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New Microsoft Ad Campaign Targets Mac Prices
- Thread starter donga
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What does an ipod or zune have to do with windows or OSX?
Well, it was someone else's comment, however as iPod devices are more expensive than their Windows based counterparts, and as they run a mobile version of OS X, and as they are extremely popular among many operating systems, I find it interesting that people who pay a premium to own an Apple product with using an Apple service (iTunes) are balking that Windows are less expensive and better than Mac OS X based systems. It's contradictory if you own and praise iPods, etc. while stating Mac's are overpriced, underpowered, elitist products.
I guess Apple charges a high price and prefer big margins instead of market share for survival purposes. In the last few years, Apple is starting to gain more market share, and what is happening? Microsoft is showing its teeth. Microsoft won't let Apple grow too much on market share, and Apple probably knows that. Apple is a huge company, but Microsoft can fiercely destroy it if it becomes a threat. Microsoft has done that before, and it can do it again.
1. Once upon a time, Word Perfect was the standard word processor for PCs... but then Microsoft Word came and took over. Lotus 1-2-3 and Quattro Pro were also very popular spreadsheets, but now all we hear of is Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Office is all around, and OpenOffice.org, even being free, cannot compete with Microsoft's product.
2. When the Internet became popular, Netscape Navigator was the standard browser. But then Microsoft killed it with its Explorer. Now, Firefox is threatening Internet Explorer, but Microsoft is answering aggressively with Explorer 7 and 8.
3. OpenGL was the dominant 3D technology for games in the '90s, and it was first developed by Silicon Graphics, which had a huge experience on high end graphics. But then Microsoft, with no experience at all, developed its own DirectX. Competition between OpenGL and DirectX still exist, but it seems to me that DirectX is a superior platform.
4. When Sony decided to enter the videogame market, it took over with its Playstation machine. But then Microsoft entered the arena with its XBOX to fight Playstation 2. Playstation 2 was far more popular, and Microsoft absorbed the losses with XBOX. However, XBOX 360, the second Microsoft console, has sold more units than Playstation 3 so far. Not even almighty Sony seems to beat Microsoft when Microsoft wants something.
5. Google is the dominant search engine in the world, by a big margin. But Microsoft is working on it. It has shown its power with a huge offer for Yahoo! Had Yahoo! accepted the offer, Microsoft would be in a better position to take over this market too. But that didn't happen, and Microsoft is still a secondary player.
Microsoft is capable of getting hard punches, but when it fights back, it usually destroys its opponents. Apple is quite safe while it is not a direct competitor to Microsoft, and keeps selling its expensive machines to a more specific niche. If Apple decided to become more popular, and sell high-end cheap desktops, it would have fierce competition. Its high margins would be over, and its market share might not increase. Microsoft could pull the plug by not releasing more Microsoft Office versions for MacOS, for example. Research shows that 70% of Mac users do have Microsoft Office on their computers. What would happen to these users if Microsoft decided not to support Office: Mac anymore? Would they search for alternatives? Or would they turn back to Windows?
1. Once upon a time, Word Perfect was the standard word processor for PCs... but then Microsoft Word came and took over. Lotus 1-2-3 and Quattro Pro were also very popular spreadsheets, but now all we hear of is Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Office is all around, and OpenOffice.org, even being free, cannot compete with Microsoft's product.
2. When the Internet became popular, Netscape Navigator was the standard browser. But then Microsoft killed it with its Explorer. Now, Firefox is threatening Internet Explorer, but Microsoft is answering aggressively with Explorer 7 and 8.
3. OpenGL was the dominant 3D technology for games in the '90s, and it was first developed by Silicon Graphics, which had a huge experience on high end graphics. But then Microsoft, with no experience at all, developed its own DirectX. Competition between OpenGL and DirectX still exist, but it seems to me that DirectX is a superior platform.
4. When Sony decided to enter the videogame market, it took over with its Playstation machine. But then Microsoft entered the arena with its XBOX to fight Playstation 2. Playstation 2 was far more popular, and Microsoft absorbed the losses with XBOX. However, XBOX 360, the second Microsoft console, has sold more units than Playstation 3 so far. Not even almighty Sony seems to beat Microsoft when Microsoft wants something.
5. Google is the dominant search engine in the world, by a big margin. But Microsoft is working on it. It has shown its power with a huge offer for Yahoo! Had Yahoo! accepted the offer, Microsoft would be in a better position to take over this market too. But that didn't happen, and Microsoft is still a secondary player.
Microsoft is capable of getting hard punches, but when it fights back, it usually destroys its opponents. Apple is quite safe while it is not a direct competitor to Microsoft, and keeps selling its expensive machines to a more specific niche. If Apple decided to become more popular, and sell high-end cheap desktops, it would have fierce competition. Its high margins would be over, and its market share might not increase. Microsoft could pull the plug by not releasing more Microsoft Office versions for MacOS, for example. Research shows that 70% of Mac users do have Microsoft Office on their computers. What would happen to these users if Microsoft decided not to support Office: Mac anymore? Would they search for alternatives? Or would they turn back to Windows?
No. Any analogy that compares a Mac to a premium car such as a BMW or Porsche in order to justify the price point is flawed beyond salvation, since no premium car is built in a Chinese sweatshop with generic parts. Oh, there are Chinese "luxury cars" like the Brilliant, but they're not so luxurious when they crumble like a soda can in a crash.
A Porsche is hand built in Leipzig, Germany, by well-paid German engineers, using only custom parts of exquisite quality, right down to the leather seats, and you can bet they hand pick the cows too. A Mac is a Chinese bucket slapped together by dirt poor factory workers, using generic PC components from whatever manufacturer offered the lowest price. They try to mask it by writing "Designed in California" in huge letters next to the fine print about the actual country of origin, but they're not fooling anyone.
A relevant car analogy involving Macs would be if Porsche would ask Volkswagen's Chinese factory to take a bunch of Chinese VW Santana and slap Porsche emblems on them, and then try to peddle these for $400,000 a piece.
Conversely, if Macs were built at a German plant using kick-butt proprietary CPUs, GPUs, HDDs and screens that were developed and manufactured at the same factory, and these components beat the living hell out of everything else on the market in terms of performance and build quality, then yeah, the pricetags would be justified.
Yeah I thought that basic idea was a mistake too. "I'm not cool enough to own a Mac" ELEVATES Mac to being a superior computer to the consumer. That's how I took it at least. What I got out of the ad was "If I want a 17" screen and crappy hardware, than I can pull that off by getting an HP".
Yes, you really feel sorry for her when she says she guesses she's not cool enough to get a Mac. I thought she was going to cry.
Competition is good
I certainly don't blame Microsoft for firing back at the Long/Hodgman "get a mac" ads with something stronger than the goofy Seinfeld/Gates ads.
While I love the pioneering and elegant design of Apple's hardware, not every PC manufacturer makes crap. Compare the $420 Samsung NC10 netbook to the $1799 Macbook Air. The Samsung is far more functional, of very high build quality and 1/3rd the cost. Pathetic.
At work I was issued a Core2Duo Dell Optiplex running XP with a 24" monitor costing $800 total and it is quite frankly faster at most tasks than the $1800 iMac I have at home. Most corporate environments could care less about aesthetic design and XP is fine in environments with large fleets of standardized hardware where user data is stored on servers and workstation reimaging can often be done in 30 minutes or less.
Microsoft's Vista fiasco presents a huge opportunity. Apple should seriously consider licensing OS X to a few quality PC manufacturers to fill gaps in its product line and gain market share until MSFT releases a worthy successor to XP.
I certainly don't blame Microsoft for firing back at the Long/Hodgman "get a mac" ads with something stronger than the goofy Seinfeld/Gates ads.
While I love the pioneering and elegant design of Apple's hardware, not every PC manufacturer makes crap. Compare the $420 Samsung NC10 netbook to the $1799 Macbook Air. The Samsung is far more functional, of very high build quality and 1/3rd the cost. Pathetic.
At work I was issued a Core2Duo Dell Optiplex running XP with a 24" monitor costing $800 total and it is quite frankly faster at most tasks than the $1800 iMac I have at home. Most corporate environments could care less about aesthetic design and XP is fine in environments with large fleets of standardized hardware where user data is stored on servers and workstation reimaging can often be done in 30 minutes or less.
Microsoft's Vista fiasco presents a huge opportunity. Apple should seriously consider licensing OS X to a few quality PC manufacturers to fill gaps in its product line and gain market share until MSFT releases a worthy successor to XP.
Cause the Zune, unline PCs misses big features that the ipod touch has, like a touchscreen, games, app store etc..
I agree with this - nice to see them wake up a bit b/c in the end, I personally believe it means better computing for everyone is MS listens a bit.
I also think it's extra publicity and marketing for Apple. Of course, to the average user just looking at price, it might not be good marketing for Apple, but for the smart ones out there, it'll be just fine.
I just did a google image search, you mean one of these? You're honestly very happy with that 1994 PowerBook design, in 2009? I personally wouldn't be. Not at all. I'd be very happy to pay $500 not to have that in front of me all day actually. Each to our own I suppose.
+10000000000000
I only have an iMac because of the OS. The hardware sucks for the price and I could get much better for cheaper with a bit of looking around and research. Or I could build my own system for even CHEAPER and have it be faster. I don't want a thin piece of sh*t computer that is hard to upgrade and is unbelievably expensive to fix if something ever goes wrong. The thin aluminum design doesn't look one bit amazing or anything to be excited over, STOP using that as an argument. They sacrifice MAJOR hardware to make the computer as thin as possible which is the DUMBEST thing ANY computer manufacturer could possibly do.
May I ask, if you really loathe Mac products so much and you love Windows (and I have not been stating a preference for either, both have their pro's and con's), why are you on a Mac based site? Simply to instigate arguments with others?
Where does linesma say anything to suggest they loathe Mac products?
All I can see is an answer correcting the common misconception that you need to pay a fortune for anti-virus and spyware protection for use on a Windows computer.
I suggest you learn to read before you rant.
About all your points are no where close to home, but this one especially is so wrong, it's sad to see someone not even know what he's talking about.
OpenGL never was a dominant 3D technology for games. Never, ever. OpenGL was not first developped by SGI either, it's a design by committee (which SGI was a part of, but so was IBM, Sun and... Microsoft) and it's design was around for professionnal 3D applications first (CAD design, 3D animation, special effects).
OpenGL was first introduced in Windows as part of Windows NT 3.51. That's about as far from a gaming OS as you could have (back when NT had a proper security model).
Stop rewriting history, you sound like a Microsoft shill.
Where does linesma say anything to suggest they loathe Mac products?
All I can see is an answer correcting the common misconception that you need to pay a fortune for anti-virus and spyware protection for use on a Windows computer.
I suggest you learn to read before you rant.
As I've been reading their posts (and there are quite a few), they joined just recently and have been posting numerous times baiting people. If you do not like a product, why go out of your way to join and argue with people that you know are not going to agree with your point of view unless your intent is simply to cause strife? Simple observation. As well, a short comment with a legitimate question is not "ranting", put down your coffee and back awaaaay from the computer.
Answering aggressively by catching up with CSS2.1? Oh great.
If Microsoft buys Yahoo, oh boy will they have the best search engine 1995 could buy.
Film at 11.
This is the ad of Hackinosh not Windows. Agree. MS fails in the thing it should get its audience. LOL
You could easily argue it's a horrible fit as the only middle-range desktop in a line, but the iMac is far from over-priced. Look at all-in-ones from other manufacturers, and you'd actually be hard-pressed to find cheaper ones with the same specs. The iMac is one of the Apple products that is actually good, price-wise, but if you're not concerned about the fact that it is an all-in-one, and just compare it to all desktops, then yes, you can say it is over-priced.
Cool, I'm in the 30% that aren't sheep, thinking Office is needed for compatibility with Office.
Why a does she need a 17 inch screen anyway?
I know that some people with poor eye sight want larger screens, but buying a cheap HP with a low quality screen isn't going to help. Sub $700 laptops just don't compare to MacBooks, let alone MacBook Pros.
What you get is the lowest quality of everything! the Worst screens with viewing angle of a few degrees, bad black levels and washed out colors. Terrible battery life. Machines which are so heavy they are not portable. Make so much noise that watching a movie is impossible. Really bad internal speakers. Awful bundled software/spyware. + lots of other badness.
I know that some people with poor eye sight want larger screens, but buying a cheap HP with a low quality screen isn't going to help. Sub $700 laptops just don't compare to MacBooks, let alone MacBook Pros.
What you get is the lowest quality of everything! the Worst screens with viewing angle of a few degrees, bad black levels and washed out colors. Terrible battery life. Machines which are so heavy they are not portable. Make so much noise that watching a movie is impossible. Really bad internal speakers. Awful bundled software/spyware. + lots of other badness.
Then why didn't you quote one of their posts that was baiting?
There was nothing offensive in the post you quoted, hence it appeared you were ranting without any good reason.
My apologies, but it didn't seem necessary to quote dozens of posts when I was addressing someone else. This is the problem with online discussions, it is very easy to misread emotion and intent into written dialog.
Affirmative. The iMac is actually the one Mac that isn't overpriced for the form factor. But it's ludicrously expensive and underpowered next to the desktop machines it's supposed to substitute, and Apple only calls the iMac a desktop in marketing blurbs. As soon as you call AppleCare it's suddenly not a desktop anymore (no on-site repairs).
May I ask, if you really loathe Mac products so much and you love Windows (and I have not been stating a preference for either, both have their pro's and con's), why are you on a Mac based site? Simply to instigate arguments with others?
Interesting point, I can see how it could be construed that I am a Winders lover. To set the record straight, I am NOT a big Windows fan. I use a number of Operating Systems from Fedora and Ubuntu Linux to Windows XP and Vista and yes, I use Mac OS X. I find that they all have their strengths and weaknesses. The point behind my posts was two fold. 1. Try to put out correct information to help eliminate some long standing misconceptions. 2. Get some information for myself. I will sometimes take a contrary position on a topic if it contains half truths or no facts. I do this to give the original poster an opportunity to either correct what they posted or educate me. I know that I am human, and because of that, I can be wrong with my information.
Finally, I humbly ask that you take my posts in the spirit that they are meant, to cause you to think, and not read into them any bias or dislike.
Thank you all for your patients and input.
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