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Microsoft Inaccurately Depicts Windows Tablet as Larger than iPad in New Comparison Ad
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"bigger" is a loose term, so it's not inaccurate. They didn't say "surface area" right?
Sometimes when I am not watching the TV and just listening to Microsoft
tablet ad's I think its for the Kit Kat.
I'm surprised the ad below isn't what made front page news. Being picky that it doesn't ACTUALLY have a larger touchscreen is just silly. Pretty sure all consumers look at the screen measurement specs when comparing screen size and NOT the surface area...
If the only "lies" that were told are in this article, I think we can rest assured that Apple, as well as just about every other competitor has done similar...
If the only "lies" that were told are in this article, I think we can rest assured that Apple, as well as just about every other competitor has done similar...
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The main thing is that this looks like a deliberate decision to misrepresent the sizes. They made it look bigger, thus giving it the overall impression of being better for entertainment and productivity.
That's not cool.
At the end of the comparison, Microsoft clearly states that the ASUS VivoTab Smart has a "bigger touchscreen" than the iPad:
The ASUS VivoTab Smart is lighter than the iPad, has a bigger touchscreen and more ports, works with more.
No, it doesn't clearly state that, it only clearly states that the Asus is lighter than the ipad. The asus stament does not say what the asus is bigger than...perhaps the last asus? Yes misleading, but not as clear as Juli states. Do I detect an apple bias
The ASUS VivoTab Smart is lighter than the iPad, has a bigger touchscreen and more ports, works with more.
No, it doesn't clearly state that, it only clearly states that the Asus is lighter than the ipad. The asus stament does not say what the asus is bigger than...perhaps the last asus? Yes misleading, but not as clear as Juli states. Do I detect an apple bias
You mean in a lawsuit where they were highlighting the design with the size being irrelevant?
Neither of those statements are true.
No, it's not.
Yep. Something that would require a disclaimer.
How about a more accurate comparison (especially price) with a Microsoft tablet versus Apple tablet.
Meaning don't go grabbing the cheapest 3rd party tablet running your system. Go toe to toe Company against company and product against product. If there was a 3rd party iPad I'm sure MS would have grabbed the most ridiculous one to compare against, but since there isn't, the best and most accurate comparison would be Surface (whatever model version it is these days) vs iPad, not <XXX Manufacturer> vs iPad.
Same reason you see a lot of Nexus 7 versus iPad Mini, not <Big Lots Coby Knock-Off running Android> vs iPad Mini which is what Microsoft did.
http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/mobility/240150022/head-to-head-microsoft-surface-pro-vs-apple-ipad-4.htm
Both companies are guilty of this type of behavior though. The old Mac vs PC, which isn't really accurate since it's OS X vs Windows. Now it's Windows 8 vs iPad which again isn't accurate since your comparing OS vs device.
Meaning don't go grabbing the cheapest 3rd party tablet running your system. Go toe to toe Company against company and product against product. If there was a 3rd party iPad I'm sure MS would have grabbed the most ridiculous one to compare against, but since there isn't, the best and most accurate comparison would be Surface (whatever model version it is these days) vs iPad, not <XXX Manufacturer> vs iPad.
Same reason you see a lot of Nexus 7 versus iPad Mini, not <Big Lots Coby Knock-Off running Android> vs iPad Mini which is what Microsoft did.
http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/mobility/240150022/head-to-head-microsoft-surface-pro-vs-apple-ipad-4.htm
Both companies are guilty of this type of behavior though. The old Mac vs PC, which isn't really accurate since it's OS X vs Windows. Now it's Windows 8 vs iPad which again isn't accurate since your comparing OS vs device.
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Moral of the story, if you're not drawing an iPad to scale, put a disclaimer
Otherwise some nerd will break your gif down to the pixel level and use the pixels to derive its true dimensions, convert the discrepency to a %, then write a long blog post complaining about it which will be picked up by Gruber and circulated all around the internet
Otherwise some nerd will break your gif down to the pixel level and use the pixels to derive its true dimensions, convert the discrepency to a %, then write a long blog post complaining about it which will be picked up by Gruber and circulated all around the internet
See what happens when you use Windows 8? The calculator and Excel go mad because they don't know where the start menu buggered off too...
Thank you, Mr. Temple for giving Microsoft/Android/Blackberry etc. fans yet more reason to lump all Apple fans into the same category of hysterical morons who have hissy fits whenever anyone tries to degrade an Apple product.
I really love it when people go to great lengths to point out every design flaw in any Apple product I own, because I obviously can't see it myself. -.-
I really love it when people go to great lengths to point out every design flaw in any Apple product I own, because I obviously can't see it myself. -.-
I have some beef with this.
First of all, open the actual page on microsoft's site.
Using the screenshot command the ipad's screen shown is 337x253 pixels, and the asus is 415x235. Still misleading because the asus is shown to be 14% bigger (when it's actaully smaller), but where does the 36% figure come from in the referenced article? It's not shown to be nearly that much bigger.
Also, microsoft has since changed the bottom of the comparison to say "Images may not be to scale" AND they changed the bottom block of text to say "The ASUS VivoTab Smart is lighter than the iPad, has more ports, works with more printers, lets you see two apps at once, and runs Microsoft Office and other desktop programs," omitting the words "has a bigger touchscreen."
Interesting.
First of all, open the actual page on microsoft's site.
Using the screenshot command the ipad's screen shown is 337x253 pixels, and the asus is 415x235. Still misleading because the asus is shown to be 14% bigger (when it's actaully smaller), but where does the 36% figure come from in the referenced article? It's not shown to be nearly that much bigger.
Also, microsoft has since changed the bottom of the comparison to say "Images may not be to scale" AND they changed the bottom block of text to say "The ASUS VivoTab Smart is lighter than the iPad, has more ports, works with more printers, lets you see two apps at once, and runs Microsoft Office and other desktop programs," omitting the words "has a bigger touchscreen."
Interesting.
It looks like the boys from Daring Fireballs are holding the tablets the wrong way.
Most people hold and use their tablets in landscape mode. And a lot of tablets out there are bigger than Apples in width when using it that way.
Apple should know that size and other aspects of a device depend on how you hold it.
Most people hold and use their tablets in landscape mode. And a lot of tablets out there are bigger than Apples in width when using it that way.
Apple should know that size and other aspects of a device depend on how you hold it.
Well the physical touchscreen is smaller. If I said I have a bigger house than you and only look at the land plot, that is just utter nonsense. I could have a tiny shack on my plot of land that is twice your plot of land but yours with a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 1 living room, 1 family room and 1 kitchen house. And thus, the universally accepted standard to compare house sizes is the physical floor area of the actual house. Bigger or smaller refers to physical size. Physical size is (in this discussion's scope) either 2D or 3D. Using 1 dimension as your argument is quite silly when talking about a touchscreen that you touch with 2 dimensional fingers and view with 2 (or 3) dimensional eyes.
"I'm a PC and I'm a Mac" ads were, for the most part, factually correct. You can't tell me that a touchscreen is bigger when in fact it's actually physically smaller. The universally accepted standard to compare two dimensional surfaces (since touchscreens are, for the most part, two dimensional) is surface area. What other way is universally used to compare two dimensional surfaces? Length and width? Sure, then the VivoTab Smart is only bigger in on dimension. Which is absolutely meaningless.
Microsoft is taking the "tell the truth but not the whole truth" to a whole new extreme level. Apple's PC/Mac ads were saying whole truths like PC have viruses, PCs are clunky, PCs crash with meaningless messages like BSoDs, etc. Sure it's also the same kind of tell the partial truth, but it's not blatantly as incorrect as this. Also, I highly doubt people actually notice or care that a 10.1" is "bigger" (using Microsoft's incorrect definition of the term) than a 9.7" screen. It's diagonally 0.4''. Let's not forget the iPad's resolution is much higher, battery life much longer, display quality much better (VivoTab is most likely using some cheapo crappy TN panel) and camera much better. I haven't even factored in build quality (which is relatively and inherently terrible because it's ASUS).
It looks like the boys from Daring Fireballs are holding the tablets the wrong way.
Most people hold and use their tablets in landscape mode. And a lot of tablets out there are bigger than Apples in width when using it that way.
Apple should know that size and other aspects of a device depend on how you hold it.
So the size of my house is larger than yours if I only look at how tall our houses are?!? The ****. My two story shack can be bigger than your one story mansion. Think about this. We're still talking about "size".
Smaller (7") tablets actually sell beter than bigger (10") ones. SO it is not clear how this misrepresentation is favoring MS. Also, diagonal size does matter on its own. When watching video, the area used by picture on MS tablet will be bigger than that on iPad.
I wonder if that was intentional or not, but the way it's show like that is really misleading. We probably should've never used diagonal length to describe size of TVs/Screens. Made sense back in the days when we only had 4:3 CRTs but not anymore.
Having side-by-side photos not drawn to scale--isn't that how some lawsuits are won/lost?
Having side-by-side photos not drawn to scale--isn't that how some lawsuits are won/lost?
I'm outraged. What an outrageous thing. Lying on an advert. I don't know how they dare. This has got to be a first.
I don't think the point in the advert is the tablet. Its the OS. But still, they've been caught out. You little devils Microsoft!
I don't think the point in the advert is the tablet. Its the OS. But still, they've been caught out. You little devils Microsoft!
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