Friday
Mar272009
Microsoft Ad Offensive Hits Banner Ads Too
Friday, March 27, 2009 at 4:50PM It's a little hard to see, but following up on our earlier post, this is a screen grab of a banner from CNN.com minutes ago. In short, the left side shows how "little" you get with a Mac, while the right side shows all the extra things you can buy by saving money with a PC.
The ad works like a slot machine, with different Windows PCs on the right, and of course, they're always the better value, er, the cheapest. But it's the same thing, right? Right.
tagged Apple, Microsoft, advertising, banner ads Permalink
Apple, Microsoft, advertising, banner ads Permalink
Reader Comments (13)
These are very, very clever, but totally asking for a parody. Pull the lever and you get the $699 HP, spyware and your identity stolen. Or $799 Dell, BSOD and your lost term paper.
Not to mention the " What?!! - I could have had a MacBook for only $170.00 more than I paid for for a Lenovo Y530"?
Meet the new Microsoft with Steve Ballmer in charge...
Petty, obnoxious, unclassy, and uncreative.
I haven't been able to spec out one of the PCs yet that it was the same price as promoted in the ad. Granted sometimes its less than the ad, but never the same. Shouldn't we see some specs here? I can show two cars with vastly different prices and both have the same "specs:" four wheels, gas engine, etc.
UPDATE: Now clicking on the ad is taking me to the details page. The page was more generic earlier.
It look like the Microsoft's attach dog (Steve Monkey Boy Ballmer) is loose. He has become the new face of Microsoft. A face that will distort and tells only half truths. A company who is still trying to recovering from Vista and Zune disasters. Instead of improving a product they have chose to use misinformation, to bend the truth and to feed into the fears of our times. Sadly there will be some people who will buy into or use this information to reinforce their technology ignorance. They will go out and buy that cheap PC add the software and hardware upgrades. At some point they will add up the numbers and say I could have purchased a MAC for less. Thank you Mr. Ballmer ripping us off again!
what a pathetic "ad"
The really should have attacked Apple's pricing on the iMac or Mac Mini, they are more overpriced than any of the portables. You can get a Core i7 processor/640HD/6GB Ram/ATI 3450 w/ a 23 inch monitor from DELL for the cost of the lowest end iMac.
Until Apple puts real desktop CPU in the iMac it will continue to be waaaay overpriced.
I do not mind people buying cheap PCs. It's the best Mac virus and spyware prevention software ever. I enjoy hearing them brag about their cheap PCs and watching them format, reinstall and fight with those thousand of sorry PC software programs.
Most of them don't even know how to clone a drive. But, I also enjoy seeing people come to their senses and tossing their PCs in the trash and buying a Mac. The best part is that after they switch, I do not have to constantly train them.
I just had to comment again. First let me say the iMac are not overpriced. Yes you can buy a cheap PC. just like you can buy a cheap car. Just like a cheap car you end up getting what you pay for!
From my experience of seeing Macs and PCs coming in for repairs. I rarity see the New iMac, ibooks, macbook pro or the MacPro come in for major repairs. (Hard drive or software issues) When I do need to open a system I find quality parts not the junk part that make up a PC.
I see more cheap Dells, HP. Sony and etc.come in for logic (mother) board and processor issues, which and can cost as much as $500 or more for the repairs, There goes savings.
Now as far as for; System spec they are meaningless. Yes anyone can pull together a cheap processor and motherboard, etc off the shelf and throw a cheap system together. So can the Dells and HPs of world. They blow them out at low prices and run away when the fail. You would be better off buying a lottery ticket than purchase a cheap window system. These PCs have been failing consistently. Leaving the uneducated consumer holding the repair bills.
System specs aren't meaningless. If I am a photographer who uses Photoshop, Photo Mechanic and Lightroom, and need the fastest computer I can get for $1200, the iMac is just not worth it compared to the Core i7 Dell offers.
And as far as hardware reliability goes, Apple is no better then the rest. 4 years with Apple I saw nothing but failed iMac G5 logic boards due to faulty / cheap capacitors, iBook G3 video problems that were never fixed. 1st Gen Macbook shutdowns and chipped top cases, noise inverters with Macbook Pros and hundred and hundreds of dead iPods.
The OS is more stable, the hardware is not.
The iMac is a laptop processor sold in a desktop computer at a premium price.
So Jamie, if an HP had the same specs as a mac, and it has OS X and they were both the same price, which would you buy?
It would come down to which was the more visually appealing hardware design. I assume that would be Apple. But hardware design is the least important factor in a desktop computer.