Apple’s Macintosh computers may be cool, but Windows PCs are easier on the wallet.
That’s the recession-sensitive message Microsoft Corp. is pushing in a new series of commercials that debuted Thursday. The ads also continue Microsoft’s work to reclaim the “I’m a PC” catchphrase from Apple Inc. and undo the stodgy image its competitor has bestowed on the Windows operating system.
To shoot the ads, Microsoft’s agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, recruited unwitting subjects by posing as a market research firm studying laptop purchasing decisions.
It picked 10 people who answered a call for volunteers on Craigslist and other Web sites and sent them out with a camera crew and budgets ranging from $700 to $2,000. If they found a computer that fit their criteria, they could keep it.
In the first 60-second spot, a red-haired recent college grad named Lauren is on the hunt for a speedy laptop with a 17-inch screen and a “comfortable” keyboard, all for less than $1,000. She strides into an Apple store; then, the scene jumps to her walking out empty-handed, telling the camera that the only laptop in her price range has a 13-inch screen.
Back in the car, she sighs and says, “I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person.”
Lauren, an office manager and member of the Screen Actors Guild, heads to Best Buy next, where she ends up buying a Windows notebook made by Hewlett-Packard Co. for $699. And she wasn’t alone. While some might have been able to find an Apple computer that fit the budget, Microsoft said none of the people they filmed picked a Mac.
Brad Brooks, a Windows marketing executive, said the soon-to-be-stars weren’t told they might appear in a Microsoft ad until after the shopping excursions, which all took place in Southern California. When Lauren found out, he said there was “screaming, yelling, jumping up and down, high fives, thumbs up.”
Apple has been churning out ads that portray Macs as cool and creative, while pigeonholing PCs as nerdy copycats that never quite succeed.
Last fall, Microsoft kicked off a $300 million campaign to rehabilitate the Windows brand, which had suffered further after Vista’s troubled launch.
The first installments, starring Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld, were criticized as odd non-sequiturs. But since then, the software maker has pumped out endearingly earnest and upbeat commercials showing all sorts of people — from self-help guru Deepak Chopra to a 4-year-old cutie named Kylie — proudly proclaiming, “I’m a PC.”
Microsoft hasn’t emphasized the Vista brand in its ads, but most PCs on the market today run Vista. Meanwhile, the next version, Windows 7, is officially due out in less than a year. Brooks said the Redmond, Wash., software maker hasn’t decided whether it will offer free or discounted upgrades for people who go ahead and buy a Vista computer now.
“I want to make sure in this environment that we’re thinking about ways of making that upgrade experience true to principles around affordable and accessible.,” he said. “We’re thinking about that in the background.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More