Microsoft "Convert" Ads

You know, I really don't mind PCs or Windows XP, but one thing the PC world certainly does not have is originality.

This wired article tells about an ad that MS put on their site which blatantly copies Apple's "Switch" ads. Only the "Switcher" on MS's ad is an employee of their PR firm.... Oops. I think I would switch too if I got a huge bonus on my paycheck the next month...

Then you have all the other ways the PC world copies Macs...

Take VPR Matrix computers for instance... My boss just got a new laptop from them, and it is very strongly reminiscent of the TiBook. It is the same color of silver, has a translucent grey/black keyboard, has the company's logo in the same place as Apple's, and even has the four LED light indicator on the bottom of the machine to tell you how much of the battery is left.

It's a sexy machine though... Just not the most original in my opinion. It was designed by Porsche too...

Anyway... That's just my little rant. Nothing against Macs or PCs though... I just wish the PC world could be just a little bit original once in a while.

yeah I hate microsoft

Mrs. Gates is in bed with Steve Jobs. Whoops, was that out loud?

I agree with Deker 100%. But then, if PC's were creative enough to come up with ideas, then Mac wouldn't have a market. :D

As a biased mac freak, I love the machines, and the ads are pretty funny. As a whole, I'm actually a bit pissed at the "Switch" campaign.

I mean, even though they are all true, (or at least based on truth)I don't think Apple needed to take the low road of negative advertising. Reminds me of two petty politicians bashing each other. Apple, to me, was always the good guys fighting the big-brother-esque Microsoft. MS will allow it, because they're getting paid, too. I agree with random, too. This isn't the nasty rivalry it once was.

However, my BEEF is with the recent Gateway ads (the little pile of crap that jumps over the FAR-SUPERIOR iMac). Total bullsh!t. Why? Because they bank on a huge misconception: comparing mac GHz and pc GHz processor speeds. In a move closely resembling AOL's banking on uninformed clientele, Gateway is only making themselves look bad. Face it, Gateway, Dell came, saw, and kicked your ass.

yea, i heard about this ad earlier today. frankly, i've just given up on the entire Mac vs. PC issue, and could careless what others think, i perfer a PC as of right now.

I love that Gateway commercial. I laughed my a$$ off when it stuck it's tongue out and flapped it at the iMac. I don't recall any speed comparisons, but I do remember they did compare the price. But then again, I strongly prefer a Windows-based PC. I don't dislike Macs, I just don't use them, nor do I care to. Every once and a great while, I run into a school district that still has a lab of old PowerPCs running OS 7, but they may only use it for the Elementary kids to teach word processing. Granted, the newspaper publishing companies here still use Macs, and I don't see a reason for them to switch to PCs, since Macs still work perfect for that purpose, they just don't have a place in the business world other than for graphics, which I really don't even see the need to spend 2x the money when you can get a PC to do the same.

Look at the Apple/Switch commercial about the kid with the iPod...what a dork. No way would I ever, if I was Apple, allow that kid to represent me. If that kid is the average Apple user, then, well, nothing, I know I shouldn't give in to stereotypes, but it seems with the Apple/Switch ads that Apple themselves is revealing the average Apple user, since all the people in their ads are dorks.

Oh well, I say I don't care about the debate, unless you get me started, at which point I do care. I just don't like the Apple/Switch ads I guess. It's like me going and bashing the Chrysler corporation because my car is a lemon. It is, but I know many other people who have Chrylsers that don't break down. One main problem is that most Windows users don't understand the system well enough to know that it was them that screwed the thing up in the first place. If you don't install 70000 shareware programs, each one running at startup, then your machine wouldn't crash. People automatically assume its the operating system. I've seen Macs crash and burn just as many times as I've seen PCs do it. Granted, I haven't seen any Mac hardware go bad ever, except the serial-sized port (what it is for sure I don't know). You just can't install 70000 shareware programs on your Mac, because there are only like 7 shareware programs out there.

Shoot, this was not supposed to be a Mac/PC battle....sorry, I didn't mean to get into it, I just wanted to say I liked the Gateway commercial, since it spites the same company that spites mine in the "Switch" ads. Discussion over, this is way too long as it is.

Okay, Okay, to each his own, but now I feel like I'm on the defensive.

by Matt:

Look at the Apple/Switch commercial about the kid with the iPod...what a dork. No way would I ever, if I was Apple, allow that kid to represent me. If that kid is the average Apple user, then, well, nothing, I know I shouldn't give in to stereotypes, but it seems with the Apple/Switch ads that Apple themselves is revealing the average Apple user, since all the people in their ads are dorks.

two words: Dell Dude. 'nuff said.

and about the shareware thing: the exact same thing can be said about viruses, too. 70000 to 7, was it? maybe there is a connection.

I don't want to argue about it either, I actually don't like the f'n campaign. (my first post in this thread says that)

peace

they're both dorks. i build my own PC, don't need to worry about putting money in that dell dude's pockets.

I should think that today's P4 and Athlon CPUs that range on or near the 2ghz area put out more performance than a RISC based CPU mac running at 1ghz. But that is merely my opinion. However. There are mac benchmarks of g4s vs. p4s vs athlons if you so choose to look.

http://www.barefeats.com/pentium4.html

Please note that the benchmarker person used a dual G4 vs apparently single cpu based pentium and athlon configurations.

Which most likely means that a single g4 1ghz cpu imac is quite slow against a 2ghz or faster p4 single cpu machine.

I'm not a pc activist really. In fact, I don't like the crazy prices that Microsoft charges for their OS products, but I do like bargain computing where I get the most oomph for the bucks I put into it.

It seems to me, that the prices Apple is charging for its products at this point are starting to be a little on the ridiculous when it comes to actual performance vs. ibm-pc clone computers.

I think the Gateway commercial is pretty sad. They are obviously recognizing Apple as a competitor by bashing them in their ads. The iMac commercials never had anything to do with the PC. It just showed cute animations of the iMac. I just think it is funny how that commercial makes Gateway look scared of Apple enough to bash them.

I like the Apple switch campaign, mainly because they are finally trying to show people the difference between mac and pc. Their ads have always just shown the pretty hardware floating around in a circle, or doing jumping jacks or something. Yeah they are cute and memorable, but they don't really make you want to buy one other than the cool factor.

But with the switch ads, they are actually letting everyone know what the differences are between the two systems. Whether they are all completely truthful for every single user is another matter. The point about all the software programs is valid... Windows does usually crash because of human error like that. But most people are not computer nerds, and that is the way they treat their PC. So using a Mac supposedly avoids that.

But anyway, I just like the fact that Apple is finally trying to be a little more aggressive about grabbing some market share.

My next computer will still be a PC though... just because I, like many others, can't justify paying twice as much for the same machine. And also, I like games a lot, and don't want to wait a year to play most games that come out.