Apple's Not Fond of Microsoft's "Laptop Hunters" Ad Campaign

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
From our front-page news:
I admit... whenever I post Apple news, I feel like an anti-Apple zealot even though I'm not. It might be the rapid fans of Apple that make me feel that way, or not, but either way, a story posted at CNET last week is just far too humorous to not talk about, and yes, it puts once again puts Apple in a poor light.

Everyone's familiar with the "I'm a PC" and "Laptop Hunters" ads from Microsoft, which aim to change consumer perception of PCs. No surprise, these were been created to serve the purpose of undoing the harm caused by Apple's own long-running ad campaign that tried to put PCs in a bad light (many of which were highly exaggerated). So it's somewhat of a surprise to know that when Microsoft fights back, Apple complains, and that's exactly what happened here.

During Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference held in New Orleans last week, the company's COO, Kevin Turner, recounted an experience, one where Apple's legal department gave him a phone call. What could it have been about? Oh, how about Apple demanding Microsoft to stop running the ads? Their reasoning? "... we lowered our prices", about $100... not exactly a ground-breaking change. I'm not sure if Apple meant this as a joke or not, but wow, what a demand!

I have no doubt that if the roles were reversed, Microsoft would have no problem calling Apple demanding the same thing, but the fact that it happened at all is just too funny.

asus_notebook_071809.jpg

And you know why I know they're working? Because two weeks ago we got a call from the Apple legal department saying, hey -- this is a true story -- saying, "Hey, you need to stop running those ads, we lowered our prices." They took like $100 off or something. It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I've ever taken in business.


Source: CNET
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
The actual figures were $300 in various price cuts, but still their cheapest laptop is now a meager $999... the specs on that thing can be had in some $400-500 laptops. Also the $999 Macbook uses the normal white plastic body, it doesn't even include the aluminum block body.

Of course, $550 could get you an 18.4" widescreen "laptop" (sounds more like a tabletop to me), but whatever.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Ahh my bad. I shouldn't have taken his quote so seriously. Either way, you're right. Despite the drop, you're still going to be paying a huge premium. I took a look at the $1,199 MacBook Pro... one major perk is the battery-life, but is that really worth paying 2x as much? I'd rather get a $600 laptop and buy up a replacement battery for $150 personally.

As pointed out to me by someone earlier... who knows if this story is even true? There's no evidence to back this up, because Microsoft obviously isn't going to record phone calls made to an exec. But I still can't help but feel a bit of joy in believing it, either. After all, Apple had a <em>lot</em> of time to take exaggerated jabs at Microsoft, and at least Microsoft's claims are 100% true. Anyone who has doubts about it can just go to various e-tailers and see... there's nothing to hide.
 

ThomasW

Obliviot
proof

Yeah, it's true. I read it on CNN, not to mention these places:

http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ncl=dZ1l0wLH9g6EhRMf0GjY2nXIhCXZM
http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ncl=doSOSB2Pi3tSOkMSAO2eb-UsMnxpM
http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ncl=dvbuYXQLkXJl7GMgQKto6ZGBA-OaM

It wasn't clear whether Apple would actually risk their image and sure Microsoft. Apple knows that this new ad campaign is bad for them, but they probably wouldn't have actually gone to court. That's what "big tech" does, and apple is "cool tech."

In the end, Microsoft just changed the ads, removing the part about the actual price. You can expect to see more laptop hunter ads in the future.
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
I would bet Apple wouldn't go to court over it because their own long running ad campaigns would come under fire from Microsoft. While most have at minimum some fraction of truth to them, a few were just outright libel or perpetuate already common PC myths. If libel could be proven in court, then Microsoft could've done more damage than Apple would have been able to.

Anyway, Apple couldn't sustain a court case because the prices in the Microsoft ads were current at the time they were made, Microsoft would've had to continue to air the ads even after they were informed the prices were no longer correct. I'm sure Microsoft can reference the new prices just fine in future ads.
 

madstork91

The One, The Only...
So they can dish it out? But not take it?

There is a premium on being a chiche cool apple user... They are just mad that someone is frawing attention to that.
 

madstork91

The One, The Only...
I would bet Apple wouldn't go to court over it because their own long running ad campaigns would come under fire from Microsoft. While most have at minimum some fraction of truth to them, a few were just outright libel or perpetuate already common PC myths.

If i had been a linux dev / user I would have felt more insulted to be lobbed into the same category as MS. After all, if you are a Mac user, everything else is practically pc. (Unless youve done some frowned upon things by apple.)
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
If i had been a linux dev / user I would have felt more insulted to be lobbed into the same category as MS. After all, if you are a Mac user, everything else is practically pc. (Unless youve done some frowned upon things by apple.)

PC = Personal Computer

Windows Machine = Completely Configurable = Personal Computer

Linux Machine = Completely Configurable = Personal Computer

Apple Machine = Hope You Like What You Get = Hahahahahaha!
 
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