New Microsoft Ad Campaign Targets Mac Prices

[localoid]

...
By the way, expect more of these ads.
...

Yes, the series of ads is called "Laptop Hunters" -- "Lauren" is laptop hunter #1.

"In the coming weeks, you can expect to see more from Laptop Hunters as we follow real people on the hunt for a laptop."

Real People Find Windows PCs A Better Fit For Their Lives

 

[Garbonzo]

Scared of a real fight?

Price is one thing, but lets face it, you just can't get what you want from Apple in many cases. 13" screens are indeed passe'. Probably 80% of the computers sold in the world are mini-towers (just a guess). With Apple you either get a built in screen that gets tossed if you upgrade machines, a mac mini that is an overpriced novelty with crap graphics, and a crappy little HD, or you spend 2.5k for a tower. WTF?

I used to be a mac guy. We have both in the house, a mac for my wife, and a Vista POS for me.

In my opinion Apple is scared to come out of their niche and have a real fight. If they would simply add a decent mid-range mini-tower with room for 3 HD's and enough RAM slots for real work there would be plenty of folks who would see the light, maybe even double their market share. I keep hoping the day will come, but for now I'm contemplating the next round of upgrades to this POS PC since Apple still doesn't make anything I want to buy.

 

[Stratus Fear]

But there's no way a US$ 1,000 MacBook will last 5 years running software with its integrated graphics card... it is just not worth it to keep it for so much time.

Does everybody play games or something? For a lot of people, the integrated graphics from five years ago don't matter in the computers they're still using.

 

[Balin64]

Is the hardware inside a mac that much different than a PC?

Having worked in an Intel plant we mae chips, we didn't make Dell chips one day and apple chips the next day, we made chips, same chemicals, same processing, same lithography. So the engine is the same.
Chipsets are the same way ome jsut have additional functionality that are tranparrent to the end user.
Video cards, macs and pcs is there a difference other than pc drivers are updated much more frequently.
RAM-same grade of ram is available for both as are HDD/SSD.
when shopping for a new laptop the hardware between the dells and apple was comparable.
if I am missing something regarding Apple using a superior grade of mardware please let me know.

I was referring to the whole package, of course. But since you mentioned the processor=engine example, can I come over and install my M62 in your Sportage? Warning you: your gas mileage will decrease dramatically.

It's about MY experience on my preferred platform. I said the ad was irrelevant TO ME because if Kia did that it would be ridiculous...

 

[skaertus]

Apple might be pissed about this now that they are selling computers there again.

I guess who cares.

It would be like a Hyundai commercial telling someone to buy a cheap car.

"well I went into a Bentley dealership and it was too expensive and I'm not cool enough to drive one"

I guess I will go buy a cheap car that isn't as great.

disclaimer: no offense to Hyundai... just mentioning a more affordable car.

They basically admit that they are not premium and offer nothing but value.

PCs are not Hyundais, and Macs are not Bentleys. PCs and Macs are too much similar to each other these days to justify that difference in pricing.

 

[dukebound85]

why do people think macs have higher quality? im serious....

my pc i built is of the best parts i could buy and it was very cheap compared to anything apple was offering (spent 900 for a quad core 8gig ram 8800gt 500gig pc in early 2008)

my mb on th otherhand has had some issues (like the random shutdown, a battery issue and my dad's mbp had a logic board failure after 2 years of usage), as have my iphone (cracks, dead touch screen, etc) and my emac (the display wont turn on)

they use the same parts...its just that apple likes to cram those parts in a tiny enclosure it seems for "looks" and charge a prmium for it

 

[h.21]

Lauren is a moron who is probably pleased with an inferior spec'ed machine. I hope she enjoys her TN panel and the viruses she will have in 2 months.

 

[DMann]

YES THANK YOU! Those "Get a Mac" ads are NOT poking fun at PC users, nor are they insulting anyone's intelligence. They are simply "Mac itself vs. PC itself." Or maybe in some cases, "Apple vs. Microsoft." It's Mi¢ro$oft themselves who are insulting the intelligence of Mac users, i.e. by implying that people spend money on Macs to "look cool" or "to show how rich they are."

But those Mi¢ro$oft ads! "I'm a PC." No, you're a PC user.

This has been sheer desperation on MS's part. Great advertising for Mac, incidentally.

 

[Stratus Fear]

PCs are not Hyundais, and Macs are not Bentleys. PCs and Macs are too much similar to each other these days to justify that difference in pricing.

A Honda Accord V6 and a BMW 328i have similarly powerful engines, but one costs $7k more than the other. Why is that? So motherboards and CPUs are similar/the same. Why should they be the same price? There's clearly a lack of understanding about the value propositions of each machine.

 

[skaertus]

Does everybody play games or something? For a lot of people, the integrated graphics from five years ago don't matter in the computers they're still using.

I've bought a MacBook with an integrated Intel graphics card last May, and I am getting frustrated with its performance. A dedicated graphics card is worth it not just for games. If you are a consumer who does not care about performance, perhaps you wouldn't mind paying a premium price for having low-end hardware. However, if you want to get premium performance for the premium price you pay... well, you'd have to pay super-premium price if you want a Mac.

 

[skaertus]

why do people think macs have higher quality? im serious....

Macs usually have better quality parts than PCs. But there's a world of different PC makers, and some of them may use (and some probably do use) even better quality parts than Apple. And yes, sometimes Apple just put low-quality parts in a beautiful package. Ditto for the 20" iMac screen..

 

[pismodude2]

So what?

Do you think that any Apple store manager would have allowed a camera crew to come into the store?

Of course the commercial is staged. BFD. What commercial isn't?

Microsoft is trying to pass this off as an actual test though. They imply that all they told her was to go bargain hunting for a 17" laptop under $1000, which is obviously NOT TRUE. It's not a joking type of misleading statement (like when Apple makes fun of Windows for crashing, which I'm sure Macs do too), but a complete twisting of the facts that adversely affects the viewers interpretation of everything that follows. In short- they are trying to make this look like a documentary, which is appalling.

Does it change the simple fact that the commercial is pointing out - that for many given sets of criteria that Apple is more expensive than what you can find from Windows PC vendors?

It's a simple fact.

I have not yet seen a PC laptop older than 5 years that can run the most recent Windows OS, but my iBook is still chugging away, and our Pismo (running Tiger) is almost a decade old now.

Macs keep better, and save you way more money in the long run, like energy efficient bulbs, or brick houses (as opposed to ones made of sticks or straw you cheap little pigs ).

 

[jjahshik32]

Basically if you think about it, a macbook pro to the regular person probably will last 8 years. Its design is years ahead of its time, think about it the mbp's casing was just updated.

The powerbook's design lasted about 6 years now. Even before the powerbook's design like the pismo was nice. That HP will definitely be replaced within a couple of years, even its design would be tiresome.

I would rather just buy a nice 17" unibody mbp now and use it for the next 8 years. If I was the average american that is BUT I'm not so I usually upgrade every year or two. Thank GOD for resale value from Apple. Its like basically you start with a mac, you pay almost the same as you would upgrade a pc every couple of years.

Because PC's are cheaper but resale value is crap. So basically Macs resale value + a bit more on top of what a brand new pc would cost anyway would get you a new mac every couple of years.

I mean whether it be macs or pcs it doesnt matter these days. Most electronics last decades since we use durable parts and its been like that for the last 15-20 years. The question is which model will go out of style quicker. I mean I dont mind using osx snow leopard 8 years from now on a 17" unibody mbp, I bet it'll still run even faster...

But imagine trying to run windows 7 on that HP years from now.. I dont even want to find out how that goes.

 

[Stratus Fear]

I've bought a MacBook with an integrated Intel graphics card last May, and I am getting frustrated with its performance. A dedicated graphics card is worth it not just for games. If you are a consumer who does not care about performance, perhaps you wouldn't mind paying a premium price for having low-end hardware.

The graphics card barely matters for most day to day work. Unless you're doing CAD or 3D work, it shouldn't matter at all.

I use Windows at my job, and I need to do some pretty heavy lifting on that machine; tons of apps open all the time. So I've got a hefty CPU and a good bit of RAM. The graphics card is a 6200 IGP (yeah, those are from 4 or 5 years ago). Doesn't make a bit of difference since what I do isn't graphics intensive. For the record, I run Windows 7, with Aero Glass (I don't mind running a beta on my production machine since I can fall back to my laptop if needed).

If the integrated graphics is frustrating you outside of games, I'd like to know what it is you do on your machine.

However, if you want to get premium performance for the premium price you pay... well, you'd have to pay super-premium price if you want a Mac.

And you're still paying for more than just a spec sheet with big numbers. Of course it's going to cost more.

 

[applecultvictim]

I used to be anti Mac ... that is until I spent good quality time with my wife's macbook air. The feel of the keyboard and the overall build quality sold me over to mac. Needless to say I ended up selling my powerful Dell XPS and purchased a new MacBook Pro 17. The MBP was about $1,700 more than the Dell. Was it worth it? Yes.

Windows XP runs great through VMWare, 7 runs great as well.

and that about sums it up, let's have the next ms craptop hunter while we enjoy our macs, lock thread, end of story.

 

[skaertus]

A Honda Accord V6 and a BMW 328i have similarly powerful engines, but one costs $7k more than the other. Why is that? So motherboards and CPUs are similar/the same. Why should they be the same price? There's clearly a lack of understanding about the value propositions of each machine.

OK, the BMW 328i offers a better experience, and the BMW offers more luxury items. Computers are a different story. PCs and Macs are quite equivalent. The superiority of Windows or MacOS is a matter of opinion more than of facts.

 

[polaris20]

why do people think macs have higher quality? im serious....

my pc i built is of the best parts i could buy and it was very cheap compared to anything apple was offering (spent 900 for a quad core 8gig ram 8800gt 500gig pc in early 2008)

my mb on th otherhand has had some issues (like the random shutdown, a battery issue and my dad's mbp had a logic board failure after 2 years of usage), as have my iphone (cracks, dead touch screen, etc) and my emac (the display wont turn on)

they use the same parts...its just that apple likes to cram those parts in a tiny enclosure it seems for "looks" and charge a prmium for it

Speaking from my experience as an IT person, my MBP is just better built than any of the Dells, HPs, or Lenovos I've worked with. Just my humble opinion. Of course everyone has their own story, and that's fine.

 

[pismodude2]

Basically if you think about it, a macbook pro to the regular person probably will last 8 years. Its design is years ahead of its time, think about it the mbp's casing was just updated.

The powerbook's design lasted about 6 years now. Even before the powerbook's design like the pismo was nice. That HP will definitely be replaced within a couple of years, even its design would be tiresome.

I would rather just buy a nice 17" unibody mbp now and use it for the next 8 years. If I was the average american that is BUT I'm not so I usually upgrade every year or two. Thank GOD for resale value from Apple. Its like basically you start with a mac, you pay almost the same as you would upgrade a pc every couple of years.

Because PC's are cheaper but resale value is crap. So basically Macs resale value + a bit more on top of what a brand new pc would cost anyway would get you a new mac every couple of years.

Plus, used Macs sell themselves. It's like a full time job trying to get someone to buy an old Dell

 

[Stratus Fear]

OK, the BMW 328i offers a better experience, and the BMW offers more luxury items. Computers are a different story. PCs and Macs are quite equivalent. The superiority of Windows or MacOS is a matter of opinion more than of facts.

You're missing the point. There's more to the package than the OS itself and the hardware inside the machine.

 

[gkarris]

With products like Vista, they better be cheap! How else would they sell it?

LOL.... tell me about it.

Came with my budget $379 Acer Laptop...

Works fine though... for the money.

Apple will always be seen as a "premium" computer. These ads only make PC buyers not feel bad for not being able to afford a Mac.

I think they're great.

Good for Microsoft - they've been taking Apple's "I'm a Mac" ads lying down....

Then there was that whole Sienfeld ad - which most people didn't even understand.

Then, Windows Mohave (like, WTF?)

I think the new ads will keep Apple on its toes.

 

[Cole Slaw]

Price is one thing, but lets face it, you just can't get what you want from Apple in many cases. 13" screens are indeed passe'. Probably 80% of the computers sold in the world are mini-towers (just a guess). With Apple you either get a built in screen that gets tossed if you upgrade machines, a mac mini that is an overpriced novelty with crap graphics, and a crappy little HD, or you spend 2.5k for a tower. WTF?

I used to be a mac guy. We have both in the house, a mac for my wife, and a Vista POS for me.

In my opinion Apple is scared to come out of their niche and have a real fight. If they would simply add a decent mid-range mini-tower with room for 3 HD's and enough RAM slots for real work there would be plenty of folks who would see the light, maybe even double their market share. I keep hoping the day will come, but for now I'm contemplating the next round of upgrades to this POS PC since Apple still doesn't make anything I want to buy.

You have a good point there.
Apple has become more popular of late and if they'd only broaden their computer offerings a little, and perhaps make their prices a little more reasonable they might actually break past 10 percent market share.
We hear about Apple having 20 billion dollars cash (or whatever). Why not invest a small portion of this into developing a small tower, a truly "Pro" laptop model, and perhaps a netbook?
They (Apple) seem to be their own worst enemy in a way.

 

[Sehnsucht]

How about:

• Find a quad core system under $800
• Find a quad core Nehalem system with 12 GiB RAM under $1200

...and there are lots more.

The chick in that ad wouldn't know what a quad-core processor is if one bit her in the ass. Again, she portrayed the typical demographic to which the PC manufacturers cater with their lower-end offerings: the technologically-ignorant/apathetic "Wal-Mart shopper."

As someone who works for Wal-Mart, here's a little story: A few weeks ago, a customer came in and asked me, "Where's that computer you had for $499?" We have several different computers for that price, laptop and desktop, so I asked her which one she meant. "I dunno, it was a laptop." Again, I ask her to narrow it down a little. I even go with her to the laptop display and open it up to see if I can refresh her memory. I asked, "Do you recall which brand it was?" and the customer said, "I dunno...I don't care about the brand, I was just looking at the price!"

That one phrase pretty much sums it up. Wal-Mart shoppers will buy anything as long as it's cheap and shaped like a computer. Obviously, the customer didn't do any research whatsoever before buying. If she wouldn't have stonewalled about the price I would have tried to help her by asking questions such as, "What will you be using it for?", "Is anyone else in your family, say kids, going to want to play games on it?", "Do you have broadband or dial-up?", etc, in order to determine which system would best fit her needs. Instead, because the customer just didn't care and wanted to save money so badly, she went home with a underpowered 15" Dell with integrated Intel graphics, 1 GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive, and a 1.83GHz AMD processor. With Vista. Yeah, that ought to be fun.

So in answer to AidenShaw, no, of course you can't get a quad-core Mac for under $2,500. Nobody's worried, because Apple doesn't cater to the above mentioned demographic, who by the way, don't care about quad-core thingamajigs anyway. Mi¢ro$oft can pull the old "economy is so bad, look how cheeeeeep you can get our OS" all they want, but again, "Macs are too 'spensive'" has been thrown around since the mid 1980's. Who cares.

 

[Stratus Fear]

You have a good point there.
Apple has become more popular of late and if they'd only broaden their computer offerings a little, and perhaps make their prices a little more reasonable they might actually break past 10 percent market share.
We hear about Apple having 20 billion dollars cash (or whatever). Why not invest a small portion of this into developing a small tower, a truly "Pro" laptop model, and perhaps a netbook?
They (Apple) seem to be their own worst enemy in a way.

The most important thing to any business is the bottom line. Apple doesn't get their bottom line from market share. They get it from margins. And they get margins by not selling computers in a high-volume, low-margin market like most PC OEMs. They simply won't make a small, cheap generic box unless they ever change their business model.

 

[VoR]

You're missing the point. There's more to the package than the OS itself and the hardware inside the machine.

I'll play this game of simplify the situation and car analogies:

Macs and pcs are both hyundais - one has a rolls royce angel on the bonnet, the other is debadged.

 

[APPLENEWBIE]

Sorry I haven't read The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel, which is where I assume that comes from. You'll have to give me more context if you want to know what you mean.

Bertrand Serlet, Apple senior vice president of software development, at WWDC 2006 said almost exactly that quote, "and beneath it all its still just windows" when comparing Windows Vista and OS X.