New Microsoft Ad Campaign Targets Mac Prices

[Jpoon]

Vista is horrible - your components may not be low end, but the OS is awful.

I'm saving up to build a PC for myself, but will wait till 7 is ready to launch.

That's why my PC runs Windows 7 beta, and XP 64 bit professional when 7 just doesn't cut it.

If you know your way around, you can definitely be just at productive as an OS X user. It's just loud, I have to diagnose problems myself, and I have like ten different warranties to deal with. On the upside, I spent less than the mid range iMac and got a much more functional computer.

Stories like these are everywhere. People are just different and have different needs. In the end, we're just fighting over a product. I don't really like the Microsoft ads, they leave a lot out. But so did the Apple ones in the recent years. I mean, go back and watch all of them.

 

[NamJangNamJa]

I use both PC and Mac, I have built/purchased about a dozen PCs and four Macs for myself so far in my life. I hate Mac less, but price and Firewire port removal from MacBook forces my next purchase to be a PC these days.

 

[Wikinerd]

I think it's a fair point well made. The Apple Tax is stupendously high now, particularly here in the UK. I love my iMac and Macbook, don't get me wrong, but if all someone needs is something to browse the internet and keep their files on, it's a lot of money to pay.

Mac Mini?

 

[Anuba]

Is this really going to change people's minds when they're looking to buy a Mac? Are they going to say, "Well, I was going to buy this MBP, but I saw that Microsoft Ad and I can get a 17" model for half the price."

Of course not. The Apple Store part of the commercial is just a tongue-in-cheek stab back at Apple for 10 years of relentless taunting (and well-deserved, I may add). If the commercial's purpose had been to attract new high-end customers they would've shown her buying a Sony Vaio and then showed her sitting among a bunch of identically-clad human clones, all using identical MacBooks, underscoring the irony that the once "different" Macs, after gaining some market share while simultaneously being stripped of all color options and bling, have become a token of soulless conformity. One People, One Nation, One Mac.

 

[MacsAREbetter]

Its not really a coensedense that after everyone switches from PC to mac they NEVER go back..

i have a macbook my girlfriend has an HP it was over 1200 and her's is a piece of crap.. EVERYTHING about my macbook is better and she admits it and wishes she would have bought a mac..

The OS is soo much better and easier to use.. and customer service is 1000000000000 times better she had a problem with hers.. she bought and extended warrenty also

and took it in.. it took OVER 2 weeks to get back.. now if you took it to an apple store or called apple they Overnight you a box with next day shipping and have it back to you within a few days you CANNOT say that for pcs

seriously my grandparents have been using a PC for YEARS they finally got a mac and will NEVER go back..my 55 year old grandparents can tell the differences of using a mac to a pc.

 

[199708]

Mac Mini?

$599/$799
for something in between, you get a 17inch laptop, that automatically becomes portable.
It is also more than capable of running 720p even 1080p seeing it has HDMI built in.
jsut no blueray but hey, macmini doesnt have that either.

so....that is a smart buy.

 

[Anuba]

Mac Mini?

Looking strictly at bang-for-buck if you break down the system component by component, the Mac Mini has the highest Apple Tax of them all. It's been like that since the beginning. They set the price slightly above what a low-end PC costs, but then they crammed it with stuff like a 4200 RPM drive and a pathetic 32 MB video card which couldn't even handle basic CoreGraphics effects like the Dashboard ripples... Components they probably found in garbage containers outside the Acer PC factory, after Acer had stopped using stuff like that in their entry-level dimestore PCs.

 

[leefaus]

Original Purchase vs. Actual Price

Unfortunately this add takes into the fact the original purchase price. They don't show the "student" going to the apple store and asking if they can get an educational discount (which you will get with a valid ID). They don't show the frustration of the person when they get home trying to find a techie neighbor or dorm mate to help them get on the internet, setting up their printer, finding out how to get their email, and connecting to their phone for syncing contacts and music. I would love to see the after ad, when she has a Microsoft Zune for Music, and a Microsft Mobile based phone, then compare that to setting up the Mac with an iPod and iPhone. Now go buy and application for the Windows Phone and sync it. Then buy music via Amazon and sync it to the Zune. Now add an app from the iTunes store to the iPhone. Next purchase a piece of music and sync it. I would also like to see the actual comparisons between using the Windows tools for Photos, Video, Web Building (ootb) and the iLife Suite. Now calculate the total price of ownership.

 

[Eidorian]

Vista is horrible - your components may not be low end, but the OS is awful.

I'm saving up to build a PC for myself, but will wait till 7 is ready to launch.

I'm sorry but I can't hear you over my enjoyment of my hardware.

 

[neiltc13]

Apple, unlike Microsoft, is a company selling the "whole widget". "Apples and oranges"(no pun intended).

And the 5 versions means that consumers are sold "crippled" versions of Windows—versions that are "missing something". Versions that the user will get tired of and upgrade to Ultimate anyway, and CrapSoft generates another bunch of money from these upgrades.

Mac OS X is priced at $129, you get all the features, instead of the $319 that you would pay for the Ultimate (i.e. the FULL version).

Tell me one feature which isn't in Home Basic that you actually need in order to make the computer work. The things in Premium and Ultimate are extras - things which most people don't need, and it's good that Microsoft offers users the ability to skip these.

Also, OS X doesn't include anything that comes even close to Media Centre in Vista Home Premium.

 

[Wikinerd]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRfAWK2aoHA

'nuff said

 

[EmperorDarius]

Looking strictly at bang-for-buck if you break down the system component by component, the Mac Mini has the highest Apple Tax of them all. It's been like that since the beginning. They set the price slightly above what a low-end PC costs, but then they crammed it with stuff like a 4200 RPM drive and a pathetic 32 MB video card which couldn't even handle basic CoreGraphics effects like the Dashboard ripples... Components they probably found in garbage containers outside the Acer PC factory, after Acer had stopped using stuff like that in their entry-level dimestore PCs.

Except that the harddrives are at 5400 rpm, the GPU is 128/256 MB and the RAM is DDR3, unlike those DDR2 which a lot of PCs still use?

 

[Wikinerd]

Tell me one feature which isn't in Home Basic that you actually need in order to make the computer work. The things in Premium and Ultimate are extras - things which most people don't need, and it's good that Microsoft offers users the ability to skip these.

Also, OS X doesn't include anything that comes even close to Media Centre in Vista Home Premium.

According to Microsoft's own table there are plenty; backups, document sharing (not as important), "Protection against hardware failure", "Scan, fax, and receive documents and images...", "Easily make DVDs...", list goes on. The fact that they are providing that list means that there are things that will be important that users of the lower versions are missing out.


And most importantly, "Have more fun on your PC...", available only for Home Prem. and Ultimate users. (Yep. You buy your "fun" with more money.)

 

[Tallest Skil]

Its not really a coensedense that after everyone switches from PC to mac they NEVER go back..

i have a macbook my girlfriend has an HP it was over 1200 and her's is a piece of crap.. EVERYTHING about my macbook is better and she admits it and wishes she would have bought a mac..

The OS is soo much better and easier to use.. and customer service is 1000000000000 times better she had a problem with hers.. she bought and extended warrenty also

and took it in.. it took OVER 2 weeks to get back.. now if you took it to an apple store or called apple they Overnight you a box with next day shipping and have it back to you within a few days you CANNOT say that for pcs

seriously my grandparents have been using a PC for YEARS they finally got a mac and will NEVER go back..my 55 year old grandparents can tell the differences of using a mac to a pc.

Everybody say, "Fan!"

"FAN!"

Everybody say, "Boy!"

"BOY!"

Everybody say, "Your argument is based on absolutely no objective evidence, wracked with core errancies, and is not representative of the collective user-base!"

"Er..."

 

[Wikinerd]

$599/$799
for something in between, you get a 17inch laptop, that automatically becomes portable.
It is also more than capable of running 720p even 1080p seeing it has HDMI built in.
jsut no blueray but hey, macmini doesnt have that either.

so....that is a smart buy.

though imho, a mac mini is way, way more portable than any 17" PC laptop you'll ever come across.

 

[Wikinerd]

Generally, the graphics drivers for the Mac Pro suck eggs.

In Bootcamp? or in OS X?

 

[sehnsucht77]

Mac Mini?

yeah, right, like i am going to lug around a mac mini, a keyboard and a monitor to use as a laptop. while i am at it, i'd need a nice surge protector too.

 

[NamJangNamJa]

though imho, a mac mini is way, way more portable than any 17" PC laptop you'll ever come across.

I thought about buying mini instead of a laptop a while ago, but external monitor, keyboard, and mouse, power cable, video cable..... were too much to haul around.

 

[Anuba]

Its not really a coensedense that after everyone switches from PC to mac they NEVER go back..

No, they don't. The Mac switch is an epiphany for computer illiterates, but a fart in the wind for the rest of us. I used PCs exclusively for 15 years, used both platforms in parallel for 5 years, and when Windows 7 is released this fall I'm starting to phase out Macs and OS X.

Why?

Well, let's see. The company disgusts me. The user community creeps me out with its Scientology-vibe. The service is worthless -- I need my business machines running 24-7, and I simply can't afford to rely on machines that, if they break down, will not be repaired on site but transported by me to another city 60 miles away, and picked up several days later, and meanwhile I'd have to tell my clients that I can't work because my computer is at the "workshop", like it was 1959 or something. If they don't do on-site repairs they can kiss my @$$. And the operating system, while quite good, is not nearly good enough to make up for the other cons that come with owning Macs.

 

[Wikinerd]

I don't see how Vista is low-end by association. Is OS X low-end because it runs on a Mac Mini? It illustrates that there are inexpensive PCs, period.

If they had wanted to dazzle insecure people with money, they would've shown her buying a high-end Sony Vaio and added something about how her machine is more expressive of her personality than any of the identical-looking drab slabs of metal she could've purchased in an Apple Store. One MacBook Pro in a sea of black PC notebooks is cool and different... One alu MacBook in a sea of other alu MacBooks is more like a conformist convention where the speaker says something along the lines of "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer..."

I can always say that I hackint0sh'd this baby but it's quite expensive. Design comes with price, mate.

( If link doesn't work, it's http://www.voodoopc.com/#/productsenvy)

 

[Macist]

Why buy a gold ring when you can get a silver plated one for so much less?

Microsoft are probably slightly rattled by the Mac's assent so this ad is really a good thing. Yes, Windows massively dominates but then a huge number of Windows PCs are sold to corporations to act as terminals.

On the consumer level Apple is a much bigger player than their overall market share would suggest. Look at video, publishing, music, photography, design, etc. and you'll find Mac share at 50-90%.

If all you do is websurf and type stuff - and a lot of people really only do that -than it really doesn't matter what computer you have. If you're needs a little more complex the Mac OS has shown itself to wipe the floor with windows.

 

[Tallest Skil]

In Bootcamp? or in OS X?

OS X.

 

[Anuba]

Except that the harddrives are at 5400 rpm, the GPU is 128/256 MB and the RAM is DDR3, unlike those DDR2 which a lot of PCs still use?

I was talking about the original Mac Mini that came with a 1.2 or 1.42 GHz G4 CPU, a 32 MB video card and a 4200 RPM drive, which was junk even in 2005.

This year, they have finally started putting contemporary components in the Mini, but then they also jacked up the price and changed the marketing angle on the Mini from entry-level Mac to "green" Mac. So the bang-for-buck factor remains laughable.

 

[Wikinerd]

I thought about buying mini instead of a laptop a while ago, but external monitor, keyboard, and mouse, power cable, video cable..... were too much to haul around.

Called plugging-it-in-to-whatever-is-there. Not like you really need that trip to Starbucks and "hang out" there when you're so tight-budgeted

 

[badmac78]

They aren't comparing apples with apples, they comparing everything that's available on the market. Thats what normal people do that dont care about anything but getting the job at hand done.

That's the clever thing about the ad . .. by simply saying "17-inch" it suddenly appears that she is comparing apples to apples.

You are right, if she wants only a 17-inch laptop. She can certainly get something for $699. The minute she adds other criteria you get nickeled and dimed to death.

My partner and I have this discussion all the time. He has a $499 HP that he bought and for what he could spend, he got something that fit into his budget. I know that for the past 4 years he's had it, he's had more re-installs of windows software and other problems than I've ever had with any Apple computer.

I am a mac fanboy, but Kudo's to MS for pulling a good punch in this economy. I will certainly be looking out for Apple's response.