Apple Targets Windows 7 With Three New 'Get a Mac' Ads

[Sander]

Desktop setup

I don't usually post in threads like these (i.e., "non-technical" ones) although I like reading them, but the picture of pr5owner's desk made me realize something. I took some pictures of my desk. Here's "my half":

There are 7 computers in this picture (yes, that's a BeBox down there), including, in the bottom right, a system I bought a long time ago, completely "specced out". It has a custom, marble-painted case (yeah, I know) with 7 fans mounted in the case alone, has a dual-PIII (it's that old) and separate hard drive fans, and cost me a lot of money and time. I thought I "needed" this elite machine for my software development work. What really happened: I disconnected most of the fans because the noise drove me crazy, I never hooked up the surround sound system (it's in the cardboard box under the desk), and all in all I can only grin sheepishly when people see that hideous box.

Here's "my wife's half":

Notice the Mac Mini in the corner - I got it for my wife after her PC broke down several years ago. She had been trying BeOS and was quite happy with it, but in the end it was just not feasible to keep using it because she needed Office compatibility. It's an old G4 Mac Mini, and she loves it. And me too, ever since I opened a Terminal and did an ls of /usr/bin - it turned out to be a real computer! Elegant and small, and after our monthly desk cleaning afternoon, her half is so much nicer

The most interesting part: here's how I find myself really working most of the time (I'm sitting behind the laptop right now):

I'll leave it up to you to draw your conclusions. Perhaps I just turned into a latte-sipping turtleneck-wearing thirty-something. But I haven't had as much fun behind the keyboard of a computer since I first booted up my BeBox more than ten years ago.

 

[mosx]

When was the last time ?

2 weeks ago when their Windows Mobile lost data on about 2 million phones.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/1...-servers-crashed-and-they-dont-have-a-backup/

When was the last time I used a Guest account? Hmmm, never. How many cases of this actually took place? Too few to document - fixed with upcoming 10.6.2

Shall we not mention the Microsoft T-Mobile Sidekick debacle?

To both of those, it's pretty clear that someone deliberately caused that mess. http://gizmodo.com/5381081/the-cause-of-the-great-sidekick-fiasco-all-signs-point-to-sabotage

Windows 3.1 95, 98, ME, XP and Vista don't count then? OS 7-9 was dramatically more stable than W95-98, and OS X has made XP and Vista nightmares by comparison.

Of course OS 7, 8, and 9 were stable. They didn't have pre-emptive multi-tasking. You could only do one thing at a time and background tasks had the life sucked out of them by co-operative multi-tasking.

At least in Windows 98 I could listen to some music in Winamp while browsing the web without every little thing causing the music to skip, pause, beep, etc.

OS X is a nightmare for system stability. I've had Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard crash more times than Windows (all versions) ever has. Its ridiculous. And now with Snow Leopard I can't even use my external display unless I start the system up with the lid closed. Whats up with that?

 

[fiercetiger224]

Did you even read his post? He did to a comparison to Dell. It was $1100 cheaper.

Oh great, here goes the desktop parts vs server parts argument. It's $1100 cheaper because it uses desktop grade parts, not server parts. It's still not a fair comparison because of that. And yes I read his post. He's still comparing apple and oranges. If he did a Dell workstation/server vs a Mac Pro, it'd be a valid comparison.

I could care less about his needs and how HE thinks the parts are similar. They ARE similar up to a point. But the point is, is that the Mac Pro lineup is composed of server grade parts (which are priced differently), not consumer grade desktop parts. If Apple did make a desktop with desktop parts, then we'd have a perfect way of comparing pricing.

 

[Hattig]

Now, was that a windows error or a hardware failure coupled with failure to have backups?

Just a failure to make a backup before doing a botched storage update.

It shows endemic failings of management and decision making within Microsoft, but it isn't directly related to Windows. It could also just be failings within a portion that Microsoft bought in (Danger), but I don't know if Microsoft didn't inject their own personnel into the company when they took over.

The hardware was apparently fine - that's Sun hardware (Solaris) with Oracle database, provided by Hitachi (layers and layers of contracts). Of course Microsoft came out blaming them publicly initially, so I don't their bills to be low. Disaster recovery isn't cheap, and because it was self-inflicted it might not be covered by any support contracts.

 

[baryon]

That's exactly what I've been saying for years... Apple does not illustrate anything about the Mac's features, different models, the bundled software, etc...

These ads were great for the first year. They've been blah to me ever since, since all they keep doing is bashing Windows, and not promoting Macs.

Yeah Apple could make a beautiful ad featuring MacBooks and MacBook Pros, another with the Mac Pro, another with the iMac, another for the OS, etc... There are loads of people (most people I meet) who don't know anything about Macs, they ask me if they can play MP3s and whether you can print with them... I mean seriously, Apple should show people what Macs are about in their ads, not everyone knows someone with a Mac! Most people think Macs are some freaky different computers from a different world, and they're like "Well my PC is crap but at least I can watch YouTube on it, with Macs, I don't know if I could do that!". As soon as they see a Mac in action they go like "OMG That is so awesome how did you do that? I want one!". That's all it takes! Showing them what a Mac is!

 

[Evangelion]

Shouldn't Apple spend money trying to fix the GIANT BUG THAT DELETES ALL OF A USER'S DATA instead of making commercials?

Um, do you think that the people who are making the ads are the same people who are fixing bugs? That is, that they can't do both things at the same time?

That said, the bug was quite rare, so there's no need to get your panties in a bunch.

 

[Andrew K.]

This smells like fear and desperation on Apple's part. Attack me in 3-2-1...

*hug* surprise Mofo!!!

 

[tknelson]

The G5 was still being sold as recently as 3 years ago. Do you think Microsoft could get away with dropping support for the Pentium 4 or Athlon 64s? Hell, Windows 7 still has the support to run on the likes of all Pentium-based architectures, as well as the old Athlons (although it wouldn't be recommended to run it on such).

No, it was discontinued in the Summer of 2006.

 

[Kiwi616]

Can anyone tell if the iMac at the end of the commercials are the new ones?

Yup, those are the new ones with all aluminum. You can tell from the black bezel on top and aluminum on the bottom half.

The older ones had a thin aluminum bezel around the entire display.

 

[Jodlesx]

Oh great, here goes the desktop parts vs server parts argument. It's $1100 cheaper because it uses desktop grade parts, not server parts. It's still not a fair comparison because of that. And yes I read his post. He's still comparing apple and oranges. If he did a Dell workstation/server vs a Mac Pro, it'd be a valid comparison.

You make a good point. I agree, only a workstation vs workstation comparison would be valid in this respect.

 

[Jodlesx]

Yup, those are the new ones with all aluminum. You can tell from the black bezel on top and aluminum on the bottom half.

The older ones had a thin aluminum bezel around the entire display.

But now it's all, just display, then no display

 

[neiltc13]

Apple just doesn't get it. This stuff only works if their product is worse than yours. Sadly for the Cupertino company, Windows is now AHEAD of OS X in terms of stability and reliability, and it has always been ahead in compatibility and available software.

Can't wait to see where they take this campaign next, because they won't be able to use anything about crashing, hanging or viruses, unless they show it happening to the guy on the right.

But now it's all, just display, then no display

No, it's all display and then a one inch thick rim of plastic.

 

[guitarlord]

These are pathetic. I used to like this style of advert by apple as it pointed out the flaws of windows in a Humorous way. Now this looks desperate. I was going to buy a mac untill 7 came out because I was annoyed with XP. But honestly 7 is great and a simple upgrade. Took 15 ~ 20 mins last night.

How about Microsoft just make an add exactly the same and say "Oh Mac why do you charge over £1000 for 2nd rate hardware and when you upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard all your data becomes corrupt and lost untill we sort out a patch".

 

[matttye]

I don't have any of this "pain and suffering" they mention in my Vista PC! In fact, the only real problem I've had in the last 2 years or so is that my disk wouldn't defragment properly, but it was sorted after a chkdsk and sfc /scannow. You wanna know pain and suffering? How about having your entire user account deleted by a nasty Snow Leopard bug? THAT'S pain and suffering.

Apple obviously can't win customers on merit, they have to keep on putting digs in at the competition.

Also, "seeing as I'm moving my stuff anyway, why not move my stuff to an entirely new OS?!" is a stupid argument that could apply to ANY OS. Again, they're clutching at straws because there really are no real advantages to using a Mac over a PC.

Apple are a very misleading, pathetic company.

 

[nhaque]

C'mon Apple, please stop these commercials, 'think different', you've 'thinked' the same for too long.

 

[Mike Oxard]

Undertood?

You've got to say it in a Yorkshire accent, it means "Under the Hood", though it should have been spelt Under't'ood Sithee?

 

[simsandwhich]

Making fun of PCs not changing is pretty rich coming from a company that's been using the same old advertising campaign for 5 years.

 

[matttye]

Making fun of PCs not changing is pretty rich coming from a company that's been using the same old advertising campaign for 5 years.

Also...

Panther:

Snow Leopard:

Is it just me or do they look almost identical? Something that Apple always criticise Microsoft for?

 

[Mike Oxard]

Making fun of PCs not changing is pretty rich coming from a company that's been using the same old advertising campaign for 5 years.

But they're still accurate and funny now, what's wrong with getting it right first time?

 

[simsandwhich]

But they're still accurate and funny now, what's wrong with getting it right first time?

It's actually not right. Comparing Windows 7 to an OS from 8 years ago and suggesting that that's what's going to happen is just retarded.

 

[4D4M]

Apple just doesn't get it.

They're making a massive amount of money for a company that doesn't get it!

 

[fswmacguy]

These commercials are not bashing PC, they're telling viewers that they have a choice to make.

Apple doesn't run down a list of features, no. They convince you that there is someone out there willing to give you a choice- something different.

And it's line, hook, and sinker as you enter the Apple store. There is where the staff convinces you of the features, better productivity, and overall benefits of a Mac.

Apple is very good at designing commercials. They give prospective new computer buyers a reason to be curious; and, just as curiosity kills the cat, those viewers are lured into the Apple store with interest, and are sent out with a Mac.

 

[Evangelion]

AidenShaw: why are you such a perpetual whiner?

Hey, do you still think that Apple is a monopoly ? What an insight you had there, eh?

 

[ImperialX]

These ads are effective, and that's all that's needed from ads.

 

[matttye]

These commercials are not bashing PC, they're telling viewers that they have a choice to make.

Apple doesn't run down a list of features, no. They convince you that there is someone out there willing to give you a choice- something different.

And it's line, hook, and sinker as you enter the Apple store. There is where the staff convinces you of the features, better productivity, and overall benefits of a Mac.

Apple is very good at designing commercials. They give prospective new computer buyers a reason to be curious; and, just as curiosity kills the cat, those viewers are lured into the Apple store with interest, and are sent out with a Mac.

They bash PCs in nearly every one of their adverts.