Microsoft to Respond to Apple's 'Get a Mac' Ads

[i.maverick]

i read an article a while back which was about microsoft hiring this marketing genius who has the reputation of turning companies around. forgot the name and don't have the link. he was supposed to come up with something that would make microsoft appear cool. and he has that reputation. of the listed companies, the one i remember is burger king. there were a couple more whose fortunes this guy had turned around. but i don't remember.
it was a good read too. the funny thing was that he and his team, all work on macs.
anyone know his name??


edit : ecoli has already mentioned the same thing. Crispin Porter & Bogusky. he has even posted a link.
http://www.cpbgroup.com/
edit 2 : that's not the article link
that's http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/believe-it-or-not-hes-a-pc.html?page=0,0
long but interesting read.

 

[Shawnkdesign]

............

I thought PC meant Piece-of-Crap! They are going to waste millions and will still come up short as usual.

 

[cameronjpu]

Then Dell or Gateway or whichever computer company tells the consumer that the problem is the software, not the hardware. Then Microsoft tells the consumer the problem is the hardware. So essentially the consumer is being treated like a soccer ball and kicked back and forth.

I've made an exceptional business out of taking control of those ping-pong situations and making my customers happy. I sure hope they never fix it!

 

[AidenShaw]

can you back that up?

Jim Allchin said it best, "Vista is not going to work - we should be doing it like OS X."

Can you please cite where and when Allchin made that statement?

I find many references to the first half of the sentence, but no mention at all of any statement by Allchin about building Windows like OSX.

Perhaps this blog entry by Jim Allchin will help you find the proper context for a statement taken out of context and then embellished.

 

[DMann]

I would never buy a Mac, because I like to do other things with a computer rather than just take red eye out photos and post them online for friends.

Where have you been for the past 8 years?

 

[137489]

Oh my got, they did it for XP as well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-8IufkbuD0&feature=related

But there is hope, listen to this broadcast from a distant past (when Sir Steve still had hair )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR8SAFRBmcU&NR=1

My god he is so true....

Every video I see with Ballmer in it has me shaking my head; saying "Gates left his legacy to this crackhead?"

Developers, Developers, Developers.... Ballmer is a lunatic. Imagine if Jobbs acted like this? Bring on the commercials I am ready for a laugh.

Personally, I think it will backfire. You take a product that has failed miserably and then add a crackhead promoting it - and you are bound to see your company fail.

 

[gwilli]

Microsoft should have kept their mouth shut, saved face, ditched Windows Vista and kept support and spent that money on advertising making Windows 7 something pretty amazing. Stooping down to the same level just makes you look stupid and childish. Advertising that you're OS is finally stable and has enhanced security features isn't exactly jaw dropingly amazing.

 

[helmsc]

I know it's not Vista but I was able to get the school I work for to buy and Xserve (replaced aging and almost dead Netware file server) instead of a 2003 Server. It was cheaper than the same computer (spec wise) due to license cost.

Too bad we still have two 2003 servers (about to be VM'ed) due to WSUS and the other acting as an antivirus server for our XPs, 98s (yes still around and kickin) and two Vista clients.

 

[woweee]

maybe they'll air this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPv8PPl7ANU

That's sad...I can see Bruce Springsteen crying.

 

[bobertoq]

Percentage of Satisfied Leopard Users: 81% and climbing

Percentage of Satisfied Vista Users: 15-21% and shrinking

Nothing to be proud of.

And the number of downgrades from Vista to XP? Quite high, indeed.

Almost all corporate sales for Vista are actually XP installs.

How many people switched to Mac or a Linux flavor as a result of Vista? More than MS would care to know.

Also, the survey doesn't mention that every Intel Mac running Windows as a second OS, while counting as a plus for Vista and/or XP, is also a hardware sale for Apple.

Apple has experienced greater hardware growth since it began using Intel processors than at any time in the recent past. As the number four computer hardware vendor in the US, they are in a position to increase their market share beyond anything they've seen since the inception of the Windows 3.0 in 1990. Looks like it's time to roll out those Vista ads, MS.

Apple needs to make a one minute commercial with some of these facts.

 

[Popeye206]

Pathetic!

This will be good... I can see it now. Another droll MS Ad that goes on about how wonderful the PC world is because of Vista... The Ads will try to be hip and "today" but will come off as silly and senseless.

Have they not learned... it's not just the advertising that has the Mac kicking their butt... lets see... better machines, great OS and fantastic support and innovative product... ones that everyone wants to copy... that is why Apple is winning... not the freaking Ads.

 

[mosx]

I truly hope MS starts its smear campaign, because it's gonna show even more clearly how crappy Vista is in all senses, when compared to OS X.

How crappy Vista is in all senses compared to OS X? So OS X finally has all of the features Vista has? It received some update that wasn't made public and now we all have things like system wide hardware acceleration for video playback? HDMI output support? HDCP certification so we can watch high definition movies?

OS X can finally run games?

In summary, there is NO reason whatsoever to defend a PC, apart from legacy reasons derived from MS's abuse of market power. Apple, on the other hand, attains market because of its competence, innovation and overall reliability of its products. And this is NOT sanctionable under any civilized countries' antitrust laws.

Reliability of Apple products? Hmm I don't know about that one. I was on my second Mac due to hardware failures and botched repairs within 6 months of purchasing the first. I'm on my 3rd 3G iPod nano because of the widespread tilted screen issue that Apple still has not resolved and refuses to admit even exists.

Theres also the issue of certain European governments investigating Apple hardware failures and forcing Apple to repair units with design flaws.

Innovation? Hmm.. I don't know about that one. Apple software and hardware lacks features that are standard on Windows machines. Such as HDMI output, system wide hardware acceleration for video, the ability to mix the LFE channel from DVDs into the stereo downmix, etc. $500 Wal-Mart notebooks have these features, but MacBooks that run $1406 after taxes do not. I wouldn't call that innovation. I call that being stuck in the past!

Again: MICROSOFT IS DEAD. Sensible people just need to bury it now.

Microsoft is dead? Funny, they're still a larger company than Apple and have more money in the bank than Apple.

I can see these commercials:

PC: "Hello I'm a PC"
Mac: "Hello I'm a Mac"
PC: "So Mac, play any good games lately?"
Mac: "Oh yeah have you tried Peggle? It's great!"
PC: "No, I was thinking more along the lines of Gears of War, Halo 2, GRID, Unreal Tournament 3, Half-Life 2, Call of Duty 4.."
Mac: "Oh.. I don't have any of those"
PC: "Well then, watch any good high definition movies lately?"
Mac: "No, my hardware and software can't play blu-ray discs"
PC: "Oh.. well, theres this awesome new music store that lets you download as much music as you want for $15 a month and it works with all kinds of different music players!"
Mac: "I only have iTunes.. I have to pay per song"
PC: "And I just signed up for Netflix, so I can stream all kinds of movies and TV shows to my desktop"
Mac: "I only have iTunes.. I have to buy everything or pay to rent only movies"
PC: "So you can't have any fun?"
Mac: "What do you mean? Organizing your pictures and making slideshows in iPhoto is a lot of fun! And I can run Microsoft Office!"
PC: "Well yeah. But only working and playing with your pictures is pretty boring. You gotta have some fun sometime!"
Mac: "But! iLife!"
PC: "I think I'm going to go play some games now..."

 

[inkswamp]

Dedicated to gibbz for providing the inspiration....

 

[DMann]

Can you please cite where and when Allchin made that statement?

I find many references to the first half of the sentence, but no mention at all of any statement by Allchin about building Windows like OSX.

No, actually it goes more like this:

"This is a rant. I'm sorry.

"I am not sure how the company lost sight of what matters to our customers (both business and home) the most, but in my view we lost our way. I think our teams lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, how important current applications are, and really understanding what the most important problems are customers face are. I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that doesn't translate into great products.

"I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft. If you run the equivalent of VPC [Virtual PC] on a Mac you get access to basically all Windows application software (although not the hardware). Apple did not lose their way. You must watch this new video below. I know this doesn't show anything for businesses, but my point is about the philosophy that Apple uses. They think scenario. They think simple. They think fast. I know there is nothing hugely deep in this.

"http: //www.apple.com/ilife/video/ilifeO432C.html [Note: Link is now dead]

"I must tell you everything in my soul tells me that we should do what I called plan (b) yesterday. We need a simple fast storage system. LH [Longhorn] is a pig and I don't see any solution to this problem. If we are to rise to the challenge of Linux and Apple, we need to start taking the lessons of 'scenario, simple, fast' to heart. Jim"

In other words, more like OS X.

 

[milo]

News Flash - iPhone and Vista Work Flawlessly!

You really think that one guy using the OS without problems means it works "flawlessly". Sorry to burst your bubble, but there are a number of documented issues - NO operating system works "flawlessly" and it sounds ridiculous to even claim that.

 

[137489]

That's sad...I can see Bruce Springsteen crying.

Yep, that is pretty sad if you have to come out with a promo for a service pack (which is nothing more than a bug fix). Imagine if apple did that, we would be the laughing stock.

I can hear the chorus now:
"my mac is secure and snappy as can be"
"with update 10.5.3"

It's like a used car salesman, the more gimicks and catch phrases, the more you better run. Oh wait, the I/T industry is the only one that thrives on buzzwords and catch phrases.

 

[MisterK]

This will be interesting

Microsoft recently switched advertising agencies to Crispin Porter/Bogusky. These guys have been doing the stuff for BMW mini, Subservient Chicken and those crazy commercials with the creepy king for Burger King. Their boss (Bogusky) was recently in Fast Company magazine and they were calling him (and I find this pretty funny) The "Steve Jobs" or the advertising world.

As much as he's done being disruptive in the advertising world, I wouldn't quite compare him to the man who started Apple, brought it back from near death, created the world's best selling music player, the largest music store in the world, Pixar, and owns 7% of Disney. This could be the start of some interesting commercials for Microsoft, though.

I'm not sure what angle they will take. I don't think it's a good idea to try to out-cool Apple. That would put them on an equal playing field and that's never a good idea. They'll probably portray Apple as elitist and play up the price differences.

 

[Rhalliwell1]

Dear Apple,

I am sure you are not worried, but if you are; Don't. This advertising campaign is coming out of Microsoft and that means a lot;

1) It will be late.
2) When it eventually gets here it won't be worth the hype.
3) It will fail.
4) Your Television set probably wont have the drivers to run the ads.
5) They are more than likely going to edit the ads with your Systems, so you will make money from it.

Kind Regards,

Rhalliwell1



lol =)

 

[woweee]

The thing that I still don't understand is why microsoft insists on selling their service packs. They sell a screwed-up operating system and they charge people money to fix it? At least Apple released Puma for free back in the day.

 

[ZeelessOne]

Now, now. PCs have lots of advantages, but most of those don't apply to general users, which commercials target.

If you're a bargain hunter, PCs are cheaper.
You can build your own PCs.
More hardware/software options out there.
Games!

Most people just get a Dell or Gateway and get roasted with over-pricing and bloatware.

I've been using Vista since the RTM several months before it came out (October or November 06). I haven't had any problems with it. It's always felt faster to me than XP and just as fast as Mac OS X. But I take real good care of my computers and never install something I might uninstall.

I don't know where other people have problems. Maybe I just naturally follow some sort of standard Microsoft made so everything works like it should. When people ask me to fix their computer, I usually can't because I never have problems. I don't even use Antivirus and have never had any junk!

People will be stupid with their computers forever. Commercials and OS enhancements won't change that. Maybe OS X is just more intuitive, but as an advanced user, that's not a problem for me.

Macs just make sense for the general public who watch commercials.

Vista just works for me. I'm only wanting to switch to Mac because I'm bored, and a new OS sounds like fun; and with with dual 3870s an option now, the Mac Pro is the first Mac more powerful than my 1 1/2 year old PC.

The thing that I still don't understand is why microsoft insists on selling their service packs. They sell a screwed-up operating system and they charge people money to fix it? At least Apple released Puma for free back in the day.

What are you talking about? Microsoft service packs have always been free.

 

[cameronjpu]

The thing that I still don't understand is why microsoft insists on selling their service packs. They sell a screwed-up operating system and they charge people money to fix it? At least Apple released Puma for free back in the day.

I'm assuming you're joking?

 

[AidenShaw]

No, actually it goes more like this:

...

In other words, more like OS X.

And in plain language, the claim

Jim Allchin said it best, "Vista is not going to work - we should be doing it like OS X."​

is a flat out lie.

You have paraphrased two different statements made at two different times by Allchin, combined them into one sentence, and put quotes around it.

That is dishonest and deceitful.

 

[rhpenguin]

And the commercials will be...

"Hi, I'm a PC, and I'm a Mac"

And underneath it all, a Mac is just a PC in a pretty case.

There's a reason I for the most part stopped surfing these forums. The rampant fanboyisim found here is beyond comprehension. I'm confident that Apple could package dog s*it and the majority here would lap it up.

Vista really isn't that bad. I run it alongside 10.5 on my Hacintosh and have not had any issues with it in the month and a half I've been dual booting it. Sure, pre SP1 it was unreliable but things have got a lot better since release. Maybe ya'll should try it again, you might change your tune. I've changed mine.

 

[mambodancer]

Reliability of Apple products? Hmm I don't know about that one. I was on my second Mac due to hardware failures and botched repairs within 6 months of purchasing the first. I'm on my 3rd 3G iPod nano because of the widespread tilted screen issue that Apple still has not resolved and refuses to admit even exists.

Theres also the issue of certain European governments investigating Apple hardware failures and forcing Apple to repair units with design flaws.

Innovation? Hmm.. I don't know about that one. Apple software and hardware lacks features that are standard on Windows machines. Such as HDMI output, system wide hardware acceleration for video, the ability to mix the LFE channel from DVDs into the stereo downmix, etc. $500 Wal-Mart notebooks have these features, but MacBooks that run $1406 after taxes do not. I wouldn't call that innovation. I call that being stuck in the past!
"

Regardless of your anecdotal experience, Apple continues to garner the highest scores in terms of customer satisfaction, reliability, usability, security and customer service according to Consumer Reports, PC Magazine and other publications.

HDMI is not standard on any PC.

Neither is wifi. Nor firewire, gigabit ethernet, bluetooth nor a slew of other features that have been rehashed over and over again in so many different forums.

 

[Quillz]

They have awoken... "The sleeping GIANT"

I like Mac's and use them but...
I have wondered why MS hasn't responded to these campaigns...

We shall see what happens...

The main reason is because Microsoft doesn't have to, and they know it. When you own 90% of the market, your competition will do just about anything to belittle you. Frankly, while the ads may be successful, all they've really done is further proven the stereotype that all Apple users are smug and uptight. Of course, some of the responses in this thread show that, as well.

While I have no problems with Microsoft countering (as they should, as Vista has never been plagued by major issues that people claim it has been), I just hope they try to remain tasteful, unlike Apple.