Apple Relaunches Switch Website

[MacRumors]

One user noted that Apple has relaunched their switch website found at http://www.apple.com/switch.

The website previously featured stories and advertisements from their 2002 "Switch" Ad campaign. (videos).

The new site continues to promote switching from Windows to Mac and is divided into the following sections:

- Considering a Mac
- Choosing a Mac
- Buying a Mac
- Moving Your Stuff to Mac
- Getting Started

There had been rumblings that Apple would be launching a new Switch-based ad campaign to build on the success of the iPod and enticing Windows iPod owners to the Mac platform.

Recent comments by Errol Morris revealed that he may be involved in the upcoming ads.

 

[Mechcozmo]

It came down at some time?

 

[mcarnes]

First P. Jennings now this!

 

[LaMerVipere]

It's been this way for a while now.

 

[Freg3000]

The site update was much needed. It was over 2 years later and I was still staring at Janie Porche and Jeremiah Cohick...

 

[840quadra]

It's been this way for a while now.

Still it is nice to get the attention. I noted this too when doing some apple surfing recently.

 

[chepistolas]

New people

I like it! I think Apple might get a 10% market share by the end of this year.

 

[~Shard~]

It's going to be interesting to see how Apple handles a new "switch" campaign. I think it could be quite successful if they pulled it off correctly, but I question the effectiveness if they stay too closely to the previous campaign. Apple has a real opportunity here, what with the recent popularity of the iPod, the impending switch to Intel, etc. - let's hope they don't blow it.

 

[oingoboingo]

Among the 10 reasons given by Apple on their new site to switch, I find number 7 the most interesting:

"Enthusiast. Fan. Addict. Ever hear a PC user described this way? When you buy an Apple computer, you realize why so many people who try a Mac never go back. And then you begin talking to those people, sharing stories, getting advice. The Apple user community enjoys support from all sides: the Genius in the Apple store, the musician on that message board, the photographer next door. They all share a common bond forged by one decidedly uncommon computer."

Apple has clearly taken notice of its enthusiastic user base, and is using it as a selling point. Very interesting, and very insightful, IMHO. Apple really does pay attention to grass roots sites like this one. So to welcome any new Windows switchers, in a now officially Apple-sanctioned kinda way, I'd just like to say OMFG DELL AND TEH MICRO$OFT ARE TEH SUX0R!!!

 

[freiheit]

It was over 2 years later and I was staring at Janie Porche and Jeremiah Cohick...

Who and who?

Anyway, I rather like the new Switch site. It certainly does mention the iPod frequently. Well it never hurts to drop names when they're good names.

 

[~Shard~]

I like it! I think Apple might get a 10% market share by the end of this year.

I can guarantee you it will not be that high. (Are you a betting man? ) Apple's market share is what, approximately 3% right now? That would be over a 300% increase, which would be far too great of an upward swing to realize in such a short period of time. It's just simple math and economics.

 

[JGowan]

Man, when I saw that the SWITCH campaign had come back, I got sick. I thought we were going to have to endure the people and the plinka-plinka-plinka banjo and the lame-A stories. Then I saw the new web section and I think it looks great. God, how I hated that old campaign.

 

[mac-er]

Old news: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/142324/

Already posted on MacBytes....3 days ago.

Wish we could lock this thread like they do to us when we don't search the forums...

 

[Object-X]

Old news

This happened last week.

 

[Ja Di ksw]

Haha, I like the link with the videos, Ellen Feiss is hysterical. Didn't know there was a second one of her where she talks about taking a laptop to a sandy beach. Now there's a smart idea

 

[oingoboingo]

I switched...and was crippled by lifting my new eMac!

Maybe I'm just feeling a little cruel this afternoon, but there's something about this image on the 'Choose A Mac' page of the new Switch site which really tickles my fancy. It's the one at the top where the elderly grandma-type person is wheeling out a 22.7kg (50 pound) eMac on a trolley...while supporting herself with a walking stick in the other hand. Did she need that walking stick before she entered the store, or only after trying to pick up the eMac? Her lazy daughter can't even be bothered to push the trolley to the car...do you think she's going to help lift that old-skool CRT bad boy onto the desk and unwrap it? Nuh uh!!!

Edit: Additionally, due to an unfortunate trick of the light, it looks like the guy walking out with the new PowerBook has soiled his pants and has a fairly severe case of north-westerly facing wood. I guess he really was excited about owning a new Mac.

 

[Freg3000]

Who and who?

You don't remember Janie???? She saved Christmas!

http://spherule.com/media/video/switch/janie_porche.mov

 

[mac-er]

Maybe I'm just feeling a little cruel this afternoon, but there's something about this image on the 'Choose A Mac' page of the new Switch site which really tickles my fancy. It's the one at the top where the elderly grandma-type person is wheeling out a 22.7kg (50 pound) eMac on a trolley...while supporting herself with a walking stick in the other hand. Did she need that walking stick before she entered the store, or only after trying to pick up the eMac? Her lazy daughter can't even be bothered to push the trolley to the car...do you think she's going to help lift that old-skool CRT bad boy onto the desk and unwrap it? Nuh uh!!!

The guy on the far right is WAY too excited about buying a Powerbook, if you know what I mean....

 

[oingoboingo]

The guy on the far left is WAY too excited about buying a Powerbook, if you know what I mean....

LOL, you beat me to it!

 

[mac-er]

LOL, you beat me to it!

And, you think they could've gotten him to iron his shorts before taking a publicity shot.

 

[Kelmon]

It looks like a nice part of the Apple site and probably will help frustrated Windows users to convert, but I have 2 queries with it:

1. Why is it not more prominently advertised? The link is fair innocuous on the site and "Switch" doesn't necessarily mean much until you realise the context in which it is being used.

2. Who's bright idea was it to post this comment from John Dvorak: "Once [Mac mini] gets into the field and passes the tests of the real world, I’ll have no trouble recommending it as a machine of choice, especially to new users. And I haven’t done that with an Apple product for years." Is it me or does this quotation effectively state that Macs were a poor product and not suitable for new users BEFORE the Mac Mini arrived?

The final point doesn't make sense to me and I have my doubts that potential new users won't notice this either. Let's be fair here, how is a computer that needs you to buy your own monitor, keyboard and mouse any easier than say an iMac?

Anyway, aside from those points it looks great, if a little misleading (a Mac doesn't crash? Must have been my imagination then...).

 

[oingoboingo]

1. Why is it not more prominently advertised? The link is fair innocuous on the site and "Switch" doesn't necessarily mean much until you realise the context in which it is being used.

Apple seems to be reluctant to openly take on Microsoft and the PC world like they once did. The Macintosh and OS X receives almost no advertising or publicity (in Australia at least), let alone any type of aggressive "Sick of all that Windows crap, then try OS X" form of advertising. I'm sure Apple has their reasons...maybe the relatively low-key relaunch of the Switch site is in keeping with them.

2. Who's bright idea was it to post this comment from John Dvorak: "Once [Mac mini] gets into the field and passes the tests of the real world, I’ll have no trouble recommending it as a machine of choice, especially to new users. And I haven’t done that with an Apple product for years." Is it me or does this quotation effectively state that Macs were a poor product and not suitable for new users BEFORE the Mac Mini arrived?

If you're familiar with Dvorak's writing, then his comment is high praise indeed. But you're right...most of the general computer purchasing public probably haven't been reading Dvorak's inflammatory opinion pieces (although I admit I love a good troll, and I regard Dvorak as a master of his art) for the past 15 years or so, and will probably interpret his faint praise with some suspicion. Maybe it wasn't the best quote to use for the Mac mini.

Anyway, aside from those points it looks great, if a little misleading (a Mac doesn't crash? Must have been my imagination then...).

They do crash from time to time, but I have to say...I literally can't remember the last time my G5 crashed (I'm sure it hasn't done so once in 2005...maybe sometime last year perhaps?), and IIRC the last time my PowerBook locked up was about this time last year. Both of these machines are used daily, and they are both basically never turned off (only put to sleep). Two years after switching to the Mac, I'm still impressed with the stability. I think Apple is justified in including their statement. Maybe it's the reason that our friend with the PowerBook and the creased shorts is so excited.

 

[kalisphoenix]

Heh. Well, if you saw me walking out of an Apple store with a Powerbook, I'd make Johnny "Wadd" Holmes cry.

I'm hoping that Apple goes for 10%. Not in a year, mind you, maybe by 2010. *ponders* I just realized how difficult that would be. Microsoft had it easy because they had a monopoly and then the home PC boom really took off.

Apple would need an amazingly strong product lineup for the next five years to be able to get to 10%. A lot of people have been mentioning the Media Center, the Video iPod, the tablet Mac, and so on. I think we'd need that and a whole lot more.

"we" Apple sure has their zealots pegged. I'm willing to bet that Dell fanbois don't sit around on Dell rumor sites and refer to Dell in the first person plural. Reserved for the Apple freaks.

 

[kalisphoenix]

They do crash from time to time, but I have to say...I literally can't remember the last time my G5 crashed (I'm sure it hasn't done so once in 2005...maybe sometime last year perhaps?), and IIRC the last time my PowerBook locked up was about this time last year. Both of these machines are used daily, and they are both basically never turned off (only put to sleep). Two years after switching to the Mac, I'm still impressed with the stability. I think Apple is justified in including their statement. Maybe it's the reason that our friend with the PowerBook and the creased shorts is so excited.

I'd like to find some surveys or polls or something on this topic. Safari and Firefox both crash at least once a day on me, sometimes a couple times in a row. I just crashed iTunes three times in two minutes by giving a one star rating to "Daddy's Drinkin' Up our Xmas" by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. Mind you, I tried with a two-star rating, and iTunes was okay with that, but when I tried to sneak back in a one-star rating it crashed again. Hmmph. I know it's a good song, but iTunes just has to accept that one-star means "just good" in my library. I'm not sassing anyone.

But anyway, my point is that I have a tough time with apps crashing, but the OS hasn't crashed for me in a long time. I'd say not since last September. I was using a malformed app that would beachball the bloody hell out of my machine...

One thing that does annoy me is that Finder beachballs (at least in 10.3, haven't tested it in Tiger) whenever it loses track of a hard drive. When I hook up an external USB2 hard drive via USB1.1 ports, the OS eventually loses track of it and helpfully beachballs to get my attention. @#$%. I could do without that. Same with NFS volumes, if I remember correctly.

 

[pcdoctor]

I'm still a windows user.
I wish Apple would make more powermac machines at a less expensive price for windows users that are used to building his or her own clones (towers).
An all in one doesn't really appeal to me.
I realize I could get a laptop but in my opinion, I don't have much choice in the desktop area.
The emac is right down my alley price wise but I don't want to take a 50lb paperweight to a service center and if I got an iMac and the monitor died, I'd die.
I just with I could get a powermac for the same price as an emac brand new.
Basically, I hope the prices are more reasonable when the Intel cpus arrive.