Microsoft Releases Second 'Laptop Hunters' Commercial

[Goona]

Microsoft's response to the fanboys is pretty good:

"In any case, the ugly attacks from Mac fanboys are exactly what Microsoft was hoping to provoke, says David Webster, general manager for brand marketing at Microsoft. He says the idea was to turn Apple's "I'm a Mac" campaign to Microsoft's advantage. "We associate real people with being PCs, [but then Apple] ends up looking pretty mean-spirited, the way they go after customers," he says. "It's clear that's who they are insulting." At the same time he can't resist taking a crack at the preciousness of some Mac users. "Not everyone wants a machine that's been washed with unicorn tears," he says."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/192459

What a dunce, but what do you expect he works at Microsoft.

 

[Goona]

And you will with all you Mac stuff ? That makes sense.

Hey Bubba I don't understand the words you wrote, try again.

 

[OllyW]

2/3 of the computers sold above $1,000 in the USA are Macs.

Fixed that for you.

 

[mosx]

I absolutely dislike the HP keys, as my father owns one. They are so easy to be popped off, quite contrary to the new MacBook/Pro as they are a part of the frame. Also, due to the fact that the keys are slightly spaced on Macs, this makes: 1. Typing easier because of less chance of cramping (I know this from experience). 2. Cleaning debris becomes less of a hassle. 3. Typing is relatively faster on Macs because (guitar aficionados will know this term) of the "low action". I average 70 on macs, and the last time I checked my gwam on the HP, I got around 64ish.

I average about 110wpm on my HP, about 90 on my MX5500 keyboard, and about 80 on my MacBook. Thats a significant different. It also comes at the cost of multiple typos that need to constantly be corrected thanks to button presses not being registered and just awful key placement. Of the few people I know that haven't switched back to Windows, they're constantly complaining about the MacBook (unibody and plastic) keyboard and how it always makes them mess up and how they need an external keyboard to be able to type properly.

The absolute VAST majority of laptop owners use their trackpad at a desk. This is without question. The trackpad on the HP can not compare to the Macs' AT ALL. To begin, I am extremely picky about trackpad surfaces as I hate it when my finger doesn't "glide" over the surfaces. I have relatively tacky fingers. I experience no problem at all when it comes to the Macbook Pro. Multi-touch gestures really make for a better computing experience. For example; two finger scroll rather than having to moving my fingers to the extreme right of the trackpad just to scroll. Since the trackpad is glass, it will always stay silky smooth despite use.

Nobody I personally know uses the trackpad while at the desk. Nobody. It's something most people see as something you only use when you're on battery power. When I'm at the desk, I see no reason at all to use the trackpad when I have my MX Revolution mouse. The trackpad just doesn't compare at all. Plus that means having to leave the lid on my MacBook open, and thanks to OS X not properly supporting external displays like Windows, it's going to give me headaches. Like I said, I have the MX 5500 Revolution desktop. Why on earth why I downgrade to the MacBook's built-in components?

On top of that, I can't think of a single person I know or have known that didn't have some sort of small travel mouse.

You keep on swaying from the new macbooks to the plastic ones. The plastic ones are past.

Thats funny because I can go buy a NEW plastic MacBook from Apple right now for $999.

You cannot fairly attempt to compare the plastic ones to the laptops of today. Pick the right fight, and pick the aluminum.

The aluminum "unibody" is strong, but the bottom metal covering the battery and components, as well as the top metal housing the LCD is weaker than the plastic used on equally priced PCs. I know this from experience.

The average 15-16 inch laptop is 6.5lbs. That is without question. You will see many heavier, and many lighter, but that is a good rough estimate. The Macbook Aluminum, and yes even the plastic one absolutely destroy it in terms of portability.

Being a little bit heavier is a small price to pay for a system that works as both a portable and a fully functioning desktop replacement that can play modern games at high definition resolutions as well as blu-ray movies.

You are correct, the UMB is relatively equal in terms of wait. But, it blows them away in terms of of battery life (which is why many of those 13" models offer extended batteries which add bulk, and another pound, yet still don't match the UMB)

My UniBody MacBook gets about 3.5 hours with the screen set to 50% brightness and regular browsing, chatting, etc. Screen is unusable below 50% as it gets too dark and at that point there IS glare on the screen that is distracting and causes eye strain issues.

Funny thing, my HP gets about 3.5 hours with dedicated graphics and a 15.4" screen on the original (now year and a half) 6 cell battery and the screen set to lowest (which is as bright as the MacBook at 50%).

and in terms of performance.

Uh.. what? $1299 MacBook has a 2GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, and an integrated GeForce 9400M GPU. The system in this ad had a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB of RAM, and a 512MB GeForce 9600M GT. Thats quite a bit faster than the MacBook and $200 cheaper. Over at Newegg you can get a 15.4 system with a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, GeForce 9800 1GB, etc for $1299.

When comparing 13.3" systems, Dell's Studio XPS 13 offers an integrated 9400M
plus 256MB 9500M running in hybrid SLI, as well as a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo and 4GB of DDR3 RAM for less than the unibody MacBook entry model.

I'm not a great fan of integrated graphics.

Then why are you a fan of the MacBook at all? All three MacBook models offered as of this typing have integrated GPUs.

Portability is not just about how much something weighs in a bag, it's about having that extra real estate on your school desk (which aren't large by any means), being able to tilt your screen on the airport meal table, or being able to tuck your laptop away in something small. Let's not overlook this.

And in that sense, the UniBody MacBook is only slightly smaller than the average 15.4" to 16" notebook PC. You realize that the MacBook is actually one of the largest 13.3" systems out there, right?

My Macbook Pro gets about 8 and a half hours on light use with wifi and bluetooth off. Apple tells you straight up how it calculates its battery life so as to not get people complaining about less than the purported battery life. They say that the brightness is turned to half and and wifi is on. I don't care how much I lower the brightness, the battery life on most PC laptops does not impress me one bit. I'd have to literally turn it down to almost as low as it gets to even come close to the Macbook's, which isn't close at all.

Well, like I said, my 15.4" HP that cost less than the PC in this ad gets the same battery life as my UniBody MacBook.

Your profile says you have a 17" UniBody MacBook Pro. Good for you. For the cost of that system and the relatively weak hardware it comes with for the price, there needs to be at least one redeeming quality about it.

I hope you realize that for less than the cost of your MacBook Pro you could have gotten a notebook PC with a 17" screen, a QUAD core processor (yes they do exist, they're on newegg in systems right now), 1GB GeForce 9800M GTX, solid state disk, and other STANDARD features that Apple doesn't offer like HDMI, eSATA, card readers, etc.

Your 17" MacBook Pro is THE definition of paying more to get less.

You have made two very [insert any word here] mistakes. Although using shared memory, it is in NO WAY AN INTEGRATED GRAPHICS CARD.

Oh yeah? http://www.apple.com/macbook/ what does that say right there on that main page? It says "Advanced NVIDIA integrated graphics". You can also go to nvidia's website and you'll see that the 9400M is not just a GPU, but a whole system on a chip. It has all of the system chipset plus the GPU on one die.

So yes, it is integrated.

And also, I'm pretty sure you're not tech savvy, as you would have known that GDDR3 and DDR3 are not the same thing. Having a 'G' in the front does not make it more powerful. In fact, GDDR3 is based on the same architecture as DDR2!!!!! I don't think we need to have a DDR3 vs. DDR2 discussion. Only GDDR4 is comparable to DDR3 as it is based on that architecture.

I find it funny you say I'm not "tech savvy" when A) you bought a system that is far less powerful than the competition and far more expensive and B) you didn't even know that the 9400M is an integrated platform with a GPU.

Oh and GDDR3 has higher real world speeds than standard DDR RAM and it transfers more information per clock cycle. So yes, it is different.

Man, are you just ignorant or are you trying to get people pissed off. The manufacturing used to make others laptops are completely inferior to the unibody process. Apple has made a great stride with this. When playing Crysis, my MBP only gets slightly warm due to the fact that the aluminum essentially acts as a heat sink. Aluminum has an incredibly amazing strength:weight ratio. The aluminum housing allows it to be thinner than many notebooks on the market right now. The frame itself is designed to protect each component respectively. Wanna talk about crap housing, we can talk about HP all day.

As I said, I own a unibody MacBook and a newer HP. The newer HP is built better than the unibody and plastic MacBooks. The UniBody Macs only have one truly "strong" part, with the rest of the case being easily damaged. Every time I pick up my UniBody MacBook I worry because the bottom feels as if it will bend or warp just because of my grip on the system. The plastic on my HP is tough and rigid and does not feel soft to the touch.

I'd like to add that HP customer support are aszholes, unlike Apple.

Apple's customer service reps may be nice, but the repair centers they contract will send your system back in worse shape than you sent it out. I DO know this from experience.

So you have all these problems with Macs but yet you keep buying more?

I didn't buy more. I only bought one. But it's been replaced twice due to Apple's awful build quality and the even worse quality of the repair centers that will trash your system and send it back in worse shape than you send it out in.

 

[3282868]

That Newsweek article is very good - I recommend that people read it to get an alternate opinion.

The ad campaign is very successful, and the uproar in the Apple community is only benefitting Microsoft. Keep it up, guys and gals!

While I agree with you on many points, I am tired of the "fanboy" term. Fanboy's exist on both sides of this debate, as is evidenced by the Microsoft fanboys that have been on MacRumors for year, and by the dozens more that have recently joined. Both sides of this issue have been inflamed for years, this article only caters to the other demographic.

 

[ij3ffy]

People don't realize how important these adds are to us mac peeps. Competition and adds like this will maybe mac apple come out with a cheaper laptop or desktop. I love my macs, but they are a little pricey. After seeing the first add, I went online, and nearly every single PC manufacturer has better hardware for the same amount of money or less. And if PC prices continue to fall, eventually apple will have to adjust their pricing.

 

[Tallest Skil]

People don't realize how important these adds are to us mac peeps. Competition and adds like this will maybe mac apple come out with a cheaper laptop or desktop.

You're pretty deluded if you think that Apple cares about these ads.

The only thing that will come out of them is Apple strengthening its position in its current markets. They won't make a sub-$1,000 computer; they'll solidify their superiority in the above-$1,000 market.

 

[techfreak85]

People don't realize how important these adds are to us mac peeps. Competition and adds like this will maybe mac apple come out with a cheaper laptop or desktop. I love my macs, but they are a little pricey. After seeing the first add, I went online, and nearly every single PC manufacturer has better hardware for the same amount of money or less. And if PC prices continue to fall, eventually apple will have to adjust their pricing.

yes thats the problem with apple and iPods, they are on top, so they dont feel like they need to do anything. witch stinks. the first iPod was crazy innovative, now not so much. sill really good, but not like "wow this is awesome".

 

[VoR]

the next phase is developing the same power with more efficiency . Apple hasn't been sitting on their laurels, they have been developing systems that are more energy efficient and recyclable.

I've seen the apple advert too.

But...they're hardly the only ones pushing efficiency, non-toxic, recyclable etc. I was under the impression that they were one of the worst 'big-name' computer brands at this too.
There's many other manufacturers that have been pushing out products covered in epa ratings etc for a lot longer than apple. I read years ago about dell's green push being too early and costing them, and even today building services is still often completely isolated from IT.

Advertising a consumer laptop on tv as less harmful to the environment (than what again?) and comparing it to the cost of running a light bulb is irritating and frustrating - I seriously doubt it's quite a good a move as focusing on cost/value either

 

[robjcastillo]

"Apple only about aesthetics, not computing power"

WHAT?!?!?!?! Man, if i ever see Giampoalo on the street I'm gonna punch him in the junk.

Anyone that is tech savvy, as he proclaims in the commercial, would never make a stupid comment like that. Especially when the moron is looking for a laptop that isn't even made by the the corporation paying for the ad. Microsoft makes software people not hardware....with the exception of the Xbox 360, and we all know what quality hardware that is.

 

[Chicane-UK]

In two minds about these adverts, but on the whole I think they've hit the nail on the head.

If people aren't bothered about the fit / finish and are just compared about sheer value for money and "bang for your buck" then Apple simply doesn't have a leg to stand on. Seriously - a lot of people don't care about unibody enclosures - they just want a freaking laptop. The current MacBooks and MacBook Pro's are beautiful machines no doubt about it, but try selling that to a hard-up student or low income family.

And it is a bit hypocritical for Mac users to be so enraged about the ease with which Microsoft dismiss the Apple Computer in each of these commercials, after the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials (which I REALLY disliked ever since day one) continually digged at Microsoft. What goes around, comes around.

I agree with what MS has said on this. It's put the cat amongst the pigeons and stirred up some great debate - more power to Microsoft. Hopefully Apple don't respond with any more 'Mac/PC' adverts...

 

[hiimamac]

Sigh

Once again i work for A tech companie. Mostly mac but guess what almost all of them have a dell server even with Xserve and kerii mail server. Regarding problems it has been my experience that those who tweak have problems but for a majority if users, thousands do not have issued I'd crashes. Only those that tweak and have their case open everytime I see them, which is a small portion, have problems.

I have a MacBook and MacBook pro. A few observations. Apple fanboy rainbow lovers are dying off and being replaced by those that know tech specs speed.

Also, apple iPhone users are coming up on their 2 year contract expire at a time when newer smart phones look really enticing, this apple relaxing updates fir iPhone but still no flash they might be in trouble.

Also, newer refrah have shown all macs received small speed bumps higher prices crippled MacBook no FireWire and whenthey did have FireWire slow worthless on board gma. Additionally, no i7 mac pro which beat the pants off if new mac pro which apple releases with ECC memory rquiring expensive ram. The ECC requirement should be for servers. Once again apple forces the hand to say if you want a desk top you have to pay. It's as if if you're a pro, they will make you pay. This was not always the model for apple, but they have lost their way and ficus too much on CONsumer iPhone iPod with drm and apple tv, this no hulu on iPhone and no blue ray on devices as iTunes movies look pale in comparison. It's far from true HD.


I think apples business model, restrictions, no mid range, minor mini update comes at the worse time ever. Not only is the economy bad but with their bread and butter iPhone users with contracts about to expire time with many newer smart phones, new windows 7 that IT love, microsoft only needing to worry about on OS unlike the several when vista came out spells trouble fir Apple.

Even when I was a PC user, I wanted to know as much as I could about every component. I'm not saying I always opted for the motherboard that cost $200 instead of the $50 one, but I at least wanted to know what the $150 difference was.

I understand that some people need PCs because of certain specs at certain points, but when they do the age-old trick of just popping 3 numbers at you (clock speed, amount of RAM, size of hard drive), that's like trying to sell me a car on how many doors, cylinders and cup holders it has. What sold me most on my Camry? The Consumer Reports reviews, the mileage, the look, and the aux audio input jack.

Whether you buy a Mac, PC, or dishwasher, EVERYBODY please think about long-term costs and service. I have never had as few problems with computers as I have with the Macs I've been around. My dad's iMac is nearing 4 years old and has had two problems: bad power supply ($150 fixed it in 2 days), and an extremely annoying motherboard malfunction, which Apple fixed for FREE after it was out of warranty. My HP laptop wouldn't turn on after a couple of months, and I had to send it off. It came back with 90 minutes of battery life a month later. My Dell just annoyed me with all the security stuff, but my sister still uses it and it's about 5 years old.

 

[KnightWRX]

Silverlight is cross-platform - it's available for the Mac from Microsoft (http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/) and for Linux through the open-source Moonlight project.

Moonlight is atrocious as far as compatibility goes. Silverlight is now in version 2.0 on the Windows side (never checked the Mac side) and Moonlight barely just shipped something that is fully compatible with Silverlight 1.0. They will never catch up, so Linux will stuck with an incompatible implementation.

Plus, Microsoft are the sole vendor. In their anti-mac rage, nothing is preventing them from just stopping development on the Mac port of Silverlight. All the Mac add-ons will be worthless if the core is not up to date and can't display content on the web.

This is just another embrace and extend tactic, like they've tried with HTML, DOM, CSS before. They see Adobe's dominance of the web media market and they want to be in that position, even if they have to use their Windows monopoly to push Silverlight unto everyone.

The fact is, the W3C is already making efforts with HTML 5.0 to remove flash's dominance for embedded video with the new <video> tag, that is standardized and will work accross every browser and every platform in the same way. For animations, DOM+CSS is catching pretty quickly and we're already seeing tons of nice Javascript libraries and apps that can do as much as flash can, without the vendor lock-in.

It's been done since the Web has existed, vendor lock-in is the worst thing that can happen to something that needs to be very open and available to multitudes of devices from multitudes of vendor. Of course Microsoft doesn't want this openess, since it means that one day they might be irrelevant.

 

[ptsube]

Please, someone tell me how this is bad. What's wrong with competition? If anything, this will make Apple fight back with lower prices. These commercials are pointing out Apple's weakness. Just like politics, it's not how good you look, it's how bad your competitor looks.

 

[3282868]

I've seen the apple advert too.

But...they're hardly the only ones pushing efficiency, non-toxic, recyclable etc. I was under the impression that they were one of the worst 'big-name' computer brands at this too.
There's many other manufacturers that have been pushing out products covered in epa ratings etc for a lot longer than apple. I read years ago about dell's green push being too early and costing them, and even today building services is still often completely isolated from IT.

Advertising a consumer laptop on tv as less harmful to the environment (than what again?) and comparing it to the cost of running a light bulb is irritating and frustrating - I seriously doubt it's quite a good a move as focusing on cost/value either

Apple's portable's are made of much more recyclable materials than other mass produced consumer systems (as I stated in my comment). It is not just about "power" efficiency, ewaste is a much more prevalent issue. With the exception of the entry level white MacBook, the vast majority of Apple's systems are made from aluminum shells (honed from blocks of aluminum that are melted down and reused for other shells), glass trackpads and screens, LED displays, recyclable batteries that are more efficient than the HP systems advertised in the commercials, etc.

I will not get into this continuous play on words and nitpicking that is going back and forth by stating "but... but", the fact is Apple has changed their stance environmentally over the recent years and has gone from producing "beasts" (as another commentator stated) and moved on to producing powerful systems that are much more environmentally conscious than its competitors. Name a few mass produced systems from HP, Dell, even Microsoft that are as material conscious as Apple is to date.

Lastly, as Apple is utilizing precise laser and water jet engineering in its mass portable production, it would be financially prohibit able to add more options to their portable lineup. BTO options are available, as limited as they may be. However, does the average consumer need more options to surf the net, watch porn? If they do, then Windows systems are for them, and they are fine systems. However, Apple may realize that bells and whistles are simply that, bells and whistles. Apple has been producing aesthetically and ergonomically advanced systems for years (Jonathan Ive has been an award winning industrial designer for Apple for more than a decade, as is evidenced by award winning designs that we all love as the iMac, iPod, displays, iPhone, etc).

Certainly there are cheaper and functional systems available to people, as there should be. However, cheaper and functional is not Apple's philosophy, it never has been and never will be. Apple prides itself on a complete user experience, from iPods, AppleTVs, iPhones, computers, displays - it is all about a one stop experience with devices that are developed and designed to work out of the box with each other. That is what Apple develops and markets, a better end user experience. In that Apple succeeds.

 

[addtoqueue]

Dont make me laugh, who the heck wastes money on a company they don't view as a compeititor.

Since when does not being the closest competitor equals not being a competitor at all? Did I say they weren't a competitor at all?

These ads aren't about stealing Mac users, they are about keeping Windows users. You don't have to say you're the best, all you have to do is to say you are a viable option to keep the masses. Since we all know, at least the people within the 'techie bubble', that Linux and even OS X are a better option than Windows.

 

[Tallest Skil]

this apple relaxing updates fir iPhone but still no flash they might be in trouble.

Flash as in the Adobe product? It's idiotic to think that that has any measure on whether or not people will buy an iPhone.

I think apples business model, restrictions, no mid range, minor mini update comes at the worse time ever. Not only is the economy bad but with their bread and butter iPhone users with contracts about to expire time with many newer smart phones, new windows 7 that IT love, microsoft only needing to worry about on OS unlike the several when vista came out spells trouble fir Apple.

I only quoted this to say, "Please use actual grammar when posting." I didn't get a word of any of the rest.

 

[AidenShaw]

"Linux is a bigger threat because it competes in more areas such as server OSs, embedded systems and increasingly on client PCs with the rise of low-cost netbooks,"

Just for people to think about.

Note that Silverlight is part of the fight against Linux, even as Microsoft supports the Moonlight project.

Silverlight makes it easier to deliver multi-client-platform solutions hosted on Windows Server.

 

[Goona]

Yeah Windows 7 is so great that Ballmer himself called it a Vista service pack plus they will sti be offering an 8 year old OS around the time 7 is released, shows what they actually think about 7.

 

[Stevamundo]

Then why are you still clicking on this thread ? It's not like Macrumors only has 1 thread that you can discuss in. Just go spend your time elsewhere and let people that are interested in discussing this do it. No one is holding a gun to your head to participate.

And this "two-year old" discussion is about more like twenty years old. I've had this discussion back in the 90s many times. Except then, Mac OS was late to the game with it's cooperative multi-tasking and memory management.

Why? I think that it's absolutely hilarious to see people acting like two-year-olds! You heard this “old discussion” since the '90's? Well I've heard this since the '80's. So I have you beat, HAHAHA! Also I'm sure that my Daddy can beat up your Daddy!

Seriously, people just buy a computer that you're happy with. That's all that really counts.

 

[synth3tik]

Come to think of it. As a client MS should be pissed with that commercial.

If they wanted to they could have actually shown him not being able to find a computer with his criterica, just like Lauren. Instead, they say "Macs are sexy" and totally forget to mention, why this dude, really is a PC.

So far both these ads make me skeptical about this ad agency.

 

[Goona]

Since when does not being the closest competitor equals not being a competitor at all? Did I say they weren't a competitor at all?

These ads aren't about stealing Mac users, they are about keeping Windows users. You don't have to say you're the best, all you have to do is to say you are a viable option to keep the masses. Since we all know, at least the people within the 'techie bubble', that Linux and even OS X are a better option than Windows.

What about Windows users who don't want to be associated with computers that are being advertised as cheap, Microsoft is doing a real good job of keeping them happy with these ads.

 

[NT1440]

Yeah Windows 7 is so great that Ballmer himself called it a Vista service pack plus they will sti be offering an 8 year old OS around the time 7 is released, shows what they actually think about 7.

Windows has almost always allowed the previous version to be bought and supported for years after a new OS comes out.....

 

[AidenShaw]

What a dunce, but what do you expect he works at Microsoft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lyons

Daniel Lyons (born 1960 in Massachusetts) is an American writer. He was a senior editor at Forbes magazine and is now a writer at Newsweek.

He has written a book of short stories, The Last Good Man (1993), a novel, Dog Days (1998), and a fictional biography, Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody (2007). He also wrote The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, a popular blog and parody of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, under the pseudonym Fake Steve Jobs.​

 

[addtoqueue]

Microsoft is positioning itself as "cheap" against "cool".

I'm hoping Apple would respond: "Yes, we are cool. If you want cheap, look for Linux".

That would put Microsoft in the corner: if it continued to push the "cheap" card, there would be a reminder that there is a cheaper option. The only solution, for Microsoft, would be silence.

I can imagine, three characters in scene:

Linux: "I'm cheap!"
Mac: "I'm cool!"
Windows: ???