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Microsoft Ads Take Aim At Mac Prices


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The first commercial in the series features a college grad named Lauren who goes hunting for a 17-inch notebook with a comfortable keyboard, but with a budget of $1000. The first location she appears to stop is an Apple Store, but the scene quickly switches to her walking right back out and explaining that the only sub-$1000 notebook provided a 13-inch screen. "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person," she says.

 

http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/03...ds.target.macs/

 

I love the part when she says "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person," that just says to me that Windows is a second rate product, well we already knew that but now it's confirmed :) The laptop she picks makes me laugh because it may be a 17" screen but it has the resolution of a 15" screen.

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http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/03...ds.target.macs/

 

I love the part when she says "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person," that just says to me that Windows is a second rate product, well we already knew that but now it's confirmed :thumbsup_anim: The laptop she picks makes me laugh because it may be a 17" screen but it has the resolution of a 15" screen.

 

However, generally speaking, Microsoft is spot-on.

 

Example in Italy:

 

Apple:

 

MacBook, 13-inch, White

Intel Core 2 Duo a 2,0 GHz 065-8339

4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x2GB 065-8341

250GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm 065-8344

SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

 

Eur 1,134.00

 

PC:

 

HP Pavilion dv7-1199el

 

Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 (2.53GHz, 6MB L2, 1066MHz FSB)

HD 500GB - RAM 4096MB - Display Lcd 17" BrightView

Wi-Fi 802.11a/g/n - Windows Vista Home Premium

Remote control - HDMI - eSATA - FireWire - Fingerprint reader

Sintonizzatore TV digitale terrestre con telecomando

Lettore Blu-ray masterizzatore DVD Dual Layer

Scheda video nVidia GeForce 9600M GT 512MB dedicata

 

€ 1199.00

 

(I left some specs untranslated, but you get the idea)

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The only reason I'm even playing with Mac OSx is because I was able to get it running on a machine I built myself for $400.

 

A real Mac, with the same system specs as the one I built would cost me well over $1500 from the Apple store.

 

That's just plain retarded. This ad is spot on.

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It's funny to see all the fanboys up in arms. Everyone is appalled like this is something new. Does it really bother you all that everyone who bought a PC instead of a Mac thinks they're overpriced? If you enjoy your product, what do you care what you paid?

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There are two truths:

a) This whole fanboy-thingy is becoming a burden more than a plus for Apple the more they become mainstream - most people just don't want to be weird design-addict-hippies and don't want others to push them into a cliche for the products they buy - because the Mac buyers are the cliché, not the PC-buyers. One reason why I have an iMac, but still use a Dell laptop.

b)Never in the history of advertisements has it been a good idea to only advertise with prices. If that's all they got left on Apple, poor them.

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b)Never in the history of advertisements has it been a good idea to only advertise with prices. If that's all they got left on Apple, poor them.

 

I'm sure Sega would beg to differ. They moved quite a bit of Genesises, and they advertised price difference. I can still remember the faux Shopping Channel commercials

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The problem I have with these ads is they are trying to say a $700 HP laptop is as good as MBP. These ads will fool the uninformed who know little or nothing about computers. I'm not saying that Mac's are not over priced they are by 10 to 20%. I have been looking for a new laptop to replace my aging Thinkpad T40 so I've been looking at a lot of laptops. There are plenty of laptops in the same price ranges as MB and MBP just look at Dell's Adamo it's priced the same as a MBA but it has a slower CPU. You can't compare low end with high end thats like saying a Yugo is as good as a Porsche. When you compare Mac's to PC's of the same quality and specs PC's win on price most of the time, but you have to add the Microsoft tax anti-virus software, malware software another $75 to $100. You also have to factor in iLife whats the PC equivalent worth $150 to $200? If price was such an issue then how do you explain Mac sales out pacing PC sales.

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The problem I have with these ads is they are trying to say a $700 HP laptop is as good as MBP. These ads will fool the uninformed who know little or nothing about computers. I'm not saying that Mac's are not over priced they are by 10 to 20%. I have been looking for a new laptop to replace my aging Thinkpad T40 so I've been looking at a lot of laptops. There are plenty of laptops in the same price ranges as MB and MBP just look at Dell's Adamo it's priced the same as a MBA but it has a slower CPU. You can't compare low end with high end thats like saying a Yugo is as good as a Porsche. When you compare Mac's to PC's of the same quality and specs PC's win on price most of the time, but you have to add the Microsoft tax anti-virus software, malware software another $75 to $100. You also have to factor in iLife whats the PC equivalent worth $150 to $200? If price was such an issue then how do you explain Mac sales out pacing PC sales.

 

 

I think they were taking aim at the Macbook, not the Macbook Pro. Even still, there are plenty of sub 1000 dollar notebooks that are equal to, or damn close to the power of the MBP. This commercial isn't about finding a notebook that's the exact same as a Mac, it's about finding a notebook that does what you need it to, for an affordable price. That $700 will fit everyone of that girls needs

 

Also, I don't think you can buy any PC from a decent brand that will give you such terrible performance that it deserves to be called a "Yugo". My $400 Acer from 2 years ago is still Dual Core 1.6GHz with 2GB of RAM and x3100 graphics, which at the time was 600 dollars less than the previous-gen Macbook, and the only difference was the CPU. It's definitely not a "Yugo"

 

Microsoft tax? My anti virus is avast, and I have Open Office. Those both cost me 0 dollars. I guess it's an optional tax

 

Here's a simple fact: The 4870 on Apple's site costs $350. That's absurd. I could Crossfire 2 of them on my PC, and still have $50 left over. Clearly Mac tax exists

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If price was such an issue then how do you explain Mac sales out pacing PC sales.

 

They aren't. Not even close.

 

The Apple ads where they claim the MacBook is selling better than PC brands on college campuses was a straight up lie. What they based it on was that Macs were outselling the other individual PC brands individually, like more than Dell or HP individually, not ALL of the PC brands collectively.

 

Apple still has less than 10% of the marketplace. That's a lot of ground to cover.

 

You can bet all your money that if Macs ever got to any sort of equal footing with Windows based computers as far as customer install base, there will be viruses aplenty, and all of the "benefits" of Apple products will be negated. the only reason Mac users haven't been targetted is because there aren't enough of them to make it worth all the effort.

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Sub $1000 notebooks suck show me one sub $1000 notebook with C2D, Bluetooth, 802.11N, LED back lit LCD, IPS LCD panel, aluminum chassis, illuminated keyboards, optical inputs & outputs, you can't, simply you get what you pay for.

 

The problem is people compare Apple's pricing to the low end market not a market Apple competes in. You also have to look at the number of PC vendors all wanting your money they are willing to cut profit margins and quality to get it.

 

A lot of consumers don't know about free alternatives they are sold on this software by the sales men or by other uninformed friends and family.

 

I have to agree with you on Apple's upgrades they are outrageous but Dell, IBM etc.. are not much better.

 

I guess you never owned a Compaq Armada laptop now that was Yugo. I spent $10,000 on 4 of them and I spent so much fixing them and none of them lasted more then 3 years. The one I spent the most money on died right after the warranty was up.

 

 

 

 

They aren't. Not even close.

 

The Apple ads where they claim the MacBook is selling better than PC brands on college campuses was a straight up lie. What they based it on was that Macs were outselling the other individual PC brands individually, like more than Dell or HP individually, not ALL of the PC brands collectively.

 

Apple still has less than 10% of the marketplace. That's a lot of ground to cover.

 

You can bet all your money that if Macs ever got to any sort of equal footing with Windows based computers as far as customer install base, there will be viruses aplenty, and all of the "benefits" of Apple products will be negated. the only reason Mac users haven't been targetted is because there aren't enough of them to make it worth all the effort.

 

When you factor market size scale Mac's are outselling PC's. Mac sales seen I think it was around 30% growth while PC's only seen around 8% growth.

 

Yes Mac's are safer from hackers because of market share but it's still more secure then Windows.

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Guest cavallo

Any comparison has to be made by same class machines or hardware.

Pc are too cheaper may be, to me is a mhyth or a legend.

Everybody forget that in ten years i will still be here with my Pro and all people saying now that pc is cheaper will have change minimum three times machine or hardware to run next os.

It's a problem of visions.

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Everybody forget that in ten years i will still be here with my Pro and all people saying now that pc is cheaper will have change minimum three times machine or hardware to run next os.

 

In ten years time your Mac Pro will belong in a museum.

Maybe (some) PC owners replace their hardware 3 times in ten years, but they can afford to do so, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

So in ten years time you'll be with your totally obsolete Mac Pro and a PC user will have bleeding edge hardware :)

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Guest cavallo

If i remember well on a power pc 350 mhz i may run leopard i don't think you may run vista on a win 98 pc or i miss, This is not an opinion my friend is reality, i tell you more you may also run the next 1 on ppc ......

Please live on earth not anywhere......

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If i remember well on a power pc 350 mhz i may run leopard i don't think you may run vista on a win 98 pc or i miss, This is not an opinion my friend is reality, i tell you more you may also run the next 1 on ppc ......

Please live on earth not anywhere......

 

This {censored} makes no sense.

 

both grammatically and logistically.

 

You CANNOT run Leopard on a 350mhz PPC. You might be able to install it, only because the install package isn't smart enough to tell what an absolutely stupid idea it would be to try and run something that heavy on a PPC that old. It won't run at any speed effective enough to do anything with it, and your 350mhz PPC will be on 32 bit, and won't support enough ram to even get the OS to start.

 

My current Hackintosh is the EXACT same hardware specs (Processor, Ram, Mobo, Video) as a current Mac Pro that retails for $1800 and the Apple Store. It cost me $450 to build.

 

Apple is ripping people off. Plain and simple. People who pay their retail prices are either:

 

a. Stupid, and throwing their money away.

 

b. Trying to show off and look rich, and don't know jack {censored} about computers.

 

and in most cases, both.

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Guest cavallo
This {censored} makes no sense.

 

both grammatically and logistically.

 

You CANNOT run Leopard on a 350mhz PPC. You might be able to install it, only because the install package isn't smart enough to tell what an absolutely stupid idea it would be to try and run something that heavy on a PPC that old. It won't run at any speed effective enough to do anything with it, and your 350mhz PPC will be on 32 bit, and won't support enough ram to even get the OS to start.

 

My current Hackintosh is the EXACT same hardware specs (Processor, Ram, Mobo, Video) as a current Mac Pro that retails for $1800 and the Apple Store. It cost me $450 to build.

 

Apple is ripping people off. Plain and simple. People who pay their retail prices are either:

 

a. Stupid, and throwing their money away.

 

b. Trying to show off and look rich, and don't know jack {censored} about computers.

 

and in most cases, both.

 

 

Happy to be both if you like to think it, in any case i have sold all my f*****g pcs and (unfortunately) my 2 g4 to have it.

Everybody is free to do what he likes and is not stupid.

Last thing just 2 e5462 cost new in retail box not less than 1200 euro, do the rest remembering that Pro e2008 was at 2499 euro.

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9to5Mac pointed out something interesting about the commercial

 

In a separate article for 9to5Mac, Weintraub reports, "So this isn't going to come as a big surprise, but 'Lauren' (if that is her real name) didn't really go into the Apple store...or Crispin Porter had a bunch of extras walking around during the filming. "

 

"How do we know? Notice at 0:13 when she walks into the store, there is a balding guy with jacket and striped shirt and camera walking by. He is still walking by when she leaves the store filmed on the other camera. That gave her less than a second in the store," Weintrab reports. "She said she walked in and looked around but how could this be?"

 

You can also see in the reflection of the glass the man wearing the blue jean jacket walking up to the store. Another thing that does not sit right with me, if you were told you had $1000 to spend on a computer why would you only spend $700. If I was given a $1000 I would have found a computer that would have totaled the full amount after tax.

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9to5Mac pointed out something interesting about the commercial

 

 

 

You can also see in the reflection of the glass the man wearing the blue jean jacket walking up to the store. Another thing that does not sit right with me, if you were told you had $1000 to spend on a computer why would you only spend $700. If I was given a $1000 I would have found a computer that would have totaled the full amount after tax.

 

Some people still actually buy software, not just pirate it.

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Some people still actually buy software, not just pirate it.

Right, just "some people" :)

 

However you don't need to buy much software.

If you use Linux, it will cost you nothing at all.

If you use Windows, you'll get the OS preinstalled and you can use open source or free software for most needs.

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The money was to buy a computer not software

 

Did you watch the video?

 

She bought the computer she WANTED.

 

What difference does it make how much you spend? This is the stupidity the permeates Apple fanboys comments, "It must suck if you didn't spend $3k on it". {censored}.

 

I'd be willing to bet that the $700 computer she bought has IDENTICAL specs as far as Processor, ram, HD space, to a Macbook that retails for $1500 or more.

 

So you're willing to spend an additional $800 so that it comes in a shiny aluminum case? That sounds pretty stupid to me.

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I would still buy a business-line PC laptop - these sub-700 thingies usually break/are almost unusable and have no more than 15 minutes of battery runtime after 6-8 months. I have had my D620 for almost three years now and its still going strong without any trouble ever.

 

@Alessandro17: There's different types of users. Some prefer to buy solid, lasting things they have fun with for a long time, some prefer to meddle around a lot, switch hardware, risk data-losses and risk an unstable system. I wouldn't say any way is particularly better, but I did also choose the first one.

 

@underball: You forgot a third point: People who are just plain sick of problems with their system and don't want to have to mess with it every few months, as you have to with both Windows and OSx86. I bought my iMac because I don't have time and nerves for this stuff any more, and so far I think it delivered great value. And it seems to run far more stable and solid than any similar-priced PC with Windows, no matter what that one would have had under the hood. And unlike Windows, I installed and uninstalled a lot of {censored}, didn't really care about the system and its organization at all, and still: It boots in a few seconds, it never crashes, and I use Windows apps in VMware all the time without any noticeable speed loss.

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@Alessandro17: There's different types of users. Some prefer to buy solid, lasting things they have fun with for a long time, some prefer to meddle around a lot, switch hardware, risk data-losses and risk an unstable system. I wouldn't say any way is particularly better, but I did also choose the first one.

 

Why are you assuming that people who build often a new rig " risk data-losses and risk an unstable system"?

It is a matter of doing your home work well, maybe buy after others have written an opinion, and buy quality, reputable hardware. I build a new PC very often, but I don't buy hardware which has just been released. I wait at least a few months.

The first stage of building a good new PC is a lot of research.

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Yes. There's also people whose professional and private life just doesn't provide the kind of time necessary to do that. And they pay a price-premium for the time they save - what else is Apple's premium? ;)

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