Posted on 07/17/2009 2:43:34 PM PDT by max americana
Apple to Microsoft: Stop with the ads
Posted by Sharon Pian Chan Seattle Times
Microsoft said it received a call from Apple saying Microsoft needs to stop running the laptop-hunter TV ads that harp on Apple for expensive computers. Why? Because Apple has lowered its prices.
That's according to Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner, who said he took a call from an Apple attorney. two weeks ago. He initially thought it was a practical joke, then said he found out Apple had cut prices on its computers.
"It was the greatest single phone call that I’ve ever taken in the history of business," Turner said in a presentation at the Microsoft Worldwide Partners Conference in New Orleans. "I did cartwheels down the hallway."
I have a call in to Apple.
The television ads feature people shopping for a laptop and comparing prices on PCs and Macs. According to Microsoft, PCs have gained market share since the ads began running.
The ads were a response to Apple's relentless "I'm a Mac" ads teasing Microsoft mostly aboutproblems with Windows Vista. Click here to read about the Microsoft laptop hunter ads and check out the ad below:
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
It has Ubuntu :-)
And that's laptop, not netbook.
You asked — Did Apple legal department call Microsoft and tell them to stop airing the “Laptop Hunter” ads?
—
Good question. I hadn’t thought about that. Perhaps they weren’t getting enough action out of the ads and this was a way to get attention for their ads... LOL...
I guess you can’t blame Microsoft for trying to get attention... :-)
Hey Sword, you might as well copy that response and save it in text edit. You know you’ll have to post it at least a hundred more times, and people will still make the same claim.
“Microsoft said it received a call from Apple saying Microsoft needs to stop running the laptop-hunter TV ads that harp on Apple for expensive computers. Why? Because Apple has lowered its prices.”
Sounds hokey, but Apple has been known to get overly exercised in the past, so who knows. I love the ads however. MSFT finally hired a good ad team. What confuses me is why. Why would MSFT care if Apple sold lots of Macs? Since the Intel chip allows every Mac to run Windows, what’s the beef?
Well, at least 14 year old Ellen Feis WAS a real person and not an actress who just happened to be on the set who had gone there with Hamilton Morris, the son of commercial director Errol Morris, when they were filming the "Switch" commercials. . . The two children had gone there after school along with a couple of other kids to get some free food from the set's buffet.
Unlike the MS ads, Ellen Feis' commercial WAS unscripted. They put her in front of the camera and asked her to tell about her experience.
Not to mention Microsoft doesn’t sell hardware...
Really these ads don’t make any sense. Microsoft is advertising for a product they don’t specifically make (the hardware) and mentioning Apple which has 8% of the market.
Can someone explain that last one to me. I’m a poor Apple fanboy who apparently doesn’t understand advertising as well as I thought I did.
They are supporting their partners.
“I’m a poor Apple fanboy who apparently doesn’t understand advertising as well as I thought I did.”
I’ve been accused of the same, but these are very smart ads. They are playing to Apple’s weakness. Even though Swordmaker does an outstanding job of dispelling the “Macs cost more” fable, the perception is extremely difficult to overcome in 30 seconds.
I don’t question that part. I would agree. But why do you give a practically insignificant competitor any time in your ads? Especially when that competitor makes computers that your software runs natively on. I don’t know the percentage of Macs that run Windows in either virtualization or natively, but Microsoft gets paid pretty well for the license for those people to do that.
I certainly understand highlighting the benefits of Windows, it is just weird seeing the market leader actually bringing up the competition in ads.
Well, now I know. In my defense, I was 14 at the time! I was more concerned about girls and cars than I was the computer business (I still am!)
Plus, all of the old editorials I read have always described it as a bailout, without going into any details.
“...why do you give a practically insignificant competitor any time in your ads?”
I’m with you there. cabojoe (comment 49) suggested they’re supporting their partners, meaning their hardware partners. I don’t know why they couldn’t support themselves, but it’s a better explanation than any I can come up with.
Sure are a lot of people here ready to jump on this supposed call with absolutely ZERO proof. A statement made by an executive in a competing company, who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain by lying.
Apple has never been concerned that their hardware is, in SOME cases, more expensive. OF course, the MS ads are very deceptive themselves, as they do not include the cost of additional software for security, multimedia content, and other things that Apple hardware either doesn’t need, or comes with.
They are great because it is factual and real. I can see why Apple has a problem with this.
What’s wrong with Apple’s supporters? /sarc
Yes but you can replace or have a second battery with a Windows based Notebook,
True I could run it in emulation, but I kind of consider that cheating for a side by side comparison.
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