expensive or shiny but because it is the most stable platform and is an amazing piece of machinery.
It would make little sense to advertise the OS at this point since Vista is on the verge of being retired and Windows 7 will be rolled out in a couple of weeks. They plan to make the release candidate available as a free download, and this time there'll be unlimited downloads (the Vista betas and RCs were limited releases), and the RC won't expire until after the RTM version is available in stores, so basically the Win7 transition is imminent.
Even though MS doesn't make hardware (well, apart from gaming consoles, mice, keyboards etc), each PC sold means one copy of Windows sold, which cannot be said about every Mac sold. I think it's pretty clear for everyone who isn't hell bent on picking the ad apart in molecules.
Are you still brainwashed? Wait... why ask.
Rather than dismiss it as FUD you could've explained how dead simple it is to mount network drives permanently in Leopard in less than three clicks, but you can't, so instead you switched to spreading FUD about me. Nice job.
I don't have the "issues" you are apparently are so concerned with spreading to everyone on MacRumors. It's not FUD about you when it's been stated BY you in numerous threads, such as the two previous Windows/HP ad discussions.
Now shoo. I'm done with you.