Microsoft ad campaign cleans Apple's clock

Jim Nemerovski, please learn

Jim Nemerovski, please learn how to use paragraphs to form your statements.

Mac fans get over it, you are paying 3 times as much for hardware that is underpowered. Apple may be on its way to gaining more of the market, but wait till you do infact have more users than Microsoft. It is at this time you will have viruses as well. And then I'll laugh. Hard. Why write a virus for a small market share when I can write for the big guys?

Finally for the record, I have never heard of anyone getting a virus randomly...they always did something stupid like illegally downloading music or visiting malicious sites. Learn how to use a computer, or use a mac.

Really can by more with PC

I find the canard that the PC has viruses etc. and the Mac is so free from security or reliability issues to be pretty untrue with current versions of each. A significant issue in the past (early XP, IE6) of course. Vista was also a terrible upgrade story on may laptops due to video card issues.

However I have had a series of Vista laptops that all run fine because they were designed with Vista in mind. IE8 and Vista run nicely thank you and the security inprovements are significant. Perfectly reasonable functioning combination with the laptop. Any one really think Safari is secure from hacks?

I did buy my son a recent Macbook Pro because he had to have the video card in it and the video software from Apple. The basic MacBook will not run the software. A nice combination to be sure but it was nearly $2400 for the Macbook Pro itself. Very spendy for what it is. It arrived DOA because it could not find the OS on the disk and we had to send it back for replacement. So Apple is not infallible.

I do think the commercial is on target. The Macs are more expensive.

One of the things tarnishing the Apple image with the high school and college crowd is the iPhone surprisingly. I have been hearing from 17-19year old relatives that "everyone I know that has an iPhone cracked the screen and it took the $200 to replace it." The word is that if you ever drop the iPhone you will crack the screen. So my son speced a Blackberry this time around. He loves the multitouch UI on the MacBook Pro thought. And he ofcourse loves having a premium machine. For myself and my wife though it will be laptops that do what we want for significantly lower dollars.

Haha! I get a totally

Haha!

I get a totally different perception from these new commercials: Desperation on Microsoft's part.

I am even a bit embarrassed for the Microsoft community that they felt these cheesy commercials are necessary.

Disclosure: I am 18-35, and use both PCs and Macs on a daily basis.

Remember, the demographic

Remember, the demographic that this study addresses, 18-34. Usually these folks are on a limited budget, many are students, little life or computer experience and CHEAP (with reason, I guess). These are the downloaders of pirated software, movies, music and anything else that's not nailed down- all in order to save a buck. Macs cost more so these people see less value in them compared to Microsoft OS machines. Oh well.

I must admit that I now run XP on one partition of my iMac so I can take advantage of games (purchased from legit sources) that are not available on Mac but I have good antivirus/malware protection installed on the partition and I don't use XP for the 'Net.

I don't think Mac wants to compete on price with the cheapies so their ads will reflect superior quality, ease of use, customer service and relative immunity to malware.

You're all missing the point of the article

You're all missing the point of the article. The author wasn't talking about the real value of a Mac vs. a PC. He was talking about the ***perception*** of value. Most people are easily mislead by advertising. I go out of my way to avoid it. In fact, I've never seen any of these ads, because I got rid of my TV long, long ago.

Still, I do have some skepticism. MS has a history of FUD, and they could and would easily coerce Advertising Age into rigging the survey.

Get your Money's worth

Get your Money's worth

Fact, PCs cost less than Macs. And they should. Because at first with a pc everything is ok and then BAM! virus, corrupt software, you're and idiot... whatever the cause it is now time to make up the difference on the initial price you paid, except after you shell out money for support (or waste your valuable spare time working on the problem yourself, as if you had any to begin with) you still own a PC.

A Kia Spectra costs less than a BMW, and it should...

Shoot the messenger?

We have to ask: in who's interest is this spin piece? Historically, this publication has not favored Apple, imho; it has been a mouthpiece for Microsoft. So, the fact of this timely, opinion piece is not unexpected. Despite the facts or the (in)accuracy of the survey: Microsoft has a unique opportunity to capture mindshare before the release of their next version of the Windows OS. However, as with the release of each previous OS, Microsoft leads the customer to believe that all is fine, that no one should be too concerned about the stability of the OS. Personally, I have not been affected by the pernicious issues I have heard rumor and tale of that affect some if not many users of Microsoft's version-of-the-year of a computer's OS. Primarily, because I use a Mac, almost, exclusively. But, I appreciate some of the unique features that Microsoft offers that are not found on a Macintosh (though, I can't recall any of them, right now.) Ever since the release of Windows 98, it has been clear that Microsoft pays homage to Apple (NeXT Computer, at the time, actually, since acquired by Apple and the foundation for the current Mac OS) and other OSes produced at the time of its release, such as Solaris by Sun Microsystems. It seems, many features found in Vista are also similar to those found in the Mac OS X. So, considering stability, infection that are primary concerns of current windows customers – not necessarily those of future or new customers, who have not been faced with these performance issues – it is no wonder that Microsoft is attacking on cost to the end-user. Interesting that currently Apple is not entirely focused on the MacBook, iMac or PowerMac line for profits, though they seem sound enough to laud. But, rather, Apple is able to move forward on all fronts, with all cylinders firing, providing awesome products, in all categories, some of which Microsoft has not been as successful in marketing. The iPhone's success seems less about cost and more about feature-richness, ease of use.

I love it

I love it that MicroSoft is so afraid of Apple that they need to run these commercials. And then the Windows fanbois start beating the drums as if Genghis Khan was getting ready to eat their children.

It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy that they see Apple as Goliath and MicroSoft as David, only in this case David is getting his butt handed to him on a platter.