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

wolfpackfan said:
I have to say I dislike the entire Apple series of ads. I would much rather Apple tell me why I should buy a Mac instead of not buy a PC.
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Don't the ads actually do both? Doesn't Mac talk about his bundled software, Apple Store geniuses, top-rated customer satisfaction, better management of digital media, built-in camera, etc. etc. in this long series?

It would seem touting your own advantages while simultaneously pointing out the competitor's disadvantages is a pretty good marketing strategy. And despite the naysayers' gripes that these ads are "arrogant" (huh???) Mac and PC are buddies - and Mac is typically complimentary, if not sympathetic, to PC.

But I'm not watching them through Windows-colored glasses, so who am I to say what these ads make the Microsoft fanboys feel.
 
Just saw two of these in the past hour on TV.

The concept is beyond tedious. An industry leader doesn't have to take perpetual shots at its competitors.
 
LagunaSol said:
Don't the ads actually do both? Doesn't Mac talk about his bundled software, Apple Store geniuses, top-rated customer satisfaction, better management of digital media, built-in camera, etc. etc. in this long series?

It would seem touting your own advantages while simultaneously pointing out the competitor's disadvantages is a pretty good marketing strategy. And despite the naysayers' gripes that these ads are "arrogant" (huh???) Mac and PC are buddies - and Mac is typically complimentary, if not sympathetic, to PC.

But I'm not watching them through Windows-colored glasses, so who am I to say what these ads make the Microsoft fanboys feel.
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Viruses, trojans and pop ups are alleasily controllled or preventable.

Tell me what a mac can do better than a pc. Show me how well macs handle multimedia, photos, music or want ever else.
 
LagunaSol said:
I say to each his own, but I do find it a curious phenomenon to see so much vocal anti-Apple, pro-Microsoft commentary on a Mac board where I don't see anti-Microsoft, pro-Apple commentary on Windows-centric forums. Seems to be a one-sided affair.
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Not so much. You'll still see "Windows sucks" types trolls in a lot of Window related sites, blogs and good lord, Youtube.

The thing is that it so common to see a completely unrelated thread turning into a MS bashfest. I guess it is understandable though, since like you say, this is a mac oriented forum.

In any case, I'm pretty sure the admins/owners of macrumors are rather happy with this... you know, more users more advertising income.
 
PeterQVenkman said:
I looked into Dell, for the price difference I might as well buy a MacPro with my educational discount.

It is cheaper. No doubt. Just not enough to sway me.

The latest Xeons are just really expensive, no matter which way you slice it.

Damn.
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Out of curiosity, what would you be doing that would require a Mac Pro?

I would honestly say that, barring anything that can utilize ECC, it might be a better idea to just spec-out one of the new 27" iMacs with a i7 860. It comes with a Radeon 4850 that, while not necessarily ideal for workstation-style rendering, certainly easily bests the default options of the Mac Pro and a lot of PC workstations (and to be honest, it's not even that far behind Apple's top-listed GPU for the Mac Pros, the Radeon 4870, although to be fair you can also pay a lot for one of the nice Quadro models that Apple sells separately :p).
 
LagunaSol said:
Do you also frequent Windows user forums and combat anti-Apple FUD (which is rather common around there) too? Or are the "unpaid" full-time apologists for any and all Apple competitors that have invaded MacRumors in increasing number only interested in defending truth when it pertains to Microsoft's best interests?

I'm not necessarily lumping you in with the AidenShaw/mosx/pr5owner/mattye/WindyWoo/the-list-goes-on-and-on crowd, but you may have some insight on the matter.

I say to each his own, but I do find it a curious phenomenon to see so much vocal anti-Apple, pro-Microsoft commentary on a Mac board where I don't see anti-Microsoft, pro-Apple commentary on Windows-centric forums. Seems to be a one-sided affair.



My guess is both, with the qualifier accidental comic genius. ;)
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I know I'm new here, but to answer your question, I actually do defend Apple (when it seems a defense is needed) on PC enthusiast sites (that I'm a part of), just as I defend the PC and Windows at times when I think it's necessary.

Windows-side, I easily remember the days of the Win 9x kernel, and all the crap that came with it. I can remember how excited I was when I upgraded over to Windows 2000 which, even with all of its software and hardware compatibility issues, was greatly ahead of the likes of 98 and ME.

I remember then when XP came out, and dealing with issues surrounding it. SP1 helped it a lot, and I'd say that with SP2, it really became a nice, stable OS. Did it still have a lot of issues? Sure, absolutely. But I can honestly say that, in the entire time I used Windows XP, I maybe had 3-4 blue screens, and usually it was the result of something I did. When configured properly, and with even a semi-decent anti-virus program, it's a good (albeit old) OS.

Vista came out, and was a complete wreck. I remember testing it while it was in beta, and remembering how many people said it wasn't ready. When it launched, most of the drivers were in beta or alpha, and those that had been in beta for awhile, were simply pushed out as production release drivers. It was a horrible, horrible situation. SP1 helped a lot, but I still have never recommended it to anyone.

So far, Windows 7 seems good. As others have mentioned, it's what Vista should have been. It's good though to finally have something to replace XP with.

On the Mac side, I'll admit that I didn't get involved until around OS 7, and honestly, I find it hard to believe some people remember the likes of 7 and 8 with such fondness. 7 and 8 were more stable than the likes of 95, 98 and ME, sure, but that's not saying much. They were often slow, somewhat unresponsive.

OS 9 was alright. It was definitely a step up from the likes of 7 and 8.

Then there was X. My first exposure to X was with the beta trials, as a friend's father was part of the ADC and so had access to it. He was running it on a dual G4 450Mhz system, and it was not good. Very slow. A lot of compatibility issues. Obviously it introduced a number of new features, and it had promise. But it did have a lot of performance and stability issues. Apple pushed it out to release, and it was no where near ready (people mock XP, but between the two, I'd honestly say XP had the much "smoother" release in terms of performance, stability and compatibility).

Even with how slow OS X was, I still invested in my first Mac, the Power Mac G4 867, and while it definitely ran 10.0 better than my friend's father's system, it still struggled.

I remember how excited I was too when 10.1 was in testing and then released, as it provided such noticeable performance and stability improvements, and started OS X down the path to becoming the fairly excellent OS we now know.

(It's also funny to note that 10.1 was free to all 10.0 users. I think Apple knew just how bad 10.0 was at the time, and so provided it as a free upgrade. Of course every upgrade since has cost money, and even the retail full installation copies of 10.1 had a cost.)

Anyway, that's my little stroll down OS memory lane for the past 10 years, lol.
 
WOW, this thread is absolutely amazing. People here are "dying" to defend some operating systems. Sadly though, they're getting nothing out of it, but waste their time.

Obviously, it's hard to convince Mac users to switch to Windows and Windows users to switch to Mac. It's like trying to convince someone to change from one religion to another (not exactly, but similar).

We know there is no perfect OS out there. They're all good. They all have their ups on downs. Stop this "WINDOWS SUCKS" or "MAC OS X SUCKS" childish thing because no one sucks, but the one who says it. It's true that there are some things that people don't like about certain products, but that doesn't make the whole product "suck". Same applies for operating systems. They are tools made for you to use them. Whichever you are happy with, and gets the job done for you, use it. Period. You don't like the other operating system? Good, just stay away from it, and don't use it. (Is it that hard?)

And...just wondering, where are the MacRumors Mods? Don't they think they should put things a little under control here? (just a little?)
 
"If Microsoft had been put in charge of marketing sex, the human race would have ended long ago, because no one would be caught dead doing something that uncool" was the quote, not mine, that seems to be making the rounds regarding Window 7 Launch Parties!

http://iwonderdesigns.posterous.com/windows-7-launch-party-epic-fail/

http://blog.iwonderdesigns.com/2009/10/07/windows-7-launch-party-epic-fail/

I just Googled "Windows 7 launch parties success or fail" and it looks like fail...

Maybe Apple should do a "I'm a Mac" commercial and have "PC" hungover from his launch party.

Anyway, it was interesting what I read and the videos of Windows 7 I saw on this BBC News site - see link...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8310867.stm

where the tech guy was showing off some Windows 7 features like how you can move the icons around in the Dock er I mean Windows Task Bar and right click their contextual menu and the fact that the Gadgets can be moved around the desktop whereas in Vista they were frozen to one side. It was all so intriguing to see the touch screens with, now get this, multi touch gestures and pinch to zoom effects, etc... Ooooooow.... Aaaaaahhh.... Wwoooooooww... Or course it would have been cooler had the BBC guy did some practicing before hand because the touch screen worked about as well as when MS demoed Voice Recognition, (look that up on Youtube to refresh your memory but take my word for it). After seeing that I didn't care to be wowed by the other video, but I thought, 3 years, how many engineers and for this?! I'm not trying to be an Apple fanboy when I say this, but I hope Windows 7 gets better!

Heck there is even a transcript of Steve Ballmer doing his Windows 7 keynote without the Monkeyboy dance and a dry dress shirt on and Ballmer was quoted talking about "sharing photos and streaming from your PC to your TV"... and it reminded me of Steve Jobs talking about Apple TV and that for now it is just a "hobby" and that was how many years back. See WSJ commentator in the video at the bottom of the transcript which is where I saw the whole sharing photos thing as if it were some groundbreaking news...

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/10/22/live-blogging-the-windows-7-launch/


Finally, back to the Windows 7 Launch Parties... This I think says it all... It's a comment to the post about half way down...

http://forums.pcworld.com/index.php?/topic/67231-/page__st__15


"Hey folks, I got authorized to host a Launch Party and invited some friends I know use their computers a fair amount, but only a couple have even REPLIED to my email, and only ONE of those (my next-door-neighbor) has even said he'll come, and even HE hasn't done the "official RSVP thingie" yet.

Well, he replied to ME with his email invite intact, and I clicked on the RSVP, just to see, and it includes a box to agree to the Launch Party TOS and RELEASE (and I clicked the links, and while I didn't read it ALL, it looked like the whole TON of apparently life-sucking legaleze I had to agree to in order to HOST a party). With even GUESTS having to agree to everything short of giving up their BIRTHRIGHTS to Microsoft and its subsidiaries, heirs, etc., how is ANYBODY supposed to actually get people to do the "official RSVP?!?"

After looking at that TOS and RELEASE, I'm almost afraid and/or embarrassed to even send out any more invitations!
Jeff "

And from this blog...

"And the "legal jargon" section - was FOUR PAGES LONG - single spaced size 12 font! I feel bad about the internet trees, so I wont publish the whole thing but it's over 1,500 words."

http://www.baseonesearch.co.uk/blog/2009/09/why-microsofts-windows7-launch.html

And those Apple haters wonder why the "I'm a PC" guy is always dressed in that stodgy brown suit!

So to wrap things up... I hope for all their efforts, those 3,000 engineers, 50,000 partners and eight million beta testers, that Windows 7 was worth it! I'll leave that to your judgement or experience.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/174237/windows_7_launch_parties_fizzle.html

As for me, I'll stay right where I am... :apple: :D

Lastly, to end this comment and have you leave with a smile... a quote about the Windows 7 launch from the WSJ link above...


"11:00 a.m. EST: At the Windows 7 launch event in New York. It’s a zoo. Standing room only, but that’s mainly because Microsoft seems only to have budgeted for about 50 chairs. Lights are dimming. Micrsoft is playing Windows television commercials." :D

Jeeeezzz, I just realized MS has gone from imitating retail stores to keynotes! Microsoft / Steve Ballmer copying a Steve Jobs Keynote speech... lights dimming, Apple's "I'm a Mac" commercial plays... except Apple budget's for more chairs.... there's your answer PC'ers to why Macs cost more than your precious PCs... it's to provide chairs for everybody at their keynote events! : )

Good night folks... :rolleyes:
 
superukr said:
please, look more carefully to Mac specs, it uses ECC memory which is 3 times more expensive, here is your 1k difference
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You could build a hac for under $1000 that runs circles around a MAC PRO and I am a mac user 99% of the time.

However, ECC memory is server memory, not workstation necessarily, which is Apples way of just ripping of the Pro Users. As well, so aren't the CPU's and still, even with the latest iMac's, while I am happy about the i7, the iMac is very limited, no eSata,2,3,4 drives which all PRO AUDIO and PRO VIDEO users use, and PRO SUMERS which outweigh the pro's like 10,000 to 1, yet Apple still doesn't get it.

Again, Avid did get it, they saw the writting on the wall, they saw CPU's getting faster, and becuase of this, they bought a company called MAUDIO and now make millions in sales with PRO Sumer products. I also almost worked for Steinberg, the makers of Cubase and Nuendo and they said, CP, that they make 1000 times more money in the prosumer division then the PRO division (PRO BEING NUENDO), yet Apple has yet to release a product for the PRO SUMER. The iMac doesn't have eSATA ports, no express ports, heck even the 15" no longer has it, and with PC towers, Mac Pro and 17", you can get what they call plug in cards that have FX like reverb, some costing more then the computer and take all the load of the CPU so you could have hundereds of tracks and some systems now have PCIexpress boxes where you can hook up card after card and attach it to a laptop and use for example, Steinberg VST FX or virtual instruments, taking the load, again, off the CPU so you can load orchestration instruments, samplers, sound design software, and more, not to mention blazing RENDERING speeds, yet Apple only has two products for these kind of things, the PRO and 17" as the imac may have QUAD core but it has ZERO expansion except firewire and if you've ever seen the performance of eSata, it's just as fast as internal.

With the new update, for me as a PRO, it's a love hate relationship. The 17 is to big, the 13 is just right for carrying around, but there is always a gotcha, doing video, which the 13 is perfect for as it's so small, forget about using express cards for two more hard drives in RAID, you can't - it's not "AS IF" its INTENTIONAL, as APPLE marketing is in a way that you have to spend BIG BUCKS to get the machine you need and what's sadder is that Apple fails over and over to realize that just gaming alone, outsells video and music sales, let alone your PRO SUMER market, proven by the last several years of APPLE one to one trainers no longer knowing SHAKE, FCP, LOGIC, it's all iLife and noobs that need to learn how to send an attachment.
Heck one to one and pro care were $100 for both, now they are $200 if you want both. Again, just more slaps in the pro's faces as we kept them afloat for years prior to the iphone and it's things like Pystar that make me happy as this gives some users alternatives as you can buy a case nicer than Apples....for example..

http://www.mypccase.com/

Which is what you would want for audio, especially if you got some of the one's with all the access ports in the front, heck my audio interface and speaker systems cost more than imacs, but still, they have yet to realize,
 GAMERS=more sales then music and video combined
 ProSumers=sales are 10,000 to 1 in comparison
 Enthusiasts'/Overclockers - a very large segment, go to madonion.com if you don't believe me
 Pro studios that have macs also have PC rendering farms, far more vaule and these users would buy mid range machines for this purpose.

Another part of marketing is why you will never see DVR on APPLE TV, why, because then you could go to ABC.COM and watch LOST seasons 1,2,3,4 complete vs paying $1,99 to $2.99 per episode at iTunes which ties into why you may never see flash on the iphone, well I have it, even though I am an ATT user and have been for almost 10 years, I have three GV Google phone numbers and ATT now has Alist, you add that number on it and all calls are free, plus of course, flash, tethering, video non 3GS, themes, and so much more. I may even get another soon, call in, say it was lost, cancel the account, then pay the money and switch to someone like Verizon or MetroPCS, $50 flat rate.

Also, thank goodness windows 7 us gettin great reviews as this means millions in sales from IT trickling down to consumers, then if the COURIER is real, wow, especially if its MSFT and not some CHINA 3rd party product, this would be a game changer, shoot, Apple used to make everything in good ole USA, now its all CHINA. Then add all the cool new phones coming look really cool, but a 3GS fast iphone with free calling even on att with tethering thats faster then my wife's moms DSKm I am happy about this.

In closing I am seeing MSFT pulling out some great new products and I hope just like the MSFT commercials caused Apple to lower the prices, that MSFT keeps the pressure on as APPLE is NO LONGER a elitist product anymore anyway, so, its time to make products more reasonable, for example, the AIR is worth $799 tops.

Peace.
 
Apple are clearly trying to appeal to people who are not smart enough to use a PC. Most viruses can be avoided with a little common sense - sure, you get the odd one that gets through no matter what you do (like MSblast) - but they are few and far between.

I haven't had a virus since MSblast.. and that was about 3+ years ago.
 
To be honest, these ad's are getting samey now.

I'd much prefer to see something a little different, here is my idea.

I work for a UK department store, in Electrical Aftersales and on all our Macs on the sales floor we have a App called Kiosk which is Apples demo app.

They have really effective little shorts, some of you have probably seen them.

Example:

Here is Ben *shows picture of a kid* he was born yesterday.
Here is Bens Website *shows picture of web page built on iWeb* He was born yesterday too using iWeb.

Then they could do a little more but just focus on one app per advert.
As most consumers who go and buy a PC buy one because they don't know what Macs are all about!
These kind of ads would actually educate them a bit.
 
Stiss said:
To be honest, these ad's are getting samey now.

I'd much prefer to see something a little different, here is my idea.

I work for a UK department store, in Electrical Aftersales and on all our Macs on the sales floor we have a App called Kiosk which is Apples demo app.

They have really effective little shorts, some of you have probably seen them.

Example:

Here is Ben *shows picture of a kid* he was born yesterday.
Here is Bens Website *shows picture of web page built on iWeb* He was born yesterday too using iWeb.

Then they could do a little more but just focus on one app per advert.
As most consumers who go and buy a PC buy one because they don't know what Macs are all about!
These kind of ads would actually educate them a bit.
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You have to remember that Macs don't really have selling points. That's why Apple resorts to bashing the competition instead.
 
Regarding the i7 vs Xeon thing, can someone here please explain to me what the day-to-day advantage of having a Xeon over an i7 is and then tell us all that they need that?

AFAIK, the two processors are equal in performance. So why would anyone choose to pay more for the Xeon unless they absolutely had to?

Also, the iMac uses the laptop i7 chip, not the desktop one.
 
neiltc13 said:
Regarding the i7 vs Xeon thing, can someone here please explain to me what the day-to-day advantage of having a Xeon over an i7 is and then tell us all that they need that?
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Xeon is Workstation/Server class hardware. You can run many chips in tandem. There are 2 QPI paths. ECC ram support. Can handle higher temps/runs cooler. Intel gets less stingy on the Virtualization side. Things like that. Sometimes theres more Cache, but thats usually rare. Oh, You can get 6-Core Opterons/Xeons already.

http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/components/componentview.asp?partid=9211

neiltc13 said:
AFAIK, the two processors are equal in performance. So why would anyone choose to pay more for the Xeon unless they absolutely had to?
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Me, if it was going into a Workstation/Server.

Also, the iMac uses the laptop i7 chip, not the desktop one.[/QUOTE]

Why does that matter? Its not like it performs any less.
 
MorphingDragon said:
Xeon is Workstation/Server class hardware. You can run many chips in tandem. There are 2 QPI paths. ECC ram support. Can handle higher temps/runs cooler. Intel gets less stingy on the Virtualization side. Things like that. Sometimes theres more Cache, but thats usually rare. Oh, You can get 6-Core Opterons/Xeons already.
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So really, there is no real advantage to anyone buying a single processor quad core workstation in getting Xeon over i7 then. i7 already runs pretty cool.
 
neiltc13 said:
So really, there is no real advantage to anyone buying a single processor quad core workstation in getting Xeon over i7 then. i7 already runs pretty cool.
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Yeah, in single socket. All you're really doing is wasting money, Unless you want 6 cores. :rolleyes:

IMO, Opterons are better implemented. As far as I know/can get in New Zealand. Xeons are limited to 2 sockets.

http://www.tyan.com/product_board_detail.aspx?pid=638

That would make a good little Simulation SC. 4 PCIE and 24 real cores. F@H scores would skyrocket XD. Get some single slot, watercooled 5870s.
 
MorphingDragon said:
IMO, Opterons are better implemented. As far as I know/can get in New Zealand. Xeons are limited to 2 sockets.
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The 6 core Xeon 7000 series is for 4 or more socket systems:

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/products/server/processor/xeon7000

This is still a Penryn-based chip, though. Intel doesn't update the quad socket line as often.

The IBM x3950 supports up to 16 Xeon 7000 sockets - a total of 96 cores.

Xeon 3000 - single socket
Xeon 5000 - dual sockets
Xeon 7000 - four or more sockets
 
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