Microsoft's new ad shows how people shop for computers in the real America
By Laura June 
posted March 27th 2009 10:58AM
posted March 27th 2009 10:58AM
[Via BoingBoing]
posted March 27th 2009 10:58AM
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$700 Laptop
How's that MBA hinge holding up for you?
Well...
17" Hp pavillion w/ 3 yr extended warranty = $1000
+
another 17" Hp pavillion w/ 3 yr extended warranty after 3 years when the first one breaks = $1000
+
yet another 17" Hp pavillion after 6 years when the second one breaks = $700
=
one macbook pro 17" without an extended warranty
Is that a cow I can hear? Oh no, it's just my discoloured Macbook mooing with it's broken hinge, melted magsafe adapter, overheating graphics card, expanding battery, etc., etc.
It is easy to generalize, but in my personal collegiate experience, I saw many, many more friends deal with constant problems on their cheap HP and Dells.
I'm not saying Apple is any better at the sub-$1000 price point.
I am saying that my 7 year old PowerBook is still running.
You point would be fair if the number were even. I am guessing there are more HPs and Dells around then there are MACs where ever you are. Its all about percentages.
You generalise.
BTW my 7/8 year old ThinkPad T23 is still going strong.
My mother uses this old dell laptop with a p2 533mhz w/ win98. While I agree win98 sucks, this laptop is over 10 years old and still running, never had a problem with it not even a HD replacement. It's running great for emails and browsing.
@Chrisboff
Ye, provided the computer destroys itself at the end of warranty which seems unlikely. And even then I would still prefer pc because every 3 years i would get a brand new battery with double processor power and pretty mutch everything.
This is like, Mac is something fashionable while PC is something "cheap"?
Wow, you'd never guess are running ads for microsoft at the moment with this article - oh hold on, whats that fruit machine thing at the top...:/
That ad is brilliant.
So will there be a follow-up ad of bringing the PC in to the Geek Squad, since she's "not cool enough" to figure out what's wrong with it?
The problem with this approach is that Apple could, if they so desired, drop a competitively priced product on the market for essentially no direct cost. They would loose some opportunity costs, as they economy version sucked some sales off of their premium products, but if the premium isn't moving - what not. A couple of phone calls to Taiwan, a little design work to dress up a mid-range white box, and bang a folksy, value laptop.
So, if the economic conditions demand it - or (more unlikely) this "uncool" ad campaign grows legs, Apple can fight back. The engineering and marketing cost to do it would probably cost less then this campaign.
and it would make everybody happy to see Apple lower their prices, but it would terribly hurt their stock value.
not saying that i am crazy that apple products are overpriced, but i'm willing to pay a little more if i have to. i have tended to keep my macs a year or so longer than most pc's i've owned because they held up, so in the end the price wasn't that much different. and i didn't have to support that scary ballmer guy.
Unfortunately, Apples don't always last as long as cheap PC's. I've had varying degree's of luck with different PC makers.
I have a Compaq Armada m700 (P3 era running W7), has to be about 8 years old, but works like a champ.
I have a Dell 2650 which is about 6 years old now, it's getting kind of tired, but still works
I have a Toshiba Satellite which is about 3 years old and starting to fall apart
I have an iMac G5 20' which is also about to give up the ghost.
I've owned about 9 PC/Macs in my life, and only one has been a true lemon. It was a Sony Vaio. The rest have lasted at least 5 years minimum, so resale value means little to me. I like the iMacs, as they have a small enough footprint to make them great in the home. But I would have a hard time buying an Apple laptop as I can get a much more powerful laptop for the less.
Oh yeah, because the "I'm a Mac" ads were not stereotypical in the least, and not at all "brilliantly mean", as you put it. (obviously taking offense as a Mac user).
Enough with these double standards.
To be truly anti-Apple(or a PC) then you need to drive a car that gets less than 20 MPG, have a Zune, of course have a PC, and not have any black turtlenecks in your wardrobe. On the other hand you could go for the whole Apple fanboy(or girl) thing, the requirements for that one are to be a snobby douchebag . And for the record I have both a Macbook Pro and a Dell Mini 9, A iPod Shuffle and a Zune 8, and I drive a Prius, so I wonder where that puts me...?
The Zune forces you to the "uncool" side. Sorry.
(See the Family Guy episode where Peter's father-in-law makes fun of Bill Gates for more info)
Yes having a better screen, a better interface, more codec support, subscription ability, media center sync, and a radio makes me totally uncool.
Damn those extra features! Why MS, why?
@tcc3
You mean "Damn those extra bugs!", since those are "not features, those are bugs", right? ;)
Bugs like 'copy paste'...?
Oh Lancelott, you are so cool. Is it your iPod?
That was my first thought xD
Umm...anyone consider the specs of the POS HP she bought? This is not Apples to Oranges..she bought a POS. Additionally, if all she wants is cheap, she should have considered a Linux laptop.
AppleInsider had an interesting note to this story:
The new ads don't go into details on hardware purchases; they simply make the case that PC laptops can be found for cheaper, playing up tight funds in the tough economy. Best Buy actually does sell the DV7-1245DX, an HP notebook with 17" screen, but it lacks fast wireless 802.11n, fast Gigabit Ethernet, digital audio inputs and outputs, weighs 7.75 pounds, and only features the screen resolution of Apple's 15" notebooks: 1440 by 900. Technically, it is a 17" notebook in terms of size, but it doesn't have the 17" resolution of Apple's MacBook Pro, which is 1920 by 1200.
One HP buyer pointed out that this model series "has the worst screen I have ever seen in my life. It's the 1440x900 screen and the viewing angles are so poor that even when sitting directly eye level with the screen it is totally washed out. If I go a little bit off-axis the screen results in a negative image. I was using the default settings. Unfortunately I didn't read reviews before i purchased."
"AppleInsider had an interesting note to this story:"
Uh ok, Appleinsider. Now take some time to analyze the Apple ads for accuracy.
She got the computer she wanted, but seeing that it wasnt a Mac, well it's time to take her to task!
Well, the Macbook "Pro"should have a 1680x1050 resolution on a 15" screen to be usable, so both the HP and the MB"P" suck.
HP does in fact make screens with the higher resolutions that you mention. And guess what, it'll still be $700 less than a 17 inch MBP!!
And BTW, I like the fact that I can pick and choose my specs on a PC, instead of being forced to take whatever overpriced computer Apple feels I'm worthy of.
Yeah, you really need a 1920*1200 screen to update your Facebook profile, surf the web and edit a Word document. I guess on planet Mac everybody is a graphic designer and does really cool 3D modelling.
Have you ever considered that a person on a budget may not need all those things?
You actually listen to anything that the worst writer on AppleInsider has to say? Wow...
I wonder how nobody's yet decided to build PC laptops under the name 'Orange,' just to play off being incomparable to Apples.
I'm surprised that AppleInsider would have HP users reading it (or anyone for that matter). At least you didn't post the link to the article, to prevent accidental clicking.
That shows a modicum of respect for fellow readers.
These specs fit the advertisement's price and 4g of RAM description:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9166635&type=product&id=1218041148373
Hardly a POS, and good enough for the average computer user, which this ad is aiming at.
Was this a Best Buy commercial?
First an "actual 12 year old girl" at the CES keynote, now a "real person"? We've come a long way from Seinfeld and Gates.
Wow its funny that Best Buy let them shoot in the store for a commercial when they sell Apple products too...can i hear lawsuit?...also anyone else notice that they didnt actually go into the Apple store? ....They were probably afraid of showing that Apple always has a gazillion customers in their stores
All nice and dandy.
Yet the first place she went was an Apple Store. So what she really *wants* is a Mac. That doesn't bode to well for Microsoft, now does it?
:o)
Seriously? So if you want something, but you find out it's impracticle, it means that the product you end up buying in it's place is going to suffer somehow? Do you work for AIG?
or they could be pointing out how 'overpriced' mac are straight away at the start so you rule apple out of your mind straight away
Windows: The best compromise we can think of.
Sign me up Microsoft. I don't mind selling out like that for a free laptop. Besides, who am I kidding, all my computers, and servers, at home are running MS stuff. So, I'm all good with that.
I wouldn't ever go back to PC after switching to Mac 2 years ago.
And it's not about the hardware... although the same hardware gives much better performance under OS X than under Windows.
The key difference is that Macs are pleasure to use while Windows PCs give me the head ache. Linux is somewhere between.
"Linux is somewhere between."
No.
That's funny, using Macs seems to give me a headache. Oh well, to each their own.
I bet that 17" screen on that HP is like looking through a window...... You can only see the Vista and bloatware hell if you look at just the right angle.....
For the layperson, I can totally see where the $500 extra for a Mac is unjustified. For me, who has been a staunch supporter of MS for the last 14 years, I can justify the $500. I'm at a point in my life where I just want a PC that is dependable and easy to use. I bought my wife an HP with Vista for Christmas last year and f*cking with that thing is enough to convince me that my next machine will be a Mac ...
why you would want a 17 inch "bargain laptop" is beyond me, but to each his own
Bigger screen on which to watch Hulu.
I love that Microsoft feels a need to respond to Apple. I mean it's not like Microsoft has anything to worry about, right? With the majority of market share why would Microsoft need to directly respond to Apple's ad campaign?
The answer is they wouldn't. Not unless they were scared of something. Additionally, this ad is flat out stating in plain English that Macs are cool. That seems like an odd thing for a Microsoft ad to say, doesn't it?
Oh yeah, and that "real person" Lauren? She's not a "real person". She's an actress.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j21_czE2W3qfqjnCXv_pZEimzGNQD975VIA80
Member of the SAG and everything. So much for showing what "real people" do, huh?