After a long time of being the butt of nearly every Apple commercial, Microsoft has finally felt gutsy enough to try to one-up Apple in their ads.
Other than the fact that the “Im a PC” ads just underscore the fact that all of Microsoft’s biggest ideas are whatever Apple was doing two years ago, I think overall they are somewhat effective. In my opinion though, they left a big opening for Apple to rebut the ad featuring the girl looking for a cheap laptop. She goes into a big box store and is instantly surrounded by a zillion different brands, types, hardware configurations, etc… it makes me overwhelmed for her.
I know a lot of computer nerds and gamers want to choose some obscure graphics adapter or select from 14,000 different motherboards, but to me this is one of the reasons I’m not a fan…too many potential configurations and brands and compatibility issues and device drivers…makes me tired just thinking about it. I know a lot of people like lots of options though.
That ad also painted Apple users themselves as snobby when the girl exited the apple store empty handed and said “I guess I am not cool enough to use a Mac”. I thought to myself, “no… you really aren’t”. So Microsoft may actually have a point on that one…ha.
Oh, you mac people. You are so snooty. I will love you anyway, though. I’m surrounded by mac people!
I personally bought my computer on the Dell website. It was great. I picked the specs I wanted, and it offered me three solid choices. I picked one and have been very happy with my laptop (owned it for over two years now).
I heard that Microsoft has experienced it’s first ever quarter with decreased sales or income. They say it may be in part to new netbooks being sold so cheaply, but I imagine a large part is the growing Mac/Apple community. I expect to see Microsoft take a more aggressive advertising position due to that. They could hire the best in the world, but just really haven’t done much. One thing I would like cleared up though is my whole Mac/Apple confusion. The company is Macintosh, or Apple? They make iMac computers…but they all have apples on them? I think the company is Apple, and the computers are Macs, but where did the whole “macintosh” come from- sounds Japanese. I could wikipedia, but this would be more fun.
The company is called Apple Computer. One of the early successful computer models manufactured by Apple Computer was called the Macintosh (a type of fruit apple). I think it may have been the one that introduced the GUI to the masses. I remember my dad used to have one when I was a kid and i thought it was sooooooo cool when he would bring it home from work and I could draw with the paint application.
Anyways… so Apple computers product line has become known as Macs. Personally I instead of calling every type of apple computer a Macintosh… the desktops should be macintosh, maybe call the laptops Golden Delish, and the imacs Granny Smith?