Have you recently read the news about Kevin Turner COO of Microsoft receiving “the greatest single phone call in the history that he’d ever taken in business”? Because it seems that the “Laptop Hunter” ads from Microsoft are working out quite well and pointing out some really good differences between the Mac and the PC.
So for the story; everyone hopefully knows the “Get a Mac” ads, where PC and Mac present each other, and where to 100% Mac beats PC. Those ads are running right now for very long time, and they’ve been without arguing quite successful. The popularity of those ads, led in an increase of Mac sales. Of course Microsoft prepared a contra commercial, with a popular figure such as Jerry Seinfeld what could go wrong? Actually the commercials were bad, and had no point… I actually still have no idea what they were promoting in the “Shoe Circus” and “New Family” ads. But astonishingly, after these flopping ads, a new series was produced firs the “Real PC Pride” ones, where the ‘Real PC‘ says that he has been turned into a Stereotype and is not alone at all and used by billions of other uses. Shortly afterwards something really unexpected came, non-scripted ads where real people could chose any laptop within their budget limit and the best part was that Microsoft would pay for it! The “Laptop Hunters” simply state that you can get good stuff for good value, which is so true, as Macs are really expensive. And as these ads are unscripted, they represent the views of the actors (e.g. “It seems like you’re paying a lot for the brand” while having a look at a MacBook).
And in relation with the above mentioned we come back to, Microsoft’s COO Kevin Turner who recently announced the “greatest phone call in history” at the 2009 World Wide Partner Conference. Apple’s legal department called in to tell him that they should stop running those ads, because they had just lowered the prices and bumped up their computers! Kevin Turner told that he had taken cartwheels after this call and for a certain moment was actually thinking that this was a prank call (oh what joy!).
As far as I’m reading in the recent days the Tech news, I can clearly say that this worked out for the consumers that will be buying all that stuff. Because consumers can now get a factory upgraded MacBook up to 300$ less than the original retail price. Which actually is a good thing? And it seems like Apple has seen something in these ads and reacted quickly on this matter (such as that their products are overpriced unfortunately).
But when you think the commercial war is over, you’re dearly mistaken. Apple did not just lower the prices and bump up the hardware, they also released their new “Get a Mac” ads. Which feature things such as, reliable “Customer Care”, a computer that never gets a Virus (?!?), never crashes?
In my opinion the war between Mac and PC will last longer than we think, especially with Apple gaining more and more resources through consumer electronic products such as the iPod or the iPhone, trendy products with cool designs and features that are corrected with each and every major model change (not by Firmware or Software update unfortunately) . But let me tell, the Mac isn’t as superior as it sounds in the commercials, and believe me I follow no Computer-religion, if my work can be done with a Mac I use a Mac, if it can be done with a PC I use a PC. And certainly I do have an iPod! I just had to include this part as people tend to be quite sensitive when it comes to their beloved Mac or PC.
First of all, in my opinion Windows is more reliable than Mac OS. The problem with Windows is that it is the major OS on the Market, so it will be always a target to malware, spyware, viruses etc… Why should anyone bother to write something for 5% of the market share? People want to play big, when they want to steal or destroy. And it is known that Mac OS is not a very reliable system when it comes to security, in an article on Computerworld security researcher Charlie Miller had the choice of three systems (Windows Vista Ultimate SP1, Mac OS X 10.5.2 and Ubuntu 7.10) in a PWN to OWN challenge. Miller chose the Mac OS and exploited a flaw in Safari just under 2 minutes. He later told that he chose Mac OS because it was the easiest to hack.
So I don’t think that it is justified to say that Windows is a bad or lame operating system. Think of it like this. One of the reasons probably Mac OS is running so smoothly is that it has actually a certain configuration of hardware that it is shipped with on a Mac. But what would happen if you had a variety of hardware configurations that you can choose of? Would it then also run as reliable as praised on a Mac? I don’t think so! The thing that you have with Apple is that they aren’t just being set out in the wild as Windows is. Therefore Windows is constantly being updated, which means that they are actually developing the system continuously. On the other hand I read an article where Apple was just not making a fix for Java which was revealed by Sun, because they haven’t been against the factors that Windows is up to.
Also if you think about all the programmes that you can get for Windows, Chris Pirillo went back on using Windows XP in an experiment he had started earlier. Because most of the software that he was using weren’t just on Mac… And let’s be honest, there is no system that doesn’t crash if you’re an ordinary user. Even a Mac crashes why do you think that they have a similar key shortcut for “CTRL+ALT+Delete” (and unfortunately most of the time, when you’re Mac is hung up it doesn’t work), also the API provided by Windows, couldn’t be better!
But of course there are certainly fields where you can’t beat a Mac I reckon, such as Desktop Publishing or Music. I’m no Designer, I’m no musician so I can’t comment on these subjects, maybe people in certain fields are in need of Mac. But universally speaking a Windows based computer is just cheaper, you get more value for your money, you can use much more software, and yeah there’s thing with websites. It seems that there are only websites which really only work appropriately with Internet Explorer.
By the way I discovered something recently, if Apple really thinks that there Systems are so good, why don’t they just use it on their websites? See for yourself what Apple and Microsoft do use for their Web servers.
As far as I’ve read through the literature and by what I’ve seen so far, the struggle will go on and hopefully in favour of us, the customers, the people that spend their hard earned money on these devices. And Apple should get a grip and finish off their bugs before judging Windows…
I’m not working for Microsoft, I don’t earn money from them… I actually spend hours and hours administering their systems, fixing their bugs and problems, keeping up their systems because I’m the IT Guy who’s going to work it out again!
Sometimes I just keep on wondering what those mortal computer users would do just without us. How would life be in a world without us, the guys that keep IT running? I actually have no idea at all, but probable scenarios where many people would keep on spending their hours just looking like an idiot at their frozen screens (e.g. “Why doesn’t it work?”), people jumping off the window, killing each other, maybe become flesh eating zombies? Or is it my imagination that is just breaking through?