Bitch Fight Between Microsoft and Apple

Remember back to when you first saw the Mac vs Windows adverts, either on the TV or on the net like I did which featured Mitchell (PC) and Webb (Mac) doing a sketch? Well, the most important bit about that advert was the fact that they were advertising for Apple. In case you’ve forgotten bits, here’s a picture to jog the old memory:

There were a few adverts and they were funny to some extent….in one, the pc has a ‘nasty virus’ which makes him sneeze; in another, he keeps freezing and having to reboot, in which both were just a very subtle attempt of saying PC’s are unreliable. However comparatively in both adverts, the Mac is portrayed by Webb as acting totally cool and isn’t suffering from either of the problems.

Now, nearly two years later, Microsoft have started their own campaign. Their campaign focuses on the big price differences between PC’s and Mac’s. The biggest piece so far to the campaign is a TV advert in which a woman named “Lauren” is given $1000 to find a 17″ notebook computer. Firstly she shops at a ‘Mac Store’ where she ends up leaving empty handed saying “the only computer available for under $1000 has a 13″ screen, I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person”. “Lauren” eventually settles on a $699 HP notebook from Best Buy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIS6G-HvnkU

A second part of Microsoft’s new campaign is a series of interactive Web adverts. Microsoft portrays two slot machines, one being a Mac slot machine with a 17″ Mac and bits of cheap garbage on it and the other being a PC slot machine showing a cheaper PC along with other bits of pricey kit such as an Xbox 360 and other things the buyers could get with all the money they’ve saved by buying a PC instead of a Mac. Microsoft has put these about the Web in places, namely the New York Times Website as seen below which gets masses of hits-a-day. The viewer can click to “spin again” to see different combinations that are all in the PC’s favour.

Now this new campaign by Microsoft has created a massive amount of talk in the “Windows Vs Mac” debate. Much of the talk has been around the pricing strategies. Most Mac-heads and generic technology geeks are saying that the reason Mac’s are more expensive is because the software they hold is a lot better. AppleInsider is totally in Mac’s favour quoting that “If Microsoft portrayed the software and support expenses of generic Windows PC’s into its slot machine graphics, the results would be less flattering”. Below is a Photoshopped version of Microsoft’s slot machine showing software and support expenses.

Now let me say….I own a Mac and I love it and would never go back to a Windows computer (this may be because I’m used to my Mac now) but I’m not ruling out that Windows does have it’s advantages also!

Is it getting all a bit too bitchy now between Microsoft and Apple? You tell me….

Via MacRumors and AppleInsider [image source: Blacktriangle and AppleInsider]