Microsoft Inaccurately Depicts Windows Tablet as Larger than iPad in New Comparison Ad

[SnowLeopard2008]

Funny, because the printer I bought at an Apple store works with my Surface RT, but not with my girlfriend's iPad. I guess I need a new printer

And how is this in any way relevant? What printer was it? Model, manufacturer? Did you set it up properly? Wireless/USB-only/ethernet? Is your girlfriend's iPad WiFi not working? What iOS version? I could make the same comment saying I bought a printer from Microsoft Store and it works on my iPad won't work on my Surface Pro. Actually I am making that comment because my close friend's father just bought a 128GB Surface Pro and Type Cover (her Dad was quite excited about it) and also some printer from Microsoft Store. My friend's iPad could instantly and most importantly without installing stupid drivers of yester-century (seriously, get with the times), print to that printer. Yet the built-in printer install wizard couldn't get find the right driver on the Surface Pro automatically. There was a driver disc included with the printer, but Surface Pro doesn't have a built-in optical drive does it? After spending 15 mins to hunt down the driver online, he finally got it working after another 30 minute install process of configuring and installing the driver. It's a royal pain the butt to install wireless printers on Windows as many printer manufacturers had a very confusing and tricky process to get the wireless stuff set up. AirPrint? Much easier.

 

[wickerman1893]

really? then why do the words clearly compare the SIZE of the screen?

Well, after all, the surface screen SIZE is larger.

 

[BaldiMac]

Yes, because giving misleading slides during a trial is always more moral than having a diagram wrong and then corrected in an advertisement.

One is a Felony and can lead to perjury.

No. Not really different. Misrepresentation is misrepresentation.

Again, it's not misleading to resize something to illustrate a point as long as the size is not materially important and you are not trying to hide the modification. The Apple document acknowledged that the Galaxy S had "some non-identical elements, such as the slightly larger dimensions."

Say you made a 200 ft version of my 2 ft statue. I take pictures of them both and scale them to the same height on paper to show how they are almost identical. Do you see a misrepresentation here? It's just an illustration for the purposes of comparison.

And entering evidence which has been doctored was relevant considering part of their argument was that you couldn't tell one device from the other. I'd say size matters there.

Apple's design patent or registration or whatever it was in that case did not specify a size, so how could size be relevant to whether the Galaxy S infringed on Apple's design?

If the courts didn't hold Apple liable for that clearly it wasn't illegal. But that doesn't make it right. Just legal.

And the fact that many people on the internet took it out of context doesn't make it wrong.

 

[AppleScruff1]

https://www.macrumors.com/2013/05/2...ablet-ad-highlighting-ipads-flaws-high-price/

AH, JadedMonkey beat me. : (

Thank you too. You provided a different link. The second ad in your link is the one I hadn't seen. Again, it clearly shows the difference in aspect ratio between the two tablets. The only inaccuracy I see is the claim that it must use a special Apple printer. And also, this second ad is not on the Microsoft site yet.

 

[dejo]

Thank you. That is the same ad that is on the Microsoft site. It clearly shows that the iPad is is bigger in top to bottom dimension and the Asus is bigger from left to right. I'm keeping it real basic here. I clearly see that they have different aspect ratios. I also don't hear any claims of it having a bigger screen than the iPad.

Seems Microsoft has updated that comparison page to remove the claim of a larger screen and also removed the controversial rectangles. The "Display" comparison now only shows numbers and no rectangles:

 

[AppleScruff1]

Seems Microsoft has updated that comparison page to remove the claim of a larger screen and also removed the controversial images. The "Display" comparison now only shows numbers and no rectangles:

Thank you. I never saw the one with the false claim and the other images. So Microsoft changed it quite quickly. I wonder if it was due to fallout or if they put up an early version of the ad and then changed it?

 

[SoGood]

When businesses need to resort to these tactics, the business is failing.

 

[samcraig]

Seems Microsoft has updated that comparison page to remove the claim of a larger screen and also removed the controversial rectangles. The "Display" comparison now only shows numbers and no rectangles:

What are the odds that doesn't shut anyone up here

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Here's a pretty image to show you what the fuss is about.

 

[samcraig]

When businesses need to resort to these tactics, the business is failing.

Can I quote you on that? Because pretty much EVERY company resorts to these tactics.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Well, after all, the surface screen SIZE is larger.

So size is just one dimension to you? The screen's surface is TWO dimensions. You can't have a one dimensional surface. At least not in this discussion's scope. A one dimension surface is an edge. Screens are measure by 2 (3 if we're technical) dimensions. Length and width with the third being depth (or thickness).

TLDR: Screens are surfaces, which means two dimensional. One dimensional surface is called an edge.

 

[AppleScruff1]

What are the odds that doesn't shut anyone up here

LOL! Microsoft has corrected the error. Nothing more to discuss, they did the right thing to avoid problems. It appears that they fixed it rather quickly too.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

LOL! Microsoft has corrected the error. Nothing more to discuss, they did the right thing to avoid problems. It appears that they fixed it rather quickly too.

Agreed. While it was wrong, it is no longer wrong. At least Microsoft didn't leave a snarky, ignorant comment regarding this like they did with Xbox One and always on internet connection or backwards compatibility. Seems like third time's the charm and one guy being fired.

 

[Michael Goff]

When businesses need to resort to these tactics, the business is failing.

"Hi, I'm a Mac"

Do I need to continue?

 

[osofast240sx]

If iWork was the global standard in productivity suite and used by 99% of employees who use a computer at work, I'd say your argument would hold some water.... but it's not, so it doesn't.

What does hold water is that 99% of employees that use MS office don't want to on some tablet hybrid. This is the reason for the extremely high return rate.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Like Apple has never done anything to falsely enhance the appearance of any of there products?

Like what? Apple did not advertise their iPad in such a way. The closest you can argue are the past I'm a PC and I'm a Mac ads. And even those were degrees more truthful in presentation than this. And even so, those ads have stopped airing years ago.

 

[TouchMint.com]

The asus tab is pretty nice but I am not sure why they are not pushing the surface. Even when msft tried to recruit me to build on the win8 platform they were offereing an asus and not a surface... weird stuff.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Agreed. While it was wrong, it is no longer wrong. At least Microsoft didn't leave a snarky, ignorant comment regarding this like they did with Xbox One and always on internet connection or backwards compatibility. Seems like third time's the charm and one guy being fired.

I'm curious to know if they changed it because to avoid problems or if they posted it by mistake, you know, maybe a few versions of the ad and they put the wrong one up? Or they made a dumb decision and put the one up with some inaccuracies and changed it when they got called out?

----------

The asus tab is pretty nice but I am not sure why they are not pushing the surface. Even when msft tried to recruit me to build on the win8 platform they were offereing an asus and not a surface... weird stuff.

Maybe they are trying to build more interest for the OEM's?

 

[kas23]

Why is this news? Apple is notorious for outright false advertising.

 

[BC2009]

However, as misleading as it may be, it is Microsoft's ad. They know the majority of the public will not know the difference. Yeah, you could make an argument that Microsoft is taking advantage of us, but that is why education is valuable.

So false advertising is okay because the it is up to the consumer to be smart enough to figure out when they are being lied to? Not sure I understand your argument. There are laws against misrepresentation and false advertising.

 

[ValSalva]

The most relevant concern here is that the Surface makes a fine clicking sound when its keyboard is attached. I think Microsoft should focus on that in its advertising and not attack the iPad.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Hopefully MR updates this article to let everyone know that the controversial ad has been changed.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I see lots of attacking going on in this thread and I would like to see some evidence to back it up.

From what I can gather by piecing together the macrumors article (seriously, this is really bad reporting if I have to guess as to what they're talking about) the website used to look more like this, and has since been altered.

However, even without the changes it's still, IMHO, a dubious claim that the iPad has a larger touchscreen, as a touch screen is (by definition) a type of screen, and screens, by industry standard, are measured along the diagonal...

 

[mccldwll]

I would not calling it lieing but a stupid mistake. Chances are the person who did it was in autopilot mode and forgot that the iPad has an a difference screen ratio than everyone else.

So you crunch the numbers if they had the same ratio of 16:9 and it would be right.

it was a completely honest but stupid mistake.

No. It was a completely dishonest attempt to make an untrue claim. That, however, definitely was a big, stupid mistake.

 

[Lennholm]

Apple's design patents had nothing to do with size or aspect ratio. It could have been an 5 inch version or a 2 inch version. Size was irrelevant. The point of the document was to illustrate the similarities of the patented design elements.

Then please explain to me why Apple put effort into actually skewing the image and making sure the dimensions lined up perfectly if it was all completely irrelevant.

And still, as people have pointed out, Microsofts ad was meant to highlight the features and specs, not the device's apparent size. If size was irrelevant in Apple's case (and therefore manipulation OK), why can't it be in Microsofts ad (and therefore manipulation OK)?

To say the screen has a bigger (longer) diagonal is not wrong. To say that the screen is bigger is wrong.

So now, all of a sudden, screen size is measured by the surface area even though it has always been measured by the diagonal before?