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Preston Gralla

Seeing Through Windows

Is Apple targeting Windows 7 pirates?

21 comments

TAGS:Apple, Mac, software pirates, Windows 7
IT TOPICS:Macintosh & Apple, Operating Systems, Software, Windows & Microsoft

Has Apple decided that among its top potential customers for switching to a Mac are Windows 7 pirates? Based on ads that Apple is buying on Google that might be the case --- search for "download Windows 7" and you'll see an Apple ad urging PC users to switch to the Mac. But search for "buy Windows 7" and you'll see no such ad.

Do a search on "download Windows 7" or "Windows 7 download" and you'll see the Apple ad on the right-hand side of the page, under the "Sponsored Links" section. Some times when I do the search, the ad instead appears on top of the main search results.

The ad reads:

Upgrading to Windows 7?
There's never been a better time
to switch to a Mac. Find out why.

You can see the ad, below.

But do a search for "buy Windows 7" or "get Windows 7" or "purchase Windows 7" or "Windows 7" and no ads from Apple for Macs appear.

Is Apple doing this as a way to target Windows 7 pirates? After all, if someone is looking to find and pay for a copy of Windows 7, they're likely to type in the word "buy" or "purchase" rather than "download". If, on the other hand, they're looking to pirate a copy, they're more likely to want to download it, so will more likely type in the word "download."

Why would Apple target Windows piraters? Frankly, I don't have a clue. And I'm not completely convinced they're targeting pirates, either. So if you have an answer to the mystery, or a theory about it, let me know below.

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Has nobody wondered why...

Submitted by not_preston on November 10, 2009 - 2:34 A.M.

...Preston was searching for links to download Windows 7 in the first place? :-)

And, as others have mentioned, there are many search terms that include "Windows 7" where the Apple ads appear. But, so does Dell, Newegg, Nextag, etc.

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No

Submitted by Anonymous on November 7, 2009 - 8:43 P.M.

Apple has their own pirates: hackintosh? I'm sure they don't want Microsoft's.

And regarding your search results. The words 'buy' and 'purchase' indicate that a decision has been made. The word 'download' indicates an interest in trialing or evaluating software. In other words, the mind is not yet made up.

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The REAL Reason.

Submitted by Anonymous on November 7, 2009 - 6:13 P.M.

If Apple is targeting Windows 7 pirates, it's because in order to put any Windows operating system on your Mac, it requires no CD-Key. Anyone can download a copy of Windows to a plain DVD disk, and run it through Boot Camp and it won't require any key, it just installs right to the computer. And for the guy saying, "never been happier switching to a Mac." If Microsoft didn't have to bailout Apple, and let them have all of their software (due to a lawsuit of Microsoft being a Monopoly,) Apple+Mac would still be garbage. The Mac you know today, thank Microsoft for it.

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The Mac you know today, thank Microsoft for it.

Submitted by Anonymous on November 8, 2009 - 8:07 P.M.

HAW HAW HAW. God, every time I think the Apple bashers can't get any loonier, they pull another one out of the hat. I guess whatever takes their minds off the sinking ship they're on now. I can't wait to hear the next one.

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Oh how the truth must hurt

Submitted by Anonymous on November 9, 2009 - 11:55 P.M.

Oh how the truth must hurt the small minority of mac users. If Microsoft is a sinking ship then Apple never was more than a plank of wood.

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Regardless...

Submitted by Onyx on November 6, 2009 - 1:09 P.M.

I think they're pretty smart. Take the frustrations of the competitor's customers and use it to your advantage. This is what made me switch and I'm a pc programmer during the day. My frustrations over performance and usability led me to purchase a Mac and I've never been happier. MS targets Apple just as equally (but have thrown in some vendors in their attack). It's called competition.

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Apple's Ethics

Submitted by Anonymous on November 5, 2009 - 10:47 P.M.

Apple doesn't seem to be to concerned with ethics. This is even worse that their insulting commercials.

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A very dumb theory, if you

Submitted by alansky on November 5, 2009 - 6:36 P.M.

A very dumb theory, if you ask me.

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I downloaded W7

Submitted by Alphaman on November 5, 2009 - 2:08 P.M.

"Download". As in "I downloaded the Windows 7 beta." Like a lot of other people did during the beta period. I'm still running the beta in a VM on my Mac.

How long have these ads been up? I daresay they were probably online during the beta period, but no one bothered to bitch until recently. Just because it's so much fun to bitch about something Apple did out of context.

More non-news. *sigh*

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