The Mac Observer

Latest Microsoft Ad Hits at MacBook Price Again

TMO Talk (19)

Microsoft's latest Laptop Hunter commercial follows the same formula as the other ads in the series: Buy a PC because Macs cost too much. Thankfully, it doesn't borrow from the company's recent Internet Explorer 8 campaign, so no one is forcefully expelling what they ate for lunch on camera.

The new commercial features a young family on the hunt for a sub US$700 laptop with a big screen and the ability to share family photos. They pass up the white MacBook as too small and too expensive, and finally settle on an HP laptop because it looks sturdy and includes Windows Photo Gallery.

Like the other ads in Microsoft's "Laptop Hunter" campaign, price is touted as the key selling feature in computers. Since the company's apparent target audience is inexperienced computer buyers who are more likely to make purchase decisions based only on price instead of features and quality, this ad will probably deliver exactly the message Microsoft wants to send: Buy PCs because they are cheap.

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19 Observer Comments

   Actions Lee Dronick said on July 9th, 2009 at 8:47 AM (Edited: 10/18/2011 6:20 PM):

As if having an infant to take care of wasn’t enough 7/24 work, now they have to babysit Windows.

So, can they be charged with child abuse for exposing it to Windows? I at least hope it’s got the 7 Beta and not Vista.

   Actions Lee Dronick said on July 9th, 2009 at 9:00 AM (Edited: 10/18/2011 6:20 PM):

So, can they be charged with child abuse for exposing it to Windows?

Take a look at the photo. The little fellow is feeding on the cardboard box which is probably covered in germs! smile

Ooooh!!  It includes Windows Photo Gallery!!  smile~

   Actions Richard Platt said on July 9th, 2009 at 9:07 AM:

Sure go head, you can buy that PC crap, or, you can spend a few dollars more and buy a high quality Apple computer with the world’s best operating system.  Cheap junk is always available but some people just have more taste than others.

I’d do exactly what this couple did, then sell the HP and put the proceeds towards a Mac.

settle on an HP laptop because it looks sturdy and includes Windows Photo Gallery

ROFLMAO is appropriate here.. a sturdy PC laptop? Honestly those things are the biggest POSs ever. I used to work at Intel with OEMs like HP, DELL, IBM, etc… those things use the cheapest plastics they can get away with and typically snap together like some of my kids toys.

Windows Photo Gallery??? Now there’s a reason to buy.. the first part of that name is the reason NOT to buy.

Take a look at the photo. The little fellow is feeding on the cardboard box which is probably covered in germs! smile

Don’t you mean covered in Viruses? har har big grin

“we can share photos with this little guy… ” (and viruses)

- sorry I can’t figure out how to edit my previous comment.

I would have bought a windows laptop if I could I have got one which offered everything I got in my macbook and worked out of the box as well. I use windows at work and despite 15 ears use, I still prefer MAcOS approach ususally (MS have some better ideas….)

Maybe someone is going to show me such a system….

I may be mistaken, but have any of these ads ever recommended any PC other than an HP? Dell can’t be happy.

Anyone find this “family’s” IMDB listing yet? That’s a pairing constructed by a marketing department if I’ve ever seen one. Good looking!

   Actions B9robot said on July 9th, 2009 at 12:56 PM:

PC is cheaper and has photo gallery, big deal. But the Mac has OSX, Mail, address book, calendar, iChat, iMovie to edit your video, iDVD to burn your own video, garageband to make your own music, iTunes to play your favorite music, iWeb to share your photos, movies, music and whatever else online on your own home page.
Then there’s the problem for Windows, viruses, spyware, malware and general threats of break-ins every single day!. They have to run out and buy all that protection software, the they have to buy all that other software that already comes standard with the Mac. The Mac has a faster processor too!
Now how cheap is that PC?
It isn’t!!

   Actions Lee Dronick said on July 9th, 2009 at 1:05 PM (Edited: 10/18/2011 6:20 PM):

Now how cheap is that PC?

If is the lie that is repeated often enough people will believe it. This is probably the case in the case of Pc v MAC (I typed them that way on purpose) and the people who are pennywise and pound foolish fall for it.

The real point is that Microsoft is only interested in money - not in quality, making a difference, or even really in computers or OS’s. They appear to simply want to make as much money as possible for the least amount of effort. That’s the perspective from which MS views everything and which it rather insultingly thinks is the real issue in life for everyone else too.

MS’s ads are remarkably honest and revealing - not about computers but about itself.

Sturdy? My old white iBook tumbled down 5 flights of marble stairs and skidded about 7 or 8 meters across a tile subway platform, and worked. I’d like to see any PC top that. I have a MacBook now, but my daughter still uses that 6 year old machine, and it runs Leopard.

Share pictures? Let’s see you take pictures and video with the child on your lap and edit it in iMovie and send it or post it on your iWeb photo gallery with that HP pretty much as soon as it comes out of the box.

Wow, this is an ad for the benefits of consumer research before the purchase of large ticket items.

   Actions WetcoastBob said on July 9th, 2009 at 7:37 PM (Edited: 05/24/2011 12:33 AM):

You can sure tell Microsoft is run by a salesman. 

“Do anything to sell the crap except improve the product”

I like Steve Job’s comment from years ago that went something like: “I only want to deal with people who spend their own money”. By contrast, these ad’s all star people who aren’t spending their own money. MS has to actually bribe them to buy a PC.

The old proverb says, “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”. So these people buying laptops really have nothing to lose - until they start up their machines, and then the losses just keep coming.

Funny, it’s the opposite with Apple: though you pay more for quality, you feel like you’re actually being given something. From the moment you start up your machine the gains just keep accruing.

Not only are they not spending their own money, if you look closely, they get to keep the change!  If my teenage son knew he’d be able to keep the change when shopping for me, he’s suddenly turn very frugal and not overly concerned if it’s exactly what we need….
Hmmm… kinda like buying a cheap PC notebook… hmmm…
“I don’t know how good it is, but it was cheap!”

   Actions Henry Bowman said on July 12th, 2009 at 2:51 AM:

Next year’s Apple ad campaign will show Apple revisiting all those people who bought PCs in the ads to ask them, “So how’d that work out for you?”

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