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Brilliant; that's all!!

Oct 19, 08 - 07:07 pm Comment from: Angusmacg

As much as I am not a fan of Justin Long I think that he and Hodgman are great together and could be today's equivalent of Abbot and Costello (at least thanks to the writers of the commercials)

That is much more than 4 times as much cash! PCs can't count.

Oct 19, 08 - 07:14 pm Comment from: AppleMacMan

I've gotta tell you, the 'Bean Counter' ad is the best of these types of ads to date. I've never laughed and enjoyed these types of ads this much before. I thought to myself, great comeback Apple.

I mean that is really and truly what M$ is doing, simply throwing advertising dollars at Vista's problems rather than fixing it. Why do you think M$ is talking so much about Windows 7? In fact Steve Ballmer is recently quoted as saying, "[Windows 7], it's Windows Vista, but a lot better." M$ is not going to fix Vista, they are just going to sell Windows 7 to it's sheep.

However, the Mac switching momentum is not about to phase out. The new Macs are really going to shine with 64 bit Snow Leopard and the awesome performance superiority it will have over bloated Vista and Windows 7 a.k.a. Vista 2nd edition. 

Microsoft doesn't fix Windows because it is unfixable.
They need to start from scratch and rewrite.
They probably won't do it.
If they did, it would take 5 to 7 years for the first draft... too late.
Apple will have a 128 bit enterprise grade file system (ZFS from Sun) starting with Snow Leopard.
Game over.
Apple will be bigger than Microsoft.
Yea!
The Tyrannosaurus is dying.

Those were certainly funnier than Bill and Jerry.

At least Hodgman doesn't have to wiggle his ass to get laughs.

Oct 19, 08 - 07:35 pm Comment from: Arnold Ziffel

The 'bean counter' ad is the funniest and sharpest of all the 'Get a Mac' ads so far.

Glass workers are going to be very busy fixing all the broken windows (oops, a pun) in Mr. Ballmer's office tomorrow.

... but isn't an advertising campaign that mocks an advertising campaign kinda ironic?

"[Windows 7], it's Windows Vista, but a lot better."

Hard to imagine how MS could make Vista any worse.

But this is the same MS that gave the world Windows ME, so I'm sure they're capable.

Oct 19, 08 - 07:48 pm Comment from: Arnold Ziffel

@I hate to say it...,

Well, yeah, but no one's accusing OS X of being a chrome-plated turd either.

Oct 19, 08 - 07:50 pm Comment from: Tommyr

Yeah, more ads Microsoft! That's helping! ROTFLMAO!

Ballmer is a tool!

LOL!

Glass workers are going to be very busy fixing all the broken windows (oops, a pun) in Mr. Ballmer's office tomorrow.

MS really needs to get Ballmer a rubber room.

Or at least a monkey pit.

Very sharp ads. If M$ decreases their advertising, they lose. If they keep spending a ton on their advertising, they lose.

They seem to try everything but make a good product.

CLASSIC!!

Oct 19, 08 - 08:08 pm Comment from: Arnold Ziffel

We all saw something like this happening after the MS's "ads" with Billy G. and Seinfeld, now didn't we?

I think there are going to be a lot of toilets in Redmond stopped up with bricks this next week.

Very nice Apple!

Oct 19, 08 - 08:19 pm Comment from: luke255

lol if i worked in Microsoft's advertising dept i'd be pretty raged. That impotent, "i wish you hadn't said that even though it's exactly right" kind of rage.

"... but isn't an advertising campaign that mocks an advertising campaign kinda ironic?"

Not at all. The MS campaign does not advertise any advantages of Vista over other operating systems. Nor does it illustrate problems with other OSes. Seinfeld ads say that MS is making an attempt to get in the consumer market, and the I'm a PC ad just says a lot of people use PCs (to the point that they now think they are PCs) which really goes without saying because it's quite obvious from market share figures.

Apple ads, however try to show the benefits of Macs and the downsides of the PC.

Oct 19, 08 - 08:32 pm Comment from: Not Bill

Is M$ really trying to get people to quit referring to "vista?" That is so 1984; as in Orwellian. They could then start selling the old system as the new system until the next version comes out and nobody could tell the difference because they are all called Windows. At least they get one more chance this way. If Windows 7 is a turd things will really get interesting.

Oct 19, 08 - 08:32 pm Comment from: LordRobin

Heh. It's amazing how the Apple-Microsoft war is beginning to resemble a political campaign, with ads that attack each other's tactics.

------RM

Oct 19, 08 - 08:38 pm Comment from: Arnold Ziffel

@LordRobin,

Please, don't go there!

How many corporations and businesses are going to be looking for other solutions after Ballmer's little remark? I would think that many of them that are close to making long-term technology decisions for their companies are really starting to look at the alternatives. Why wait for MS to putz around with the Vista turd for 2-3 more years, when there are already other choices out there that are superior and will cost at least the same, if not save some money long-term. Ballmer just handed probably 10-20% of his market share to the competition. OS X and Linux are both ready to step in and take up the slack.

Maybe this is Ballmer & Gate's long-term strategy. They are so beholden to so much legacy code. Maybe they are ceding some of their market share, so that they can "justify" the need to do a complete rewrite. Or maybe they're just that incompetent. Who knows. Either way it better for all of us for more competition in the OS market place.

Oct 19, 08 - 09:06 pm Comment from: madgunde

OMG, I can't imagine a more perfectly executed comeback, and it's almost as if the I'm a PC, I'm a Mac campaign planned for exactly this retaliation tactic of Microsoft's.

Brilliant!

Well done ... I would suggest that they take a pig and name it Vista and try to disguise it with lipstick, a necklace, clothes etc. Make the point that no matter how you name it or disguise it, Vista is still a pig. Of course, this might alienate pig farmers.

I love the new ads. They're great! LOL at the Bean Counter ad.

Peace.

Oct 19, 08 - 09:36 pm Comment from: ragarcia

You gotta hand it to Apple's ad agency, Bean Counter is just brilliant.

I'm counting on MS not fixing the next OS either. I just hope their user's don't demand that they actually fix it this next time. What would be scary is if they actually are improving Windows 7. It wouldn't take much, there is an unlearned contingency that actually liked Win 95 and XP, once they were stabilized.

Oct 19, 08 - 09:52 pm Comment from: blucaso

Saw these both while watching the NFL today, and definitely laughed out loud - both spot on and sharp! These couldn't be more different than the warm fuzzy TinyLimp "I'm a PC" ads... hehehe

Oct 19, 08 - 09:52 pm Comment from: Cubert

"Bean Counter" shows that Apple is as versatile in their advertising as they are in their technology.

Oct 19, 08 - 10:18 pm Comment from: Jubei

Ahahaha... both were funny, but the first one with the ad money was awesome.

Oct 19, 08 - 10:22 pm Comment from: Big Al

Microsoft practically begged for an answer from Apple to their PC ads.

They deserved this and it looks good on them.

Where is ZuneTang now?

MDN user clinicaltechmaster says "Apple will be bigger than Microsoft. Yea! The Tyrannosaurus [Microsoft] is dying." Does this mean that Apple will eventually morph into the Tricikloplots from Jurassic Park III?

PS: Very cool ads, as always!

clunker, are you kidding about IE? What a piece of junk that is. Writing web pages means writing it once for all standard compliant browsers and then trying to fix all the random crap IE breaks. Every web developer hates IE...

Oct 19, 08 - 11:32 pm Comment from: MacRaven

Wow. Both ads say what I've been thinking since I saw M$'s new ads and was puzzled over the next version being Winduhz 7 and not a new version of Vista.

Ad are spot on for M$'s problems and dumb ass fixes.

Oct 19, 08 - 11:32 pm Comment from: The Other Steve

There both great but the advertising spot is a classic!!!!

May Apple keep this campaign going for as long as Ballmer is head of Microsoft.

Microsoft is actually in a decline that wont be stopped.
Re-writing Windows is just an impossible task.
A world without Windows? Yes, it may just happen.

I still cant believe that one of the big PC manufacturers hasnt come up with a consumer Linux package yet.
Weird.

Apple simply needs to not make any mistakes, and the PC world is theirs.

Oct 20, 08 - 12:56 am Comment from: ken1w

Steady progress is what Apple needs to make. Apple doesn't need to sell an $800 laptop. If Microsoft continues to be inept in (not) providing non-Apple PC makers with a popular and marketable release of Windows, in less than ten years, Apple will have 25% market share with Macs. That should give Apple the #1 spot, with Dell, HP, Gateway, and the rest of the Microsoft "partners" splitting the other 75%.

Windows market share may still top Mac OS X, but Apple does not care about that so much. Its true competitors are the other PC makers, not Microsoft.

These ads highlight how much Microsoft has actually helped Apple in recent years, by releasing and not really improving Vista. Long live Vista (and any later releases that are "just like Vista - only more so").

Oct 20, 08 - 02:52 am Comment from: Petey

re: Where is ZuneTang now?

Using a Mac!

:DDD

There are already more Vista machines in use than Apple has ever made!

Yet Steve's RDF keeps churning along.

Oct 20, 08 - 04:12 am Comment from: twilightmoon

RDF: "There are already more Vista machines in use than Apple has ever made! "

Umm no, not by very much. Which is appalling considering going into Vista Microsoft had over 90% marketshare. Macs had less than 5% global share in 2006, and are still under 10% even in the US. But in 2006 the number was under 5% in the us, so MS should have sold 19 copies of Vista for every Mac sold.

So almost 3 years later we should be seeing 9x as many Vista machines in use as Macs sold since January 2007. Apple sold over 7 million in 2007, and 7 million this year and about 5-6 million in 2006. So that adds up to about 20 million Macs.

By those numbers we should be looking at 380 million copies of Vista in that time frame. Anything substantially less than that can be considered an enormous and stunning flop.

Microsoft claims 140 million "sales" of Vista over 2 years after their launch, which is far less than half that number, but it gets worse. They are only talking about their sales, not copies actually in use. Microsoft credits a sale of Vista regardless of the OS used on the machine, I could buy a Dell with Vista, wipe it clean, and install Linux and to Microsoft that's a sale of Vista.

Sure they got money for it, but that's only short term, so if you only care about MS's next few financial quarters, everything looks great, but if you are more interested in long term trends and the future of Windows, things look decidedly grim.

Within Apple's launch quarter of Leopard, Piper Jaffray reported that over 20% of Mac users upgraded to the new OS. Over 2 years after Vista was released, less than 15% of Windows users are on Vista.

That's right, FIFTEEN percent, and this is an OS that was over 5 years in development, and over 2 years on the market. With no replacement scheduled for at least another 2 years. And Microsoft has already said Windows 7 is just warmed over Vista with a few features bolted on.

Apple is rapidly approaching the 15% threshold that Microsoft holds for Vista in the US, and could very easily overtake it before Windows 7 ships.

So, do you really still want to have this conversation about Apple's reality distortion field, RDF?

"Umm no, not by very much."

What does "no, not by very much mean?" Is that moron for Yes?

Macs have just shy of 3% Global market share. That's indisputable and easily obtained by looking at Apple's sales volumes vs the number of computers sold worldwide from IDC or Gartner.

"So almost 3 years later we should be seeing 9x as many Vista machines in use as Macs sold since January 2007."

Your model is flawed because it assumes immediate uptake of Vista by all customers. Many purposely wait 1-2 years, Also Vista sales are now well north of 200 million units.

And in the real world we only see about 6x as many Vista PCs as Intel Macs. What a flop!

"Over 2 years after Vista was released, less than 15% of Windows users are on Vista."

Your figures are old, Microsoft is up to about 19% of installed base with Vista and growing at about a percent (of installed base) a month. Wait a month, that's another 10 million Vista users, another month, another 10 million...

Apple can't even sell that many Macs in a year.







.

Funny.
Yet, i think Apple can change it's style of adds. Bashing over and over again can produce opposit effects after a while (see Balmer: always critisizing but never showing up with good stuff!).
Something is no good just because the others make dirt... Think different could bring some more positive Apple image and leave the negativ and dark windoze behind.

@RDF
Please, we know that people have been forced to use this M$ crap for so many years that it is hard for them to leave their habits... No need to come along with your arguments anymore!

Oct 20, 08 - 05:24 am Comment from: twilightmoon

RDF continues....
"Umm no, not by very much."

What does "no, not by very much mean?" Is that moron for Yes?

Macs have just shy of 3% Global market share. That's indisputable and easily obtained by looking at Apple's sales volumes vs the number of computers sold worldwide from IDC or Gartner.

This is very disputable, internet surveys put them north of 7 or 8% internet share.

Where do you get the 3% figure from that's out of date as far as I can tell, or can you substantiate this? Not every computer sold is in front of an end user, I suspect you're lumping every cash register, ATM machine and such together into the same pool. Not very useful way to measure market share of computers in front of end users.


"So almost 3 years later we should be seeing 9x as many Vista machines in use as Macs sold since January 2007."

Your model is flawed because it assumes immediate uptake of Vista by all customers. Many purposely wait 1-2 years, Also Vista sales are now well north of 200 million units.

My model assumes that NEW sales will be Vista, not that all existing installed base will be Vista. New Macs are ALL Leopard, so it's not unreasonable to expect that NEW PC sales would be the same or at least similar, and its not even half.


And in the real world we only see about 6x as many Vista PCs as Intel Macs. What a flop!

Ha ha ha.. yeah considering they started at 19 to 1? Yeah that's a stunning and enormous flop on a gargatuan scale never before seen in the history of Windows since Windows 95 and before that to days of DOS.


"Over 2 years after Vista was released, less than 15% of Windows users are on Vista."

Your figures are old, Microsoft is up to about 19% of installed base with Vista and growing at about a percent (of installed base) a month. Wait a month, that's another 10 million Vista users, another month, another 10 million...

Apple can't even sell that many Macs in a year.

Apple doesn't need to sell the same number of units as Dell to make over 2x the revenue and well over 2x the profit. Microsoft's Market Cap is based on sales of Windows, 80% of which are *automatic* sales on every non Mac PC sold. The only other major source of revenue is MS Office.

Take away either and Microsoft's profits will nose dive. Apple is rapidly eating away at Microsofts cash cow, Windows, by sucking the profits out of it. 30% of retail dollars spent in the US are now spent on Macs, and far more than this among college students who are the future of computer users.

You can keep burying your MS loving head in the sand as long as you wish, but if MS doesn't get their act together quick their goose is cooked. You can only sit and rest in the shade so long before you lose the race, ask the hare and the tortoise about that one.

Keep trying, if you throw enough darts, eventually one has to hit the bulls eye. Just hope your arm doesn't get too tired first.

Oct 20, 08 - 05:31 am Comment from: twilightmoon

Wait.. I let you get away with a pretty big fat one..

"Your model is flawed because it assumes immediate uptake of Vista by all customers. Many purposely wait 1-2 years, Also Vista sales are now well north of 200 million units."

SALES, but what about actual USERS? Microsoft as far as I am aware has NEVER mentioned the installed base who is actually actively USING Vista.

Based on the overwhelmingly "meh" reaction the tech industry has had to Vista and especially in the business sector and MS desperate attempts to prop up the sales figures of Vista by claiming XP "downgraded" systems as "Vista sales" I'm positive the installed user base is a fraction of that 200 million figure you quoted.

Oct 20, 08 - 05:49 am Comment from: PT

Hilarious...especially: V Word...not quite 'Security', but not too bad at all...

Oct 20, 08 - 05:50 am Comment from: -hh

@ twilightmoon:

The other thing to point out to RDF is that even at a best case 'adoption' point of 19%, it took Vista two years to get this far, which means that it took 2 years to get that far, which means that at that rate of adoption, its going to take Vista another ~8 years to realize Microsoft's "97%" share.

2 years so far + 8 years more = 10 years.

Now isn't the typical lifecycle of PC hardware (eg replacement cycle) something like 3-5 years?

At 5 years, that means that 50% of the new PC market is rejecting Vista.
At 3 years, it would mean that 67% of new PC market is rejecting Vista.

With successes like this, it is thus hardly surprising:

2004: MS stock buy-back of $75B
2006: MS stock buy-back of $40B
2008: MS stock buy-back of $40B

If nothing else, there's $150B spent on propping up their stock values instead of the fundamental of "propping up" their product quality.


-hh

"This is very disputable, internet surveys put them north of 7 or 8% internet share"

You are talking installed base, not market share. Even then that number at 8% is a US only number not a worldwide one, and open to question with even a little critical analysis.

The market share number is simple to derive. take units sold worldwide (as published by Apple) divide by total units sold worldwide (as published by IDC or Gartner).

Unless you think Apple is underestimating the units they ship by 3x or IDC and Gartner are overestimating the market by 3x, the worldwide market share number is 3% not 9%.

"so it's not unreasonable to expect that NEW PC sales would be the same or at least similar"

Of course it is. With a Mac you don't have a choice. You get the latest OS whether you want it or not. With PCs you can still by a system pre-loaded with XP as many businesses do. Businesses would simply not find it acceptable that the day Microsoft released a new OS they were forced to take it on all new PCs. But for Apple's mostly home customers, Steve has decreed that that is the way it is.

"Microsoft as far as I am aware has NEVER mentioned the installed base who is actually actively USING Vista."

No, but Net Applications do, and their estimates come out at about 180 million users. That's the same survey I believe you're quoting to support your argument, so the results should be acceptable to you.

" I'm positive the installed user base is a fraction of that 200 million figure you quoted"

I'm positive that's wishful thinking on your behalf.

"You can only sit and rest in the shade so long before you lose the race, ask the hare and the tortoise about that one."

Whatever way you look at it Microsoft is absolutely demolishing Apple with Vista sales alone, and in unit terms, Microsoft's sales this quarter GREW by more than FIVE TIMES Apple's total sales for the quarter. It's a fallacy to believe that because Apple increases share that Microsoft is selling less units. You forget, the market is growing, and Microsoft gets the lion's share of that growth. And Microsoft frankly couldn't care less whether you buy XP or Vista.

Apple is a tiny tiny percentage of new PC sales worldwide.

It's all very well to quote being the #1 PC in US retails sales costing over $1000, but that's about as impressive as being the world's tallest dwarf. Define the market narrowly enough, and you can always be doing well in your niche (as you define it to be).

"at that rate of adoption, its going to take Vista another ~8 years to realize Microsoft's "97%" share."

And when have Microsoft OS adoption rates ever been constant over the life of the product? They always start slowly and accelerate.

"30% of retail dollars spent in the US are now spent on Macs, and far more than this among college students who are the future of computer users."

That may be cause for concern for HP or Dell, but not Microsoft.They care about units sold not dollars per unit.

"Apple is rapidly eating away at Microsofts cash cow,"

At 3% of units worldwide, Apple is gnawing at the scraps that fall from Microsoft's table. The Microsoft cash cow is as healthy as it ever was.

Oct 20, 08 - 06:40 am Comment from: -hh

@RDF:

"It's all very well to quote being the #1 PC in US retails sales costing over $1000, but that's about as impressive as being the world's tallest dwarf. Define the market narrowly enough, and you can always be doing well in your niche (as you define it to be)."

Sure, but there is validity to segments other than "ALL". And you've already done this yourself by segmenting from all retail products to just PCs.

For example, the USA is the world's largest identified market segment, and here, your "tallest dwarf" is currently garnering 1/3rd of the total gross revenues in the PC portion of that market.

For 70% of the Countries in the world*, a $1000 product (ANY product) represents over 10% of their average annual income. As such, they're much more likely to be buying a bicycle instead of an automobile and so forth.


-hh


* - expressed as GNP per capita. See:
http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/infopays/rank/PNBH2.html