Earlier this month, I was relatively unimpressed with Microsoft’s new ad campaign I’m a PC. I thought it lacked originality and really was just trying to play catch up with Apple. It seemed like an attempt to candy coat the issues Microsoft is having with Vista by using clever advertising. Apparently, the folks at Apple thought the same thing. This week, Apple released two ads poking fun at Microsoft spending $300 million on their ad campaign instead of fixing the problems in Vista. Here are the two ads:
Funny…yes. Poignant…yes. Making a good point…definitely. Now, I’m sure the folks over in Redmond are trying very hard to fix their problems with Vista. And of course they have plenty of cash to throw around on advertising without impacting their development budget. As a disclaimer, I use both a Mac and a PC. But, I’d have to say I use my Mac way more because it is so simple and intuitive to use Mac OS X. Plus OS X is infinitely more stable than my Vista machine. Everything I want and need is on my Mac. Way more than what I need is on my Vista machine. It always seems to me that Apple listens and builds what its’ users want and need. And they build it well. Microsoft on the hand seems like it wants to tell its users what they need. And Microsoft applications are usually way overloaded and overcomplicated. Quite simply, Apple’s products work and work well. I can’t say the same for Microsoft.
So, back to fixing Vista and these ads. Microsoft has worked itself into a corner by not providing a fast enough fix or replacement for Vista. And they’ve shown a fundamental lack of confidence in Vista by continuing to offer Windows XP as a downgrade on new machines that are bundled with Vista. And most people are exercising the downgrade option or just not buying Vista. Many CIO’s decided to skip Vista entirely and are waiting for Windows 7 to come out. In fact, as of September 2008, Vista has only managed to capture just over 18% of the OS market according to Market Share.
So, I’m thinking the Mac ads are right on. They’re simply amplifying Microsoft’s own lack of confidence in Vista. They ask a very legitimate question: Why is Microsoft spending millions to essentially do a redirect? Instead of fixing Vista quickly or releasing Windows 7 faster, they’re asking the public to look the other way while they toil away on Windows 7. And, if you do you look away and wait for Windows 7 (not due out until 2010), will it be worthwhile? Windows 7 will be based on the same kernel and code base as Vista was. Is Windows 7 just going to be Vista SP4? Who knows? But I would agree with these ads from Apple. Microsoft needs to stop trying to use a big ad campaign to make it’s users feel better and get to work on delivering something their users can stand behind. Unfortunately if they ever did that, we’d be deprived of some really funny ads from Apple.
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10 Responses
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:59 am
Those ads are great. Apple attributes Vista with much of the reason for their increasing market share. One out of every three dollars spent on computer hardware are now being spent on Apple computers. People are finally waking up and choosing quality over low cost products that cause headaches. A very good trend. Especially in a tight economy where you need to make better spending choices.
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:50 pm
My company has it’s own opinion about this Mac vs PC debate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1418JfAwR4
You will have to excuse the video quality as I spend most of my time taking care of the dogs.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
The funniest things are based in truth, aren’t they. Apple is exceptional at marketing and product design. I wish they cared even one iota about the SME space.
October 24th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
It depends on what you mean by “fixing Vista”. My company is not adopting it as there is no business driver to do so. But I have been running it for almost a year now and like it compared to WinXP. It handles the subtlies of docking/undocking and network transitions better. I have grown used to the UI differences and do now prefer Vista.
Apple has no interest in the commercial space outside of education. And they have no global support or distribution capabilies and no interest in developing any. So one has to take the ads in context that they are aimed at the consumer space which is where Apple targets all their products.
Apple and MS are at opposite ends of the 3rd party development openeness scales so direct comparisons are and Apples / Oranges (pun intended). But Apple is making some good looking commercials and the MS spots are not that well designed.
In my mind, Apple is like the Japanese of old where they take interesting existing technologies, add some improvements and combine them in to a nice package with lots of marketing. The end result is usually only earth shattering to the Steve Job’s worshipers but MS could learn a thing or two from them.
October 24th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I am getting sick of the Mac ads. The ease of use claim is not really valid anymore .. and the price differential is too much. For those who like to ‘feel’ special I guess it is OK … even if functionality is constrained … the iPhone sucks BTW.
October 24th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
the ads are great.
over the last 18 months i have been migrating my business from PCs to macs. the only problem i have is when i show up at client’s offices and they all want to check out the new macs -even my cleints who are Microsoft Dynamics Gold Certified partners
as far as the cost goes, i lease my macs, so i enjoy not only superior platform but a nice tax write off w/o the nasty deprecation on a hardware purchase - when the lease expires, i just turn it in for new shiny macs
BTW Walt Mossberger from the WSJ rates the new mac book the best lap top on the market.
October 24th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
@Alec Rosen and Gayanna Magcosta: Thanks for the great comments. In my mind, quality always trumps cost. I have a PC and a Mac and my MacBook pro is hands down the best machine I’ve ever owned. I really like your point about leasing vs. buying outright. Great way to offset costs for higher quality equipment…and an easy upgrade path.
October 26th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Check out Novell OpenSUSE 11.1, it doesn’t need the ads, or all the memory to run, it just works, for free, and has the most choices for UIs, even i3D ones… Those who discover this O/S and how fast if makes their hardware run/seem are the true winners all the way around! Have a great week. Ciao. Walls.
October 30th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
The massive Microsoft campaign is a clear warning sign that they have finally woken up to how bad it really is. Apple is just adding a couple of snowballs to the avalanche. Many corporations have wisely taken a pass on this quagmire O/S to stay on a more stable platform. Looks like consumers are wiser than Microsoft gives them credit for.
November 11th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Perception is reality, even if it isn’t true. If you have Vista running on a brand new piece of hardware, then it is great. If you install Vista on old hardware, good luck with performance and driver support for legacy devices. Vista should be judged on how it works with new hardware & software. Old stuff never works well with newer operating systems.
I ran a pilot project at my company and found that 10 year old legacy software ran just fine on a Vista Business desktop. Apple always does a good job of advertising its products.
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