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New Apple Campaign Target PC Flaws
sodul writes"Apple just started a new campaign to emphasize the advantages of Mac versus a regular tasteless PC. The ads represent a young cool looking man (Mac) and a white collar in his 40's (not cool, PC).
In one of the ads the PC repeat itself several times because it had to reboot. In an other one (and maybe the most aggressive of all) PC is sick because of a virus, while Mac is healthy.
You can watch the new spots on Apple's site "
Pretty much all hate campaigns I've seen against another product just didn't work out. Logically, I'd also think that showing people how good your product is (rather than how bad the other product is) has a much more positive effect. But really, I'm not an expert on commercials. Anybody who can point me to some hate campaigns by major companies that seem(ed) to be effective?
Just seems to be a challenge to the virus writers. I expect it won't be long now.
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
modern Mac's are a bog standard Personal Computer (that comes with a nice box & even nicer software)
The "dumb" ones are those that hold on to the notion that the worth of a computer is solely in its hardware. That "even nicer software" is what seperates the two - the consumer on average doesn't really care much about how well the hardware can perform, he/she just cares what he/she can do with the computer (other than overclock it, give it shiny lights, or add four of those latest extreme ultra super graphics cards for $500 each).
I'm a recent Mac switcher, *love* my new iMac. These ads are funny, but Apple should be honest.
This "restart" ad is false advertising -- Windows XP is an extremely stable platform (unless Apple is referring to people who are still using Windows 98 and Windows ME -- but I don't think so).
The entire campaign smacks of Apple's vintage "lemmings" ad which didn't work because it offended their IBM using audience. This new campaign is flat out calling PC users fat dorks. The potential switcher I know are tech savvy cool users, and could potentially be offended by this portrayal.
Apple should spend more time making it easier to switch -- like including a "start menu" equivalent, using the defacto standard "ctrl-c & ctrl-v" type shortcut keys, better windows-style support for right-click instead of always having to use ctrl-click to get a pop-up menu, real windows-style "uninstall" functionality.
I love my Mac, but getting my wife comfortable with the little Mac-isms was like giving her a new car that had the gas and brake pedals backwards.
Drop the contempt for your audience, Apple, and make your computer a more seamless experience for potential switchers.
boxlight
Sorry to say this I'm more impressed with Microsoft telling me they're offering me options ("Where do you want to go today") than I'm impressed with Apple telling me that Microsoft doesn't offer options.
I'm not going to be one of the "I hate Windows so much that I'll..." people who are willing to jump in with both feet to another platform (and a credit card in hand).
Give me a reason to buy Apple, not a reason to leave Windows.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Apple doesn't aim to market to people who know what they are doing with a PC (I use the term in its original context, Personal Computer, without any bias to one OS or another). They are aiming for the less tech-savvy user, and hoping to create the (not entirely incorrect) impression that Mac's are easier to use than pretty much any other OS based machine on the market.
I think the point about using PC here is that they can make negative comments about Windows - without actually saying Windows. They don't have to sully themselves by directly disparaging Microsoft.
Point out that a Mac is a Personal Computer if you want (it is true & I agree with you). But Joe 6-pack knows that a Mac is not a PC - a Mac is Mac and a PC is Windows. In fact he may not even know what PC stands for...
They know that in vernacular English (rather than pedantic geekspeak), "PC" means "a computer running Windows". (Most non-dumb geeks are at least aware of this fact.)
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Those adverts are acctually quite funny. They joke about the current situation of the Windows PCs... But how long? Vista is peeping around the corner... And since I am a Debian Linux user I didn't understand why they attack the PC's so directly. Mac is also a Personal Computer aka PC, no matter how they will twist or put it to their ads. Mac OSX with Intel platform is a hi-security risk because PPC was a platform no virus makers where even targetting. Now they have ability to attack macs too. No wonder that mac has a one to five known viruses right now.. when previously there where none...
-Seeing the problem is ½ of solution-
It's semantics. "PC" in this context means IBM PC compatible. You know, I know it, and everyone reading this knows it. Pretending to be naive about it accomplishes nothing.
English is easier said than done.
The wrongheadedness of that MS campaign is spectacular, isn't it? You can tell what they were thinking; basically the idea was to goad us into paying for upgrades to systems and app suites for which people aren't ponying up their upgrade fees. MS needs businesses, especially, to stay on that treadmill.
Talk about insulting their audience, though. That campaign is almost up there with the RIAA folks and their "our consumers are thieves" mindset. MS even does the RIAA one better -- because the point is that we're dinosaurs who are using Microsoft's old products. They trash us, and they trash their own software!
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Seriously, put a Mac and a, um, Dell in front of 1000 people and ask them to point to the PC. The only one who'd say, "Well, technically,..." is wearing a pocket protector, has a serious case of nasal drip, and has distinct opinions on whether Kirk or Picard is the better captain.
Geek speak != common speech. Get used to it.
Another one bites the dust
Just seems to be a challenge to the virus writers. I expect it won't be long now.
That's what people said about various things Apple and users did last year, and the year before that. Still waiting....
The thing is, virus writers are mostly not in it for the bravado now. It's a business, trying to scrape as many details or get as many zombie systems as possible. An Apple "gauntlet" means nothing.
The funny thing is, just like most software is on Windows because people are too set in thier ways to learn OS X programming, so to are virus writers pretty comfortable with what they can do on Windows and don't want to really do much extra work. So macs are proteced by an inertia that should keep them pretty safe long after some arbitrarily large threshold of marketshare is reached.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
No everybody on Slashdot speaks English as their native tongue. The editors might have fixed it up some but it might be the best effort put forth by the submitter.
Yes, I do think that's in Apple's advantage. But they should say "windows" rather then "PC", so they don't look like retards.
Apple is marketing to the general public - the people who use "PC" to mean a "computer using Windows" and "Mac" to mean "a Macintosh" or "Apple computer."
They're using informal language because the people they're targeting know exactly what they mean when they say "PC" - their audience knows that the "Windows" is implied.
They don't look like retards - no more than someone who says "Kleenex" when they really just mean "tissue" or "Band-Aid" when they really just mean "a little sticky bandage." "PC" means "a computer using Windows" to the vast majority of the people who use that term. Get used to it.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
Just to clear things up, which Linux GUI are you comparing to? KDE and GNOME are nowhere near OS X for appearance or stability, XFCE is uglier and has fewer features, and I can't imagine you're talking about any of the *boxes.
(post written from an Intel iMac which is more stable, easier to use, less buggy and faster than any of the Linux boxes I've had over the years)
That's not true, Apple and others used the generic term personal computer for years before IBM came out with their "PC".
In retrospect it was a huge mistake for IBM because they were using a brandname that they could not trademark, which only assisted with the product becoming genericized.
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
Well, to be fair, the Mac is a PC.
Thus, it would be logical that all of the PC guy's behaviour in the ad applies to a Mac, too. This actually seems to be the case, though in less significant amounts than in a pure PC.
Need for an occasional reboot? Check.
Malware? Check (Well, attempts do count. And CNET articles.)
iTunes, clock, calculator? Yup.
Networking glitches? Sure.
Rave reviews? Hmm... I'm sure Vista will get some.
I'd say the Mac is a PC. Because he's younger and chooses to wear contact lenses, you can't tell, but in 15 years or so...
J
Logically, I'd also think that showing people how good your product is (rather than how bad the other product is) has a much more positive effect.
What if your strength is that you don't do something horrible? What if your strength is that you do something better than a competitor, and you'd like to show how much better you are? What if failures are rare for both products, but you want to show yourself as better? Isn't it fair in that case to contrast your success against your competitor's failure?
If you're selling fluorescent lights, and you want to contrast the short life and high power consumption of incandescent lighting against your product, is that bad?
If your cell phone service doesn't drop calls and lets you communicate clearly, isn't it better to show your competitors failing at this rather than trying to show an entire month of not failing?
If your product cleans stains effectively, isn't it fair to compare it against "the leading brand" to show how much better it is?
I see no difference between the above commercials and what Apple is doing. However, I think it's a little like calling the Titanic "Unsinkable" before its maiden voyage to brag about how virus-free Macs are. That kind of hubris is definitely going to bite Apple when the platform reaches that critical mass of interest + talent especially now that much more common x86 assembler experience can be leveraged by malware writers against the Mac now.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
14. Awesome out of the box.
The same could be said about any well-made PC.
I generally on the anti-wintel basher side, but I've set up Dells, Gateways, IBMs, and a iMacs, and damn, iMacs are freakin' slick.
I agree with all yof our responses except this one. I have yet to see a PC that even comes close to the OOBox experience you get with a Mac. The $$$ Apple spends on packaging details and aesthetics is money well spent, IMHO.
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
Just to play devils advocate here, reviews have been coming around showing as much as a 30% speed increase for common tasks if you install Windows on your Intel mac.
With a 30% speed increase during my normal daily use, I could probably afford a little downtime for spyware or viruses now and then.
I'm pretty baffled as to what Apple is doing, it seems like their marketing people and business strategy are not inline. Everything their doing points to lowering dependence on MacOSX, yet they continue to throw out marketing slogans saying PC's and windows suck.
I hate to tell you this Apple, but the accepted definition of a PC nowadays is a machine that is IBM PC Compatible, which of course your x86 intel macs are. Your marketing spin is starting to get old... First you told us PowerPC was the only way, and x86 was crap, then you decided to use x86 becuase it was cheaper/cooler/faster. Next you told us MacOS was the only way to make the x86 Intel CPU's work well, then you released a tool so we could all install windows and see it run much faster than MacOS. What's next?
Big ones, small ones, some as big as yer 'ead!
Give 'em a twist, a flick o' the wrist...
Yeah, saying 'Windows is shit' while at they same proudly announcing 'Hey, you can run Windows now too!' would soung a little weird, wouldn't it?
Well, in addition to the numbers game, FedEx actually does reliably ship overnight, while the USPS Express mail occasionally takes longer.
Likewise, Macs do have fewer virus problems, better default-config security, superior media authoring software (for free and pre-installed, no less!) and tend to be considerably more reliable and more robust.
Now, Windows has gradually gotten better, as has the USPS, but neither has closed the gap, nor have their earned back their reputations just yet.
So really, it's FedEx and Apple: 1, USPS and Windows: -1.
And just like that, a "hate" campaign makes a lot of sense.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Would a room full of rackmounts running windows count as a PC in your world?
That was classic intercourse!
That might have been an inspiration, but since programs weren't automatically added to the Apple menu, it didn't have the same function. You didn't "start" from the Apple Menu, you start from the disk icon.
Start Menu was more of cleaned-up version of CDE Drawers IMO.
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
That's just it. It's being pushed almost like it's a religion.
I cried real tears when Li Mu Bai died.