New mac ad

Seamus

The new mac ad on the uk/irl site gets a reaction from the guardian

wxwax

I do dislike the US version of those ads. I agree with the writer, the Mac guy is insufferably smug. And I speak as a Mac owner.

claudermilk

OK, that article is a bit over the top, yet I found myself nodding & chuckling through the whole thing.

Yup, Apple's campaign is infuriating and basically inaccurate (yep, PCs can't do photos...huh I think to myself while doing some retouching in PS and Bibble happily chews in the background, wonder what I'm doing here then?). IMHO they have shot themselves in the foot on this one.

Apparently I'm not the only one that Apple has essentially pissed off enough to eliminate as a potential customer. At this point, I will go out of my way to find a competitor for any product they make that I happen to want. I'll probably just leave the old Mac in storage forever now just out of spite (well, that and the fact that the "perfectly reliable" Mac probably cannot have it's 4th faulty power supply replaced any more).

Ric Grupe

Seamus wrote:

The new mac ad on the uk/irl site gets a reaction from the guardian

Thanks!

I feel better about myself now.

After....going to war....driving a stock car....raising three terrific sons....retiring at 41 years of age....living a good life....those ads were making me feel like I wasn't nearly as cool as I thought I was!!!:ivar

I was almost to the point where I thought I needed a Mac to sycologically survive.:cool

thebigsky

The article certainly betrays his ignorance regarding Macs, my computing life has gone something like this:-

ZX80, ZX81, Vic 20, Commodore 64, Amiga, various self built and pre-built PC's and now a couple of Mac Mini's, a Power Mac and a Mac Pro.

The only reason I suffered Windows for 10 years was because Mac's were so overpriced and it was the only viable games platform other than consoles which I detest.

However now the price differential is no longer an issue I can think of no reason not to buy a Mac especially as I can boot into Windows when I want to play games.

However I do concede there is an air of smugness with many Mac users.

Charlie

jdryan3

thebigsky wrote:

However I do concede there is an air of smugness with many Mac users.

Charlie

At least it isn't smugmugness!

windoze

Seamus wrote:

The new mac ad on the uk/irl site gets a reaction from the guardian

from the article:

"Ultimately the campaign's biggest flaw is that it perpetuates the notion that consumers somehow "define themselves" with the technology they choose"

what the article calls their biggest flaw - is in reality the truth! Good for Apple to capitalize on it. As Jim Cramer (booyah) says... Apple Gets It !



troy

BTW.....
Appleinsider reports that Apple will be increasing their direct marketing against Microsoft's Vista operating system with Apple Store materials:
The campaign, set to get underway this Saturday, will include new store displays and employee t-shirts gently mocking Vista as little more than a washed-up attempt at a modern operating system, those familiar with the matter say.
The training materials specifically focus on the cost and confusion of upgrading to Vista, alongside direct comparisons with Apple's Mac OS X.

Pupator

windoze wrote:

The training materials specifically focus on the cost and confusion of upgrading to Vista, alongside direct comparisons with Apple's Mac OS X.

So that Apple can better themselves by perpetuating more lies and myths about their competition? Yeah, that's good business. I'm so sick of hearing all this "cost and confusion" BS.

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-6156413.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=tr

Seamus

I should have said at the start that I actually like the ads, I think they are very funny. I have an apple laptop and a pc desktop.

Poseidon

"Cancel or Allow"

I almost fell outta my chair! I love the series of Ads, and if I have an air of smugness, then so be it! I love my new rock solid machine, and a new laptop is on the horizon! (I have a Sharp PC laptop right now, and I keep it mostly for it GORGEOUS LCD screen!)

wxwax

Poseidon wrote:

"Cancel or Allow"

David Pogue, the New York Times tech guy, mocked this new Vista feature. He says that while it may indeed help stop malware, the real purpose of the incessant pop-ups is to remind users how hard Vista is working to keep them safe (thus addressing one of Microsoft's weaknesses.)

BillyVerden

What i find funny about Apple is...
That they used to say their processor was better and faster than PC's.
Now they use the same processor. Did they get that wrong?

That they used to say OSX was far superior than WinXP.
Now all they do is talk about being able to run WinXP on their Mac. Is it
somehow better now? I didn't know WinXP was free. God forbid that a mac user is actually buying a windows product.

Plus the ads in particular all they are is about talking bad about windows and windows users. Is that really how you win over customers? Yeah i really want to buy something from someone that makes fun of me or what i do. That in particlular is THE MAIN reason i will never buy a Mac. If i walked into a store and got treated like that i would never go back.

But what do i know...

wxwax

Presumably Apple thinks the ads are effective. They're certainly getting attention.

I'm with you. I think they're a turn off.

claudermilk

BillyVerden wrote:

What i find funny about Apple is...
That they used to say their processor was better and faster than PC's.
Now they use the same processor. Did they get that wrong?

That they used to say OSX was far superior than WinXP.
Now all they do is talk about being able to run WinXP on their Mac. Is it
somehow better now? I didn't know WinXP was free. God forbid that a mac user is actually buying a windows product.

Plus the ads in particular all they are is about talking bad about windows and windows users. Is that really how you win over customers? Yeah i really want to buy something from someone that makes fun of me or what i do. That in particlular is THE MAIN reason i will never buy a Mac. If i walked into a store and got treated like that i would never go back.

But what do i know...

You know, I always wonder at the trash-talk sales pitch. My reaction is always: ok, so what's wrong with your product that you find it necessary to tear down the competition? Why can't you just tell me about the good points of your own product? Are there any?

Typically there's a reason they feel it necessary to take that route. I usually just mark that option off my list and keep looking.

I guess Apple is feeling embarrassed/vulnerable now that they have adopted the Intel architecture they have been campaigning against for the past two decades. (i.e., "oops, maybe the other guys weren't so far wrong after all"). Sometimes crow doesn't go down too easily.

wxwax

claudermilk wrote:

You know, I always wonder at the trash-talk sales pitch. My reaction is always: ok, so what's wrong with your product that you find it necessary to tear down the competition? Why can't you just tell me about the good points of your own product? Are there any?

Typically there's a reason they feel it necessary to take that route. I usually just mark that option off my list and keep looking.

I guess Apple is feeling embarrassed/vulnerable now that they have adopted the Intel architecture they have been campaigning against for the past two decades. (i.e., "oops, maybe the other guys weren't so far wrong after all"). Sometimes crow doesn't go down too easily.

I think you're reading far too much into this.

mercphoto

BillyVerden wrote:

What i find funny about Apple is...
That they used to say their processor was better and faster than PC's.
Now they use the same processor. Did they get that wrong?

The obvious answer is that the world doesn't stand still, but your argument above assumes it does.

No, they did not get it wrong. I used to work at the Somerset Design Center in Austin, which is who did the PowerPC processor for Apple. I worked as a Motorola employee and worked on the original G4, among other processors.

The G3, and especially the G4's, ran circles around Intel processors in a variety of ways. Much lower power, smaller die size, lower cost, and better performance (even at a lower clock frequency, and there are many reasons why that is so). The original G4 processor was fantastic in its day.

The problem was Motorola dragged their feet on improving the G4 over the years. It allowed Intel and AMD both to catch up and surpass the PowerPC.

Its really pretty simple. Apple was right 10 years ago. And today they were right to switch. Remember, the world isn't static and standing still.

I'll put another vote in favor of the Mac ads. I love them. I used to be a PC-only guy but now I can't imagine life running Windows, nor can I understand why people still use that crap. Honestly, under the covers both Windows and the x86 architecture is junk (and I now work at AMD...).

DavidTO

claudermilk wrote:

I guess Apple is feeling embarrassed/vulnerable now that they have adopted the Intel architecture they have been campaigning against for the past two decades. (i.e., "oops, maybe the other guys weren't so far wrong after all"). Sometimes crow doesn't go down too easily.

The Motorola/IBM path was begun in the Apple I when the chip was what was available to Steve Wozniak. It was a diff. manufacturer, but the same chip. It determined the architecture way back then.

Apple got to the point that they could decide which way to go when they got OSX up and stable and fast. Before that the transition would have been too painful to bear.

I doubt that Apple is embarrassed about anything, and I don't think anyone was right or wrong in regards to the chips, really. I mean, who knew way back then?

Yes, Apple spends a lot of time differentiating itself, like it has in campaigning about the megahertz myth, and now with the Mac/PC ads. Maybe too much time. But I do think it's a bit of a no-win situation. PC users want to know why they should switch. The only real growth Apple is going to have is going to be at the expense of the PC, there's just not that many new markets to plumb.

I'm not defending the ads, which I find funny at times, just saying that I doubt that Apple is embarrassed, and that I understand why they are trying to set themselves apart from PCs, and showing what they offer that is unique. PC users are so used to what they have that it's hard for them to imagine something all that much better. And in many ways, OSX is all that much better. Not in all ways, of course, but in many.

wxwax

And awaaaaay they go!

mercphoto

DavidTO wrote:

The Motorola/IBM path was begun in the Apple I when the chip was what was available to Steve Wozniak. It was a diff. manufacturer, but the same chip. It determined the architecture way back then.

Apple I was a Motorola 6800. They eventually switched to the PowerPC, which is not of the same lineage. That came from a watered down version of IBM's Power architecture used mostly in servers.

DavidTO

mercphoto wrote:

Apple I was a Motorola 6800. They eventually switched to the PowerPC, which is not of the same lineage. That came from a watered down version of IBM's Power architecture used mostly in servers.

According to Woz, the first prototype he made was not Motorola, but a clone.

Anyway, small point. The course was set early on.

System

I thought the guardian article was a great piece of writing-

thoroughly enjoyable-

and I really like the ads (the apple guy was in 'waiting' which, if you watch, you might not want to go out to eat again)-

having used pc's for years (started with basic and fortran and punch cards and used a slide rule in college (amazing how accurate those things were); used a commodore 64 (which was such a piece of crap but thoroughly enjoyable); very tired of the '3 key gates keyboard' (ctl alt del); really ready to go mac next time-

I have a coworker who just got a mac; will be watching closely-

BillyVerden

mercphoto wrote:

Honestly, under the covers both Windows and the x86 architecture is junk (and I now work at AMD...).

I have owned AMD's and Intels. I currently have a core2 duo as my main computer. But strictly in everyday use i have to say Intel processors have always been faster for me. Benchmarks, maybe AMD is faster but in practical use i will have to stick with Intel(i don't work for Intel).

And i agree with a previous post that Apple has not given me a reason to buy Apple. If i am to switch is "It just works" really suppose to convince me?
Name an ad that even shows their OS running.... running anything. I can't think of one. Show me why its better don't just tell me mine is bad.

claudermilk

wxwax wrote:

I think you're reading far too much into this.

Yeah, probably... This thread just keeps me thinking about it. I guess it really boils down to, yeah the ads can be amusing, however the snotty attitude and blatant inaccuracies are irritating. I'm with Billy: just show us a Mac "just working" ... PROVE the product is better instead of behaving like a bad politician.