Microsoft's Latest Anti-MacBook Ad Focuses on Surface Pro 4's Touchscreen

[blackcrayon]

Sort of an interesting "thing" Microsoft has now that they make hardware. They sort of have to say "Hey, buy a Surface instead of that piece of crap MacBook or awful useless iPad!"..."But if you do buy one of those awful garbage devices, we have a great version of Office for them that's just amazing!"

(I'm actually impressed with the frequency that Microsoft is improving their iOS versions of the Office apps)

 

[Firelock]

I have to admit that the Surface Pro (I don't fancy the Surface "non-Pro") are some really unique and rather nice products. But after owning the Surface Pro 3 for a month, one thing became obvious. It's a "jack of all trades, master of none".


If only the Surface Pro was able to offer a great tablet experience, then I might have been willing to pay with the fiddlyness that is the keyboard attachment and it's touchpad/trackpad. But when the Surface Pro doesn't really offer anything in terms of a touch-first tablet experience, why should I want to live with it as a rather fiddly notebook?


Once again; Jack of all trades, master of none in my experience.

I owned a Surface Pro 3 (received as a promotion) for a few weeks and felt exactly the same way. Terrible tablet experience, mediocre laptop experience. The following sequence is not a joke: I gave it to my boss, who gave it to her boss, who gave it to his boss (the head of our department), and then at our department Christmas party last year the tablet/laptop was given away as the grand prize in the Xmas gift drawing we have every year. Talk about a white elephant.

 

[Helpfixit]

Excellent tablet, but it runs Microsoft Windows 10. ☹️

 

[muadibe]

Not sure their adverts are really working though.


https://www.instagram.com/p/BKPCo9PjnSN/

 

[barthrh]

The problem with touch screen notebook screens is all of the blood on the keyboard because whenever someone pokes my screen I want to cut their @#$!@ finger off.

Seriously, I have no desire for a vertical touch screen. It's a workaround for the garbage track pads you find on every PC notebook made (I have yet to find a remotely decent one).

 

[TallManNY]

I've never understood why articles quote the Surface price without including the keyboard and then compare it to a laptop. If you want to just compare it to an iPad, fine, leave out the keyboard. But if you want to compare its cost to a laptop, then you have to throw in the $129 keyboard.

 

[BigDO]

Apples campaign was funny and witty, I do not see that in any Microsoft ads.They are sometimes plain normals ads, but more often they are just terrible. It is not like they wouldn't have the money to hire the best ad agency there is....

You have to be kidding. The "I am Mac" campaign was cringeworthy.

 

[rowspaxe]

Remember when Apple made laptops?

ironically, they are still making the same laptops you remember!

 

[RogueWarrior65]

I have an HP laptop with a touchscreen (only because I have to do cross-platform development) and I can say that touchscreens on a laptop are stupid and useless. The whole experience is garbage. The screen bounces when you touch it. The resolution is dreadful. It's basically total sh*t. To evoke an old Microsoft ad tag line: Where do I want to go today? Back over to my Mac, thank you so much.

 

[rfrmac]

We're promised by Tim Cook to "stay tuned". I've been "staying tuned" for several years now and my computer company just has not felt it important to stay up with the times. The environment has changed. Loyal customers, like me, are now openly complaining that their systems are not fast enough and the graphics need major upgrades. Who ever makes the decisions on what to do with the Mac product line should be replaced. It's been a long, long dry spell. Tim, worry less about non essential things and get back to spending some resources on the Mac. Your competition sees your vulnerable here and are taking advantage of it besides losing long time customers because they need the power to compete in their jobs.

 

[gimikinc]

Really lame AD, even a MS Fanboy would agree!

 

[rowspaxe]

I've never understood why articles quote the Surface price without including the keyboard and then compare it to a laptop. If you want to just compare it to an iPad, fine, leave out the keyboard. But if you want to compare its cost to a laptop, then you have to throw in the $129 keyboard.

Fair point. It is misleading to show the keyboard and tablet and then the tablet only price.
In reality, I doubt there is much consumer confusion on this issue.

 

[GlowEarth]

F*** you Microsoft. Your advertisement about Surface 4 is a cheap ass. Apple have a good reason for not add touchscreen on their laptop (does trade off ring a bell?). If you are too impatient with Apple release, you can try this website out. Third party company can do touchscreen on MacBook use their own design out of new MacBook. Check this out. http://www.modbook.com/

Over the weekend, Microsoft launched a new ad for the Surface Pro 4, continuing its marketing strategy of comparing the tablet computer to Apple's products, this time the 13-inch MacBook Air. The ad is the newest in Microsoft's anti-Apple theme of commercials, previously comparing the iPad Pro with the Surface Pro 4, the MacBook Pro with the Surface Book, and OS X with Windows 10. Just a few weeks ago, the MacBook Air was the focus of another Surface Pro 4 ad.

Simple titled "Get the Surface Pro," the new ad has a focus on the tablet's ability to write and doodle on the screen with the included stylus. Using the same musical accompaniment of the previous MacBook Air comparison spot, the singer in the new ad tells potential customers that "if you try to write on a plain old Mac, the difference can be seen. It doesn't work." Other advantages highlighted in the ad include the detachable keyboard, and the ending tagline states, "Surface does more. Just like you."

Microsoft positions the Surface Pro 4 as a true combination tablet and personal computer, leading to ads comparing it to both an iPad Pro and MacBook. In the previous iPad Pro commercial, Microsoft's personal assistant Cortana let customers, and Siri, know that the iPad lacks an Intel Core i7 processor, full access to Microsoft Office beyond the mobile app versions, a trackpad, and external port options, making Microsoft's tablet more of a computer than Apple's 12.9-inch tablet.

The 12.3-inch Surface Pro 4 starts at $899 for 128GB of internal storage and 4GB of RAM, and goes up to as much as $1,799 for 256GB of internal storage and 16GB of RAM. Comparatively, the 11-inch MacBook Air starts at $899, with 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM, increasing to $1099 for 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM, while the 13-inch model starts at $999 for 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM, and rising to $1199 for 256GB of storage.

Article Link: Microsoft's Latest Anti-MacBook Ad Focuses on Surface Pro 4's Touchscreen

 

[rowspaxe]

Really lame AD, even a MS Fanboy would agree!

I am sympathetic to the surface concept, and i agree. MS advertising seldom makes the case for the product. Why do all pen actions in the ads consist of extra large scrawl? A new consumer might easily assume the pen is a gimmick that is only good for circling photos and drawing check marks. Also they seem so committed to broad musical treatment of the product (keyboard click dancers, ugh!). Maybe Jobs is right, that the essential MS problem is a lack of taste. I think the products are innovative (if flawed), its time for the culture to catch up

 

[Glassed Silver]

Wow, the cringe is real!

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[forerunnerg34]

remix: Surface Pro.... comes with "10".....

 

[Traverse]

Love or Hate MS, that ad was funny and effective.

I feel like the ad is trying too hard. I don't think Apple's ads are usually that great either (I don't like the iPad Pro ad) but they are rarely annoying as this since the Mac vs PC ads stopped.

 

[rowspaxe]

I still struggle to find a need for this device - it seems like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. I do some stuff where I need to run full PC versions of software (e.g. Adobe products like PhotoShop, Dreamweaver, etc.), but when I do, I don't need the touchscreen interface.

Right...who needs pen functionality when using x86 graphics applications?

 

[TrueBlou]

The only thing worse is Apple's neglected product line. There isn't a single excuse that can justify it. It's pathetic and everyone knows it.

Sadly very, very true, it's almost embarrassing. Thankfully that won't be the case for much longer, I can feel it in my bones.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast........
For the times they are a-changin'

 

[TheMacDaddy1]

It is so bad, it hurts!

How come that a company like Microsoft always seems to pick the worst ad agency to do their ads? Does anyone remember that ad to promote private surfing on IE, where this woman was vomiting in the ad?

Steve was right, they just don't have any taste.

Ummm yeah I believe these are corny on purpose. Hard to miss actually. Like an Old Spice ad or Flo from Progressive, or the magical Quadricorn ad's. Corny for sure but they do get the point across.

I personally thought I would NEVER like a touch screen computer. They my work Windows 10 laptop came with one. After a some weeks, I like it a lot. Apple should really add this to Macbooks.
[doublepost=1473691670][/doublepost]

As someone who has owned a Surface Pro 4, and loved a lot about it, the reason I sold it after only 3 months was the constant crashing of the OS (probably once or twice a week on average) and most importantly the advertised battery life is NO WHERE NEAR the actual battery life (8-9 hours vs 2-4 hours, depending on what apps were running).

Nice product, but like most of MS products, half baked with too many compromises.

P.S. The MS pen is a much nicer product than the Apple Pencil and works flawlessly. I hope Apple takes some cues there.

Microsoft did botch the launch of this hardware, especially with Windows 10 and Intel Skylake. However after many, many firmware updates the Surface Pro's we support at work are running pretty good now and get great battery life.

 

[swm]

I used to love them before they stopped updating them.

don't want to be rude, but what exactly are you missing? you have usb3, thunderbolt, hidpi screens, excellent battery life and quite capable processors. of course, not the latest&greatest. oh and not to mention the build quality and ecosystem.
i use mine to for drawing and CAD modelling, and until now i hasn't felt i'm limited in any way. probably you do some killer apps that require the most recent CPUs from intel.

if it is for me, i'd skip those gimmicky rumoured touch-strips on the "next" mbp, and i do quite well w/o nfc or touchID on my notebook. but that's just me. and also i do not upgrade my gear yearly, probably like every 3 years, probably that's why i am not so disappointed by not seeing every year a new laptop.

 

[Hank Carter]

haha they call it Pro with 16GB RAM really?

You mean like the Macbook Pro that is also stuck at 16GB?

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I like the irony of the article ending with this:

Buyer's Guide: MacBook Air (Don't Buy)

(That's only visible from the main article page... you won't see it in the post in the forums.)

 

[Michael Scrip]

It's not why does MR keep posting new ads, it's why does MS keep this silly campain. If MS needs to raise Surface Pro 4 awareness just feature the benefits of the system w/o bringing Macs into the picture. It's not like Macs have some insane marketshare. It's what -- 7% or so? And that's for all Macs, not just MB.

Exactly. It seems like Microsoft is threatened by Apple for some reason.

Microsoft won the PC war. Their operating system is on 93% of the computers around the world.

But now that they are making their own hardware... why this sudden interest in comparing themselves to Apple?

And I'm still baffled by Microsoft comparing their 2-in-1 detachable tablet to a traditional laptop.

Guess what Microsoft... Lenovo, HP and Dell also make traditional laptops without touchscreens.... and they are actually your competition since they run Windows. And they will sell far more units than Apple ever will. That's your competition.

So it seems like Microsoft is focusing on the wrong opponent (and these commercials are terrible anyway)

 

[inkswamp]

My favorite part of the song was where they brag about how you get a desktop operating system shoehorned into a tablet.