Deja Vu: Microsoft's 2015 Surface Book Ad and Apple's 2014 'Your Verse' iPad Ad

theodp writes: With its sweeping vistas and narration by the late Robin Williams, Apple's 2014 'Your Verse' ad dramatically showcased the many ways iPads might help people create, from making movies to calibrating wind turbines. So it's interesting that Microsoft's first ad for its new Surface Book (YouTube) bears a striking resemblance to the earlier Apple ad (YouTubeDoubler comparison). Which is probably only fair, since Apple's soon-to-be-released iPad Pro bears more than a passing resemblance to the Microsoft Surface. Hey, good artists copy, great artists steal, right? By the way, between the release of Microsoft's Surface Pro 4, Apple's iPad Pro, and Google's Pixel C, is the keyboard+touch interface poised to be a four-decade "overnight success"?

Comments

Computing in the 21st century is...

[Assoluto]

...all marketing, no substance. The one exception is Linux, which is all substance and no marketing. Of course, that itself is is something of a problem.

Re:editorialize much?

[v1]

really all they have in common is they both switch frequently between life shots (most of which not incorporatin the product), with deadpan narration.

Re:editorialize much?

[HairyNevus]

Seriously, this is done all the time, especially by energy/oil corporations. Exxon has one similar right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrH19H-J4pU. What's the point? That both Apple and Microsoft used tired advertising techniques? Oh! But M$FT used them last, when they were more tired!

Exactly Identical

[im_thatoneguy]

I mean, they're both TV spots showing people using the product in a variety of settings, what a rip off. They even both have a narration!

Re:editorialize much?

[r-diddly]

No, I noticed it. Was watching TV (yes I admit it), saw the ad, and was about to say 'WTF I'm so sick of these Apple ads trying to convince everyone they're a fucking special unique snowflake' and then boom I see the Windows logo.

Re:Surface Pro vs iPad Pro

[bondsbw]

So you love how Windows 10 can run real applications, is a true desktop OS, and you even consider its tablet mode "really nice". You never use handwriting, but because you think that's not as good, your conclusion is that Windows 10 "is so bad".

What?

But will the ipad Pro suck like the surface?

[Lumpy]

Having had to reinstall the OS yet again last night because Wifi goes out and will not come back because of a serious bug microsoft will not fix. They chose to use the super crappy "Marvell" chipset for their wireless in the surface 1,2,3 and it is highly common for it to wig out on you and you lose the drivers for the wifi and you have to uninstall the device and drivers, reinstall the old drivers and then reboot, or many times tell the surface to do a OS reinstall to get it back to working again.

So if the Ipad Pro does not do that, It's better. I wish Samsung would make a surface pro type of tablet so I can get away from the shit-quality that microsoft hardware has become.

Re:But will the ipad Pro suck like the surface?

[thegarbz]

Sounds like an isolated case to me.

Posted by a happy Surface Pro 3 user who's WiFi has never drop out. Except that one time but it turns out the power actually went out and I didn't notice.

Re:editorialize much?

[GrpA]

Just because something is done all the time, it doesn't mean it's a bad strategy - in fact, it usually points to a very good strategy.

Surface has gouged out an entire market from under Apple's feet. People who use tablets with active stylus tend to love them ( and they use their fingers too, but sometimes, you just want a pen... ) - And Apple's contempt for pen-based input as a marketing strategy ( eg, Macbook Air will never feature touch/pen ) allowed Microsoft to just walk in and take the place without any resistance.

It may have taken, even needed, apple to make tablets cool enough for the market to seriously consider them, but they don't know how to innovate and now Microsoft is using the same ads that are so effective in the demographic that usually buys Apple to sell them Surface.

I suspect the OP has identified this.

Reminds me of the old Apple vs PC ads. Except it looks like PC went on a diet, got ripped and is stealing chicks from Apple... Not only is he good looking now, he's funny too. And he can run real-world programs, not just apps. So he might as wear the turtleneck sweater and too eh?

GrpA