Lenovo Ad Pokes Fun at Apple Fans, MacRumors Gets a Mention

[macnerd93]

Lenovo's have to be some of the most unreliable laptops ever made. The Lenovo B50 was literally bane of my life for two years. It has to be the most returned laptop in existence.

I also agree with Jax44, they literally loaded up their laptops with spyware/adware to target advertising on a users Lenovo machine. The "Superfish Scandal"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfish

 

[miabadboys]

Congratulations MacRumors! Great accomplishment, also free publicity to boot.

 

[TiPhone 4G]

Mentioning Apple or Apple products 10 times in 60 seconds...

Mentioning Lenovo twice... once by voice and once by logo.

That's one way to build their brand (?)

BTW... Apple doesn't make a convertible 2-in-1... so saying "My Mac can't do this" is rather unfounded. Hell... I've heard Windows pundits say that most 2-in-1s are primarily used as laptops anyway. So what's the big deal? While a flippy screen isn't totally useless... it's probably not the biggest reason to buy a particular portable computer.

Also... the Lenovo Yoga 900S doesn't run MacOS or any Mac-specific software... which I would imagine is THE biggest reason to buy an Apple Mac.

Wanna know what else is funny? Lenovo is the biggest computer manufacturer in the world... followed closely by HP and Dell... and Asus further behind in 4th place.

And they're spending their advertising budget against Apple?

I guess it proves that the 5th place vendor is on everyone's minds and is actually a credible threat!

Yeah it's like saying my car has 4 doors your car has two my car is better then your car.

 

[Rogifan]

This is what the iPad Pro should've been like. Laptop when you need it, tablet when you want it.

So basically something that good at neither.

 

[theBostonian]

The funny thing is he's incredibly reminiscent of my ex but my ex hated Apple with a passion despite my appeals to reason. Whereas I'm firmly in the Apple camp yet I'm far removed from the hipster tribe, or whatever niche he happens to occupy.

 

[hortod1]

Some things to consider though:

• It's several hundreds more expensive than a MacBook for equivalent specs
• Battery life isn't as good
• Trackpad isn't as good
• Flash storage isn't as good
• Color accuracy isn't as good
• Windows HiDPI support still isn't anywhere close OS X's
• May come with malware preinstalled by Lenovo
• Probably will have half of the MacBook's resale value down the road
• Customer support won't be as good
• How do the form factors compare IRL? Sometimes laptops seem just as small as the MacBook when you just look at specs, but the MacBook's dramatic taper makes it much smaller volumetrically, and it's something you notice in person.

I have absolutely zero desire for a touchscreen on my laptop. Having multiple ports is nice, but otherwise everything about the MacBook seems better.

Having to pay ~$200 more plus dealing with all the downsides above doesn't seem like a good compromise for gaining more ports IMO.

More like WILL come with pre-installed malware

 

[sudo1996]

Has all of this wonder hardware, specs, blah blah blah...and runs Windows.

Aaand Lenovos are generally the worst build quality.
Edit: Removed my comment on the slow SSD. I had Googled the wrong laptop.

 

[v0lume4]

I don't understand why so many MR readers are so adamantly against Windows. I think Windows is absolutely terrific. Arguably I am more productive when I use Windows. And this is coming from a Mac user. Granted, my Windows machine(s) are not $300 ones from Walmart. Honest discussion--would somebody explain to me the hate?

 

[bambamyi]

Firstable... name Yoga sucks... Nice try Lenovo. Even name Lenovo sucks....

 

[Glassed Silver]

I'm kind of guessing they were trying to make him a hipster or something, but got confused about how to make Mac users look uncool and ended up with a generic spec-sheet geek.

Not that there's anything inherently wrong with geeks in general (I'm one) or spec-sheet geeks (occasionally guilty as well), but the latter is not and to my knowledge never has been the correct way to parody Mac users. These days, uou're supposed to parody Mac users as either annoyingly trendy techies with elaborate facial hair, the unreasonably fashion-conscious, or pretentious, Ive-worshipping arty types. Lenovo couldn't even get that right.

I guess whilst they try to cater to those types of people, they don't want to portray the ones they are pitching their MacBook competitor to as brainless losers.

I mean, it's no coincidence they make a laptop that tries so hard to compete with the MacBook.
There's money in it, but they also target a fairly wealthy group of people, beyond the business folks they usually shoot for and the middle-aged mid-tier laptop buyer.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[WiseAJ]

What is the point of having the USB 2.0 Port? Why is it not just another 3.0 port?

 

[convergent]

notice: no mention of software.

Lenovo doesn't make software. They do make pretty good hardware. I am forced to use Windows at work and much prefer Lenovo to Dell. I had just managed to get a really nice Lenovo laptop at my last company and then switched jobs and back to Dell. I hate Dell.

By the way I thought the ad was pretty funny. I really miss the Mac vs. PC commercials. They are hilarious.

 

[EricXu]

Failed to understand Lenovo's thinking when they name it the "Yogo 900S" vs the simple and elegant "MacBook. If you're going to bash elegance, at least have an elegantly-named product.

It's their naming scheme. They've got tons of products.

 

[dannyyankou]

So basically something that good at neither.

It doesn't have to be both at the same time. It can run a macOS interface in laptop mode and an iPad interface in tablet mode. Not sure if it's possible but it would be cool.

 

[AJ5790]

This is what the iPad Pro should've been like. Laptop when you need it, tablet when you want it.

Funny, that's exactly how I use it, and, even better than bending over backwards, when I use it as a tablet, it's half the thickness and weight.

 

[69Mustang]

Pfftt.



And what would the marketshare be if they weren't pushing the upgrade every minute? Downloading it in the background and installing it automatically. Optional updates become recommended. KB updates change name and code, but do the same damn thing. Absolutely no way to not upgrade when it's already been downloaded in the background and you restart the machine, unless you shift delete the hidden Windows download folders and it can't install it.

They even promised not to push the W10 upgrade on Windows machines running on a domain, but that quickly went to ****. I can tell you that first hand.

To force Windows 10 down people's throats every which way, then brag about the marketshare, is utterly ridiculous.

Market share, adoption rate... same difference. It's pretty ironic that attempted forced adoption is your argument against W10. I have no dog in the fight. I like Windows as well ad OSX. But that argument... I had to giggle.

Congrats to MR for the publicity. Humorously, it seems all the Apple fanatics being mocked by Lenovo are congregating in this thread.

 

[sudo1996]

I don't understand why so many MR readers are so adamantly against Windows. I think Windows is absolutely terrific. Arguably I am more productive when I use Windows. And this is coming from a Mac user. Granted, my Windows machine(s) are not $300 ones from Walmart. Honest discussion--would somebody explain to me the hate?

Windows does quirky things. It doesn't have nice features that OS X has. The UI isn't as nice. It doesn't work as well with iOS (if you care about iOS). It has the worst support ever for software development. If you care about Unix compatibility, it's bad for obvious reasons. Otherwise, it's a whole lot better than, say, Ubuntu for general usage.

I've found that using Windows has cost me time, which is money. A MacBook Pro gives you its money's worth in hardware anyway. No reason to use Windows.
[doublepost=1468277185][/doublepost]

What is the point of having the USB 2.0 Port? Why is it not just another 3.0 port?

90s kids remember those towers with USB 1 ports on the front and USB 2 ports on the back.

 

[allan.nyholm]

"Seriously, it's gonna break any second" You're damn right it is. I'll throw it to the ground!

 

[Makosuke]

I guess whilst they try to cater to those types of people, they don't want to portray the ones they are pitching their MacBook competitor to as brainless losers.

This exactly. There are basically two ways to use the "bad example" character in advertising:

Either the fan of your competitor's products is the annoying person that the target audience doesn't want to be, or the person using the competitor's product is the target audience and is being shown the right path. They're fundamentally different advertising targets--the former is insulting your competitor's users, the latter is trying to lure them.

The danger with the insult path is that you may end up insulting the exact people you want to be buying your product. You have to walk a particularly fine line poking fun at Mac users--there are lots of stereotypes you can try to make fun of them with, but because they basically are the entire high-end of the market, unless you're selling commodity-priced junk you really don't want to insult the majority of them.

Your best bet is to insult "annoying person who no one wants to be seen as" so you don't run the risk of alienating your target demographic.

This ad is definitely trying for that, by creating "annoying sorta-hipster Mac zealot you of course do not want to be", which might work because it's a recognizable caricature dating way back, but because of the relative mainstreaming of Apple products is becoming a harder and harder sell.

 

[farewelwilliams]

The software you're going to use is available on both.

no.
[doublepost=1468278150][/doublepost]

Lenovo doesn't make software. They do make pretty good hardware. I am forced to use Windows at work and much prefer Lenovo to Dell. I had just managed to get a really nice Lenovo laptop at my last company and then switched jobs and back to Dell. I hate Dell.

By the way I thought the ad was pretty funny. I really miss the Mac vs. PC commercials. They are hilarious.

Lenovo doesn't make software the same way as Lenovo doesn't make the display. They purchase them from someone and then assemble it (actually, they might even have Foxconn to assemble).

 

[PizzaBoxStyle]

Well, I think it's just even more evidence that marketers, PR people and companies executives lurk amongst us here on MR.

You and I have probably chatted with Tim Cook or Craig Federighi or Eddy Cue without even knowing it.

 

[Kaibelf]

Well, I think it's just even more evidence that marketers, PR people and companies executives lurk amongst us here on MR.

You and I have probably chatted with Tim Cook or Craig Federighi or Eddy Cue without even knowing it.

I admit, whenever I see a post from ChupaChupa, I do picture Eddie Cue behind that keyboard.

 

[tYNS]

Is that Lenovo or Levis? Damn, those logos look similar.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Oh gosh, I don't want to look like some actor told to channel 1970's Bill Gates look... Maybe I better buy a Lenovo... Uh, no.

 

[PizzaBoxStyle]

It's not bad until it goes wrong. And it frequently does. Work tech support for a month and you'll be cursing the operating system. The amount of stupid, crazy problems that Windows manifests are abundant and bitterly frustrating.

Anecdotally, the Mac I use at work crashed hard today when I tried at accept a meeting invite using Calendar. It was so bad I had to do a hard restart. The Windows box I was RDP'd into all day kept churning though. Weirder yet, last week, in the middle of a Skype call, my entire machine randomly restarted itself (boot chimes and all, and the crash reporter came up so it wasn't just some latent software update).

It's been going this way for a while for me. So much so that I'm seriously considering migrating back to Windows for work and getting an iPad Pro for everything else. I think I'm at full apathy towards the Mac now.