Microsoft Tries a "Switch" Campaign 1224
Twirlip of the Mists writes "There's a new page on Microsoft's web site that tells the first-person story of an unnamed 'freelance writer' who made the switch from the Mac to Windows XP. The author of the page -- who never identifies herself, and who could very easily be fictional or a composite sketch -- says 'Windows XP gives me more choices and flexibility.' How, you ask? Why, through Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and modern operating-system features like separate accounts for each user and easy access to the Internet, of course. Maybe somebody should email Microsoft and let them know that the Mac has had all of these things for years now ... nah. It'd just embarrass them. Anyway, it's an entertaining read that's good for a laugh." Update: 10/14 21:12 GMT by P : Apparently, Microsoft has taken the page down, but Google has it.
yeah right (Score:5, Funny)
Re:yeah right (Score:5, Funny)
So true... [all-windows.com]
Re:yeah right (Score:5, Funny)
Re:yeah right (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, the Mac switcher ads are already pretty - well let's say "unlikely to have really happened that way".
For Bill Gates not unlikely enough, it seems. How high is the chance that a Mac to PC convert writes down her confessions and includes:
"See Which Edition is Right for You? for more information."
Complete with link to the right Microsoft page?
I find some UFO stories more believable.
Re:yeah right (Score:5, Funny)
Apple: Stop copying us!
Microsoft: Stop copying us!
Apple: Bitch!
Re:Compelling reason to switch to Linux/other Free (Score:5, Interesting)
Freedom from DRM.
So far, there is no DRM in Mac OS, and untill there is, that isn't a reason to switch.
Freedom to use the OS however you want to. I want to use my OS to get my daily work done. There isn't much beyond that that the OS has to do. This isn't really a clear argument, can you be more specific?
Freedom to tweak and change, even at code-level.
I rarely have the desire to do this. Most programs work perfectly fine for me, and for those that dont, I get an alternative program. Even still, this argument is only compelling for a minority of computer users, I believe the original poster's intent was compelling reasons for other people to switch.
Freedom to install the OS on any machine you want to without asking "Mother May I?"
Not quite. I can install it on any machine I want to, assuming that the machine is compatable with the OS hardware support. The main issue of course being that there are still seperate distros of Linux (PPC, x86, SPARC). When will we see a distro with all the nessesary code in one package, and a universal install?
Freedom from bullshit licenses and other nightmares.
I'll give you that one. But again, the argument could still be made that for most intents and purposes, Apple provides the same freedom to it's users.
Freedom from the vast majority of viruses and exploits.
Seems to me that that's a better argument to switch to mac than to linux.
Like I said, they're all very good reasons, but none of them are compelling to most users.
Re:yeah right (Score:5, Interesting)
Advertisements may be obvious, but they can still have a kind of life to them. Judging from the responses (both positive and negative), the Apple "Switch" campaign seems to be pretty lively.
Even a cursory reading of the MS article shows that while they've downplayed the obviousness of the advertisement (and not very well, after all), they've also failed to imbue it with any sort of liveliness. It reads like a second-rate brochure for life insurance policies.
I've been told it's a lot like my posts.
Re:yeah right (Score:5, Informative)
At 5foot3 and 200 lbs, I'm sure Valerie is not the woman in the stock photo.
Re:yeah right (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, right. I forgot that XP will enable me to fly. Madonna told me so.
Yeesh.
Re:yeah right (Score:5, Informative)
I'll agree the Apple ads are kind of dumb, they have no substance, but look at what MS had up:
They didn't mention that both MS Office and Internet Explorer are available for the Mac, and in fact IE is the only browser that comes preinstalled. Also almost every review of Office v.X said it was better than the Windows version. Same is true of IE for Mac.
I wont even get into that Mozilla is every bit as fast as IE. ;)
This "switch ad" was just bogus. I guess that's why they pulled it! I'd wager someone at MS wrote the story and the photo of the woman was is just a stock photo. This is the kind of thing they pulled sending letters to newspapers and congressmen!
She also wrote:
Can't get much better than a PowerBook G4 if you ask me! Besides the fact that most best selling writers use Apple laptops.
MS ads are not more intelligent, they are less fluffy, but also less factual.
And Sara, we know OS X is better than XP! It does show more copying on MS' part... got to get that X in the name! :P
And then like (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And then like (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And then like (Score:4, Funny)
Insightful? heh. Too bad I can't meta-moderate that mod as 'sarcastic'.
Re:And then like (Score:5, Insightful)
- She isn't that hot. Seriously.
- She is "uhhh like" 14!
My theory is that she meets geeks emotional need for their portential partners to shun Windows.Re:And then like (Score:4, Funny)
Re:And then like (Score:4, Insightful)
Ouch. I have had several similar experiences, but fortunately no permanent filesystem damage (I run ext3 and find it to be reliable).
X is the Achille's heel of Linux.
I hear talk of other windowing architectures being developed (the guy who wrote Enlightenment is rumoured to be working on one), but have not seen them make it into any mainstream distributions yet.
I can't tell you how many times my machine appears to have crashed, because of X. I've had to reset, because X refused to accept any keyboard or mouse input (even Ctrl-Alt-Backspace), and I didn't have a second machine handy to telnet/ssh in and kill the X process (a very good strategy for dealing with an X lockup, if you have access to a second machine nearby).
X is as bloated and buggy as anything Microsoft puts out.
People have been whining about X since at least 1989 [rahul.net]! It is the one thing holding Linux back on the desktop. KDE, Gnome, Enlightenment, every GUI depends on X. We really need to fix this!
Re:And then like (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, what would be nice would be a way to have a 'panic button' that restarts X or kills it and sets the video mode to a known state. The fact that a broken video driver can lock up keyboard input as well is rather annoying.
Oh, and I don't buy that X is "the one thing holding Linux back on the desktop." You're honestly trying to argue that people who use Windows every day don't switch solely because the windowing system crashes occasionally? I can come up with a long list of reasons not to switch, but X wouldn't make the top 25 in my book. If anything, X is a plus rather than a minus, because it can be used over a network.
Ellen Feiss, Fan Clubs (Score:5, Funny)
Ellen Feiss is *hot* [earthlink.net]. Google sez so. and lots of fan clubs [gloriousnoise.com] have developed [flatsoda.com] throughout the web. heh. Go Ellen :)
to paraphrase (Score:5, Funny)
{Stuff deleted}
© 2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Re:to paraphrase (Score:5, Insightful)
Now don't get me wrong, I have never owed a Macintosh and, until a few years ago, used nothing but Microsoft operating systems.
The thing is that Apple users have heard all the anti-Apple flack for years and know where their loyalties lie. The average Windows user doesn't know that anything else exists. It's easy to convert or at least influence a Windows user who hasn't developed any real loyalties.
But Mac users, on the other hand, are hardcore about their loyalties and know what their OS is and why they like it. They have used PCs in public labs, at school, libraries, whatever for years and will be able to see through the the Microsoft FUD as they have been doing for years.
I suspect that the marketing brass at Apple will be (or currently are) having a good hearty laugh over all of this.
Re:to paraphrase (Score:5, Interesting)
Hear, hear. They can have some pretty absolute opinions about other OS's though, without ever having used them, or even seen them.
I've been a pretty avid alternativist for the last two decades. I used to be (still am in some ways) an Amiga nut. I dived into BeOS when it was new. I was an early adopter of Linux, and have had one or two BSD machines.
My father (without actually bothering to look at any of the machines for 10s) would always say "Give it up! There is no alternative! Windows has won! No-one will ever use anything else!"
Well, the last time Pops came over, I showed him my new flat-panel iMac. I just did some basic demoing, like showing him the zooming dock at the bottom, window shadows, speach recognition, and of course the fish in the background [serenescreen.com] (yes, any OpenGL screen saver can be run as a desktop background).
Response? We'll, he looked a bit shocked. Then he looked a bit flabbergasted. The he looked stunned for a while. Then he said "I want that in my computer".
At which point I explained "You can't have that in your computer. It's nigh impossible in Windows. But if you got a Mac..."
May be one more convert for the Gray Side.
Re:to paraphrase (Score:4, Insightful)
You just missed the entire point of this article. Microsoft knows they're not going to convince hardcore Apple users to switch. This copy of Apple's switch campaing, is for MS users who might be tempted to switch. If a user is considering switching to Apple, then sees that some other people are switching from Apple to MS, the user might very well decide to stay right where he is. The theory of course, is that a user who is easily persuaded to try Apple could be easily persuaded not to try Apple; get it?
Wait one damned minute! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Wait one damned minute! (Score:5, Funny)
Old people with large beards?
Hmm.... That Ritchie guy sure is sexy. Donchathink? ;-)
Re:Wait one damned minute! (Score:5, Funny)
I'm sticking with MS (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm sticking with MS (Score:5, Interesting)
Check out Here [gettyimages.com]
Whee
Re:I'm sticking with MS (Score:5, Interesting)
Whether she does or not, it looks like Microsoft just pulled the page (or it got slashdotted). It seems they can no longer find it.
I guess Caroline Woodham (or her make believe twin) just got "fired". Or maybe her PC self destructed. Anyway, it has got to be one of the shortest Microsoft careers ever.
I feel sorry for the model in the picture, though. She signed a release that people could use the photo in general artwork, not that someone can make up stories about her personally. The price of a 72 dpi picture (assuming someone didn't just take it off their web site and cut off the top part with the light table and the company name) just doesn't cover something like that.
As for a company that feels it needs to hire fictional clip art switchers/editors, that's pretty sad. At least Apple uses (and hopefully pays) real people.
My favorite switchers tale is still the 1993 "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II". Man, when he switches, he switches big time. Just look at all them Macs.
"His return is near..." Godzilla 2000 trailer
G Countdown: 15 days (www.godzillaoncube.com)
Re:I'm sticking with MS (Score:4, Funny)
I don't know about that one
Do you remember Ms. Niceass
Hmmmm
I think we all know who the winner is here
Choices and Flexibility? (Score:4, Funny)
Choices: You can select which security flaw to patch first.
Flexibility: Your choice of anti-virus program.
Hysterical! (Score:5, Funny)
Don't you figure that he/she might just be the freelance writer ... that Microsoft hired to write this advertising copy?
I love it!
Re:Hysterical! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hysterical! (Score:5, Funny)
I also found that little tidbit, well, precious. It's like, "Hey, slick. I'm a cool cat and I'd like to rap with you about this smooth new deal. Now here's the skinny, man. Outta sight."
For various other reasons, I also liked "Girl Scout's honor," "Less Dough," "And Now for the How," "accommodate my 5 foot 3 inches instead of his 6 feet," and "I discover more treats daily."
< tofuhead >
On her career (Score:5, Funny)
- Windows XP gives me more choices and
- flexibility, and better compatibility with the rest of the technology world.
...
Mobile computing? Versatility? I could swear she was the free-lance writer who wrote the mission statements of a dozen busted dot-coms. No wonder she's looking for cheaper hardware!I am a freelance writer; I demand the best in mobile computing.
There's no equivalent for the versatility of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint®. Toolbars and menus customize themselves to the way I work.
I wonder if the switch helps her utilize her verticle portals too!
It Must Suck... (Score:4, Funny)
Nanoox
Re:It Must Suck... (Score:5, Funny)
I should submit (Score:4, Funny)
XD
--j
Linux Switch (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Linux Switch (Score:5, Funny)
With Windows, I had to go through
Re:Linux Switch (Score:4, Informative)
The moderation is on target. You sir, are mistaken.
Red Hat 8 has separate account creation for each user right from the control center. And guess what? It's all GUI point-and-click. It's more intuitive and useful than WindowsXP scheme.
You lose. Play again.
Re:Linux Switch (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, we all know that the number of users using a tool is directly proportional to the quality of the tool, right?
---
"including speed of loading tables, program"
IE loads faster in a sense because it's integrated into the OS; the libraries are loaded when you boot your system. That can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing.
While I admit that Mozilla doesn't have the spunk at rendering as some other browsers do, you should try Phoenix.
---
"support"
For what? Bad HTML standards?
Name something Mozilla doesn't support that I'm going to miss on the web.
End Note (Score:5, Insightful)
So does this mean that they converted "the microsoft writer to M$" Wow they got their own employee to use their product after how many years, hmmm I am guessing at home she is still a MAC user....
Re:End Note (Score:4, Insightful)
The Mold of Microsoft (Score:5, Interesting)
The added touches of this "person" being 5-foot-3 and her husband six feet, and the "Lexus we rented once," was predicted by Philip K. Dick in his short story The Mold of Yancy [google.com]. If you've read it, go read the Microsoft ad with an eye toward the similarity. It's creepy.
Re:The Mold of Microsoft (Score:4, Interesting)
http://forums.macrumors.com/member.php?s=da33c2d0
Scroll down to Aaron Adam's post or Pgant's on the 2nd page.
Re:The Mold of Microsoft (Score:4, Insightful)
No really, it's a feature! (Score:4, Funny)
Nooo! Not the hidey menu thingy! That thing drove me insane! And here it's listed as a plus? I'm sorry, what?
All the Mac hardware--including my printer, broadband cable, Zip drive, and Palm handheld--works perfectly with my Windows-based PC.
Really? You don't say? What about your internal hard drive? And your old applications?
Well, really. From a company with a huge marketing budget, I expect something that isn't (1) a cheap copy of your competitor's and (2) can't be picked into little bits in 15.32 seconds.
Must be composite/fake (Score:5, Insightful)
Who talks in Hyperlinks?
At least the Mac ads are believable.
--Azaroth
Soooo Fake... (Score:5, Funny)
My recommendation is to go straight to Windows XP Professional; the extra features for mobile users are worth it. See Which Edition is Right for You? [microsoft.com] for more information.
Hilarious... like an actual customer would go hunt down links to recommend people buy the most expensive workstation OS they sell. God Microsoft, keep 'em coming, soon you'll be as funny as the Onion!
shocking. (Score:5, Funny)
*Could* be fictional? (Score:4, Funny)
I am a freelance writer; I demand the best in mobile computing.
That just wreaks of marketing monkey dung.
Re:*Could* be fictional? (Score:5, Funny)
Missing the point (Score:4, Interesting)
"*Editor's Note: Now that we've successfully converted our writer to a Windows PC, we will be working on getting her to try a Pocket PC. Stay tuned for more developments!"
I think the better story would be "Bill forces last Mac user to switch!"
Seems Microsoft hate their own products (Score:4, Informative)
"AppleWorks (...) pales in comparison to Microsoft Office XP." - isn't there Office X ?
"Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 does more for me than Netscape Navigator ever did" - I wonder what happens when I start my IE on my Mac
"The key to getting hardware to work with your computer is to have the correct drivers" - to be honest: i never installed drivers on my Mac - it just worked out of the box.
Re:Seems Microsoft hate their own products (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, there is. It's very much like Office XP, but without the pee that comes with with the Windows version...
Tell me you're kidding (Score:5, Insightful)
The difference is that Apple paid someone to lie on TV and Microsoft put their story in the mouth of an imaginary person. Now who's more honest?
-jfedor
Re:Tell me you're kidding (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Tell me you're kidding (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=17
Looks to me like it's a real person. And looks to me like it was a real interview.
Reality (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't you think there are people as similarily pleased with Linux that would appear in ads if given half a chance? Is it so hard to believe these people could be real?
I think there would even be such a group that would happily go up and proclaim the wonders of MS, why MS has chosen to craft a person instead is beyond me. I guess it's the need for total control.
Re:Tell me you're kidding (Score:5, Interesting)
Finally, the TV spots are just a small part of the Switchers campaign. Check out apple.com/switch/stories [apple.com] sometime. You'll find dozens of emailed testimonials from real people identified only by their initials.
The answer to your question is yes. I believe the people featured in Apple's Switchers campaign are real. While I concede that it's possible that the whole thing campaign a big hoax, I think it would have been a lot harder for Apple to fabricate it than it would have been to simply find a couple dozen people who were willing to talk about their Macs on camera. The preponderance of evidence points to the conclusion that Apple is just letting people tell their own stories, while the preponderance of evidence is that Microsoft, in this case, isn't.
So to answer your last question: Apple is more honest.
Thanks for asking.
hahaha! (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure, "more hardware is available for less dough", but you get what you pay for...
"fictional or a composite sketch" (Score:5, Informative)
IIRC, Microsoft targeted such an ad campaign at Mac people a couple years ago, albeit to get them to use IE & Office for Mac, not switch altogether. The campaign featured what were purported to be testimonials from satisfied customers, but M$ tipped its hand when it launched the ads too quickly, and had "customers" discussing their experience with the latest versions of M$ wares a few days before said versions actually shipped.
She's Also a Photodisc Model! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:She's Also a Photodisc Model! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:She's Also a Photodisc Model! (Score:5, Interesting)
It sure looked like a photographer took the picture, didn't it? Notice the warmer fill light on one side of her face, no way that was just some snapshot.
Photodisc has a great search feature
Most of those goofy pictures you see of people talking or using their computer or something are stock photos.
Good ol' microsoft!
So reply to the 'real' writer ... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So reply to the 'real' writer ... (Score:5, Funny)
Link not working (Score:5, Informative)
If the linked to site doesnt work for you (it doesnt for me under mozilla 1.0), get the image directly from here [gettyimages.com]
Compare it to MS's image [microsoft.com]
She's not the only one... (Score:5, Informative)
This kid is probably one of the best 13 year old writers I've ever seen! Encarta must save him so much time that he doesn't have to go to school anymore. He can continue with his modeling/freelance writer career. [gettyimages.com]
Hey, there's a new encyclopedia - it's called "Google"!
And what about these people?
http://www.microsoft.com/insider/printhelp/ [microsoft.com]
They're all smiling 'cause their #!@%ing XP printer driver finally installed. (sorry, couldn't find this in the stock photo archive. I'm sure it's there though)
This girl is obviously smiling because her Windows PC didn't crash and lose her History paper last night: href=http://www.microsoft.com/insider/homeoffice/ [microsoft.com] Stock Photo [gettyimages.com]
Now here's a good one: http://www.microsoft.com/insider/productivity/ [microsoft.com]
Stock Photo [gettyimages.com]
Here dad is helping figure out what "fatal error in krnl32.dll means". Say, isn't that a mac they're using?
What the hell are these two looking at? http://www.microsoft.com/insider/finance/ [microsoft.com]
Ah well, I think the whole site is just one big stock art catalog. Once again Microsoft doesn't create anything original...
Re:She's not the only one... (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft testimonial [microsoft.com]
stock photo [gettyimages.com]
shocking! (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, the 'testamonial' picture would lead you to belive that the person pictured actualy wrote the artical, but most of those pictures are just headings to pages with lots of links.
Re:She's not the only one... (Score:5, Funny)
Ha! It is indeed. It looks like an LC. The keyboard is an Apple Extended Keyboard. That's too funny... You'd think with a budget like Microsoft's, they could at least avoid promoting the competition in their ads...
Clearly (Score:5, Funny)
This won't work (Score:4, Insightful)
Why? Because those people had a reason to "switch". It's like saying they learned that Soilent Green is people, then have the people that make it say "Come back to Soilent Green! Really! New flavors, fat free!". It just won't work. They know there are alternatives to Windows, to the BSOD, to the annoying Clippy, to the oodles and oodles of unexplained problems and security issues.
The users who came from Windows and now are on the Mac are like the people that swam across the ocean from Cuba, I don't think they're going back anytime soon.
What Microsoft should do is improve it's software NOW so that there won't be any incentive to switch. Besides, the portion of users who switched or even using Apple products are very marginal anyways.
Entertaining??? (Score:5, Insightful)
You think this is fun? This is FUD. Lies. Crap. Misinformation. Cheating. BAD BAD BAD.
I mean, advertising is one thing. Advertising the things you stole from others is quite another. XP is more multiuser than OS X? You'll make me laugh. Office XP has more features then Claris? Yes, it's called bloat and decreases usability. Besides, office runs on Mac, too.
MicroSoft Internet Exploiter faster does more for her than Netscape ever did? Yeah, popping up ads, loading up the borked MSN ActiveX control, loading Word documents inline so that people get the idea that they are a replacement for webpages. Searches go faster? Maybe if you are looking for the crap that M$ search comes up with...give me Google any day! And it's not like Netscape doesn't have history, either.
Connection Wizard - yes an old pal of mine. It's always the first program I removed. Not that removing is easy, you have to actually delete the directory it's in, or iexplore.exe will run it for you. WTF? I asked for _Internet Explorer_ not _Connection Wizard_. Why I get rid of it? Because setting up access to any provider I've used is easier without it, and because sometimes I just want to satrt a browser, without having to click away a bunch ow wizards first.
`` I started with Outlook Express for e-mail, because it's included with Windows XP.'' Here we have the fatal flaw that got us all those lovely email virii. I understand that the vulnerabilities have *finally* been fixed in the XP version, but God, did that take a long time.
``I copied hundreds of Web Favorites from the Mac onto a Zip disk, then into the Favorites folder on the PC. Internet Explorer has an Import/Export Wizard that you can use to import Netscape bookmarks, but I found it faster to do it this way.''
ROFL. Copied them to a Zip disk? Hilarious. It's called Linux. It can mount _your_ filesystem. You don't even have to buy a new computer to run it! And the OS is Free, as is most of the software you will want to use!
``Both Outlook Express and Outlook will import contacts and messages from other programs.''
Yes, and I trust that M$ have taken care that they are then saved in a proprietary format so that others can't pull the same trick on them...
``Later, I had to uninstall and reinstall Outlook''
Yes, welcome to Windows...
``The key to getting hardware to work with your computer is to have the correct drivers''
Indeed. And M$ have been so good as to make the XP driver interface incompatible with previous versions of Windows, so that if you install it on older hardware, you may not be able to get drivers for your components. A problem that Macs don't seem to have, but I might be rong.
``If not, go to the Web site of the company that makes the peripheral you want to attach to find the most current drivers.''
And download a 10+ MB file from their site that loads a lot of visual violence, advertisements, bells and whistles, and then tells me that I downloaded the wrong driver, even though the name of my device is almost exactly like the one the driver is for? Or worse, not being able to find out where to go for the driver, because all Windows has to say about it is ``PCI Multimedia Device''? Where is lspci -vv when you need it??
Pfff...it's been a while since I've been able to blow off so much steam...
Godfather Bill (Score:5, Funny)
Godfather Bill: What's this I hear about one of our freelance writers using a Mac? Make her an offer she can't refuse.
Scene 2: Anonymous writer's bedroom.
(The anonymous writer tosses and turns in bed, and rolls over, waking up. She notices something in the bed next to her and pulls back the sheet to reveal the severed LCD screen from her beloved iMac.)
Anonymous Writer: Aaaaah! Aaaaaah! OK, I'll switch!
Separate accounts for each user? (Score:4, Funny)
This is a totally stupid game--see through it! (Score:5, Insightful)
This whole thing is a charade that Apple is a willing participant of. The whole point of the "switch" campaigns is to give the appearance of competition in an industry that effectively has none. Microsoft must be thrilled, because a totally leashed, client company (Apple) is making it look like competition is nipping at Microsoft's heels. Last week they tried the "Windows and Mac users can get along" campaign, which was spooky but not surprising, given the antitrust battles going on now.
Remember that the allegation made against MS is that they don't compete fairly with their real competiton. There are boxes of evidence to support this. On the other hand, there is the supposed couterexample of Apple: A high profile, low danger company that gives MS absolutely nothing to worry about. MS is in fact crying: "see, we are running a fair race! Look at Apple! We're not bullying them at all! We're really, really competing with them using--fair methods like advertising. And oooh, we're soooo scared that they would eat into our market share, so we find it imperative to run ads which prevent this! Our position on the desktop is soooo vulnerable!"
Well, I hoped that at least the slashdot crowd could see through this. I mean, we know that once Microsoft aputates both of your legs, they are perfectly willing to run a fair race against you. Witness that Internet Explorer is now finally uninstallable. However, suddently the Windows Media Player isn't. That's because RealMedia still (sort of) has its legs. Once they're off, the uninstallability problem will suddently disappear. My point is that Apple lies somewhere between Netscape and OS2 in terms of being a threat to Microsoft. However, there is much good PR to be gained by making it appear that the two companies are locked in fierce competition. So MS are milking it. The only surprise is that nobody is calling them on it!
This is a joke... (Score:4, Interesting)
Frankly, I'd like to see a MAC formatted ZIP disk work instantly on a PC. I'd also like to see why the writer didn't compare Microsoft Office to Microsdoft Office v.X. I'll tell you why, v.X is in my opinion the best Office implementation at the moment. Also, why not compare IE 6 PC to IE on the MAC?
The whole thing is just laughable.
On Markets and Market Leaders (Score:4, Insightful)
I find it surprising that Microsoft feels the need to use this style of marketing campaign. Not for the fact that is blatently copying Apple's Switch campaign, my surprise for MS copying other people's work ran out years ago.
What surprises me is that it has been found that market leaders need not identify themselves in their campaigns -- it is implicit that most consumers will choose said market-leader. For example: Campbell's doesn't need a campaign that says "Buy Campbell's" It just needs to say "Buy Soup" and most consumers will choose their soup. This marketing push of their OS by name in a popular style, at least to me, says that Microsoft is really getting worried over any change in market-share. Enough so to nitpick over a few percentage points and retaliate with a campaign like this. (Tell me, at the height of the pre-bundled, defacto-standard Windows Empire -- How often did you see their OS advertised?)
(by the by, how do tactics like this by Microsoft strain their relationship with Apple? I would think Jobs, being an artist at heart, would hate a blatent copy like this.)
funny... (Score:4, Insightful)
Reasons I like this ad (Score:5, Funny)
- The woman in the picture looks like she's in the middle of a commercial for a yeast-infection or genital-herpes remedy. "With Windows, I don't have to be afraid to tell people what operating system I use. And that's a weight off my shoulders, so I can spend more time enjoying life."
- "It's about more and better." Wow. That's substantial and profound. I thought she said she was a "professional writer."
- Most of the page is devoted to explaining how to use wizards. If you need to explain how to use your wizards, your need to fire your usability team.
- She finishes her pitch by talking about installing drivers and finding more programs to convert her Mac documents every day: "I discover more treats daily. For example, Word Converters are helping me transfer old document files, Microsoft Works files, and even AppleWorks files. It will be an ongoing process, but I'm thrilled so far." In other words, she still hasn't been able to convert all her documents, and she expects it to be a long, ongoing process... and this is why Windows is "better?"
Personally, I don't think Microsoft wrote this. I think someone from Saturday Night Live broke into the MS server room and uploaded this.Even a dumb girl can run XP ! (Score:5, Funny)
How low can you get? Does anyone really BELIEVE this story? I sure hope not.
But at the end of the article, there are forms in PDF and Word (natch) where you can send in YOUR experiences with Windows. Come on Slashdotters, fill them out and send them in! PDF [microsoft.com] and Word [microsoft.com]
Here is the text of the document. It gets better...
Show Off Your Skills
Are you a whiz at using a Microsoft product at home or in the office? Are you the one everyone comes to when they need to know how to do something? If so, we'd love to see what you can do.
A whiz? ha ahaha I think they mean wiz. Oh brother.
We're collecting ideas for articles on the Microsoft Insider Web site. Some of your work or submissions may be included in a gallery on the site, featured in press releases, or developed into how-to articles.
This just in: Microsoft invents user-friendly HOWTO documents.
Note: We will not feature any of your work without first receiving your permission.
And having you sign away the rights to any experience you may have, or have had in the past to the sole ownership of Microsoft.
To participate, please send us:
Your first and last name
Name of your company or organization (if applicable)
Brief description of your company or organization, including industry and size
Brief description of which Microsoft product you use and how you use it
Personal contact information, including address, phone number and e-mail address
Samples of your work--either hard copies of your marketing materials or a Web site address where we can view your work. Please be sure to include any user names or passwords that might be needed.
WTF???
You can submit your sample(s) one of two ways:
1. For online materials, send an e-mail message with the subject line Microsoft Publisher Customer Stories to insider@microsoft.com. (Note: Please do not send any attachments over 1 megabyte in size.)
Or with any malicious VBscripts attached
2. For printed materials, send hard copies to:
Microsoft Insider Customer Stories Microsoft Corporation 9931 Willows Road Redmond, WA 98052 Microsoft will not share the information you provide with third parties without your permission except where necessary to complete the services or transactions you have requested, or as required by law.
Now that we know she's just a model... (Score:4, Insightful)
It always cracked me up that the Blue Man Group shill for Intel but run their shows with Macs. [apple.com]
~Philly
Another Outlooker... (Score:4, Funny)
Hmmm. In the way she writes her excitement on using this piece of crap, it looks she is another outlooker that says yes, Yes, YES to every Klez juicy flavour and every LOVE YOU letter... Probably the new, fresh and exciting BugBears will make her dreams sweet... I imagine the ride of joy she'll have when some Barby/Trojan will salute her in one more of these exciting [censured] M$ gifts...
Let's submit stories! (Score:5, Funny)
You can use my personal photo from this web page:
http://delivery.gettyimages.com/comp/AA046139.J
8031402
My name is Linda Lee and here's my story!
"WindowsXP is great!"
OKay, I admit it! I've been a Linux user for years! You know, one of
those communists who thinks that everything should be free and forgets
to use deoderant. Recently, I was reading a totally unbiased
technical article in a magazine that informed me that the competition
just cannot stand up to Microsoft's (r) Windows (r) XP operating
system.
Let me tell you how lost I have been all these years, using free,
open-source software! What a waste of my life! As soon as I read
about all the great features, I threw some clothes on (shoes too!) and
ran out to my nearest CompUSA to buy a copy of Microsoft (r) Windows
(r) XP Professional for about 400$US. I got home, ripped the
shrink-wrap off, read over the draconian EULA (I don't mind giving up
some freedoms, Windows (r) is just too great), and immediately got to
installing.
After installation, I was unable to activate my copy of Microsoft (r)
Windows (r) XP. Sure, there was a little hic-up here, but after all,
you sometimes have to make sacrifices for quality! After about a
month of not being able to use my computer, customer support finally
just said I could use a "back-door" activation code. How wonderful
that Microsoft are helping me out at their own peril!
It only took me about three months to get me up and running! Girl
Scout's honor!
More Crashes, Less Work
Microsoft (r) Windows (r) XP lets me relax more through my busy work
day. With continuous crashes and reboots, I can spend more time
sipping coffee than doing my job! Microsoft (r) Windows (r) XP also
ensures that the work I do manage to get done is of the highest
possible quality. I demand that I be empowered to rewrite a document
I lost four times so I can be certain that it is very refined.
More Software Flexibility
Previously, I had access to hundreds of thousands of free software
products. But they were free, and we all know that anything that's
free is worth nothing! Now I can go out and spend anywhere from 50$US
to 5000$US dollars on a box with a CD-ROM disc in it! With a cost
like that, it ought to be some really good software!
Final Comments
If it wasn't for Microsoft (r) Windows (r) XP, I wouldn't bathe, use
deoderant, or wear clothes all day. I would just sit around and
stink, rotting in my house, getting fat! Thanks to my switch to
Windows (r), I'm healthy and have a great life! Thanks Microsoft (r)!
Webpage got pulled... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why bother? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Welcome to Capitalism (Score:5, Insightful)
Nobody has their "panties in a bunch." We're just kicking back on a Monday morning and enjoying a good joke. The fact that Microsoft made the joke-- inadvertently, at that-- just makes it that much more enjoyable.
Re:Welcome to Capitalism (Score:4, Interesting)
I think you're missing the point. It's not the strategy that's amusing, it's the fact that it's such a poor effort. Microsoft doesn't offer one reason to use XP that doesn't also exist in Mac OS X. Microsoft Office? They have that for OS X. Multi-user? Yeah, OS X has that. Etc, etc.
it's like an ad from Iraq's tourism industry trying to lure beach-goers away from Florida:
Sun? We have that. Sand? We have lots of that too!
This is almost as silly as Microsoft hosting the "we have the way out" anti-unix site on freebsd. but i digress...
Re:Welcome to Capitalism (Score:5, Interesting)
From the botom of the article:
Editor's Note: Now that we've successfully converted our writer to a Windows PC, we will be working on getting her to try a Pocket PC. Stay tuned for more developments!
I'm pretty sure that what's going on here is that Microsoft found a freelance writer to write glowingly about XP in exchange for free hardwaree and OS. Similar to the old tactic of giving aluminum siding to a family for free so the neighbors can see it in action. 10 bucks says she's on the MS payroll. Also, in response to the posters above who remarked that she is so much better looking than the women in the Mac ads: I'll bet the picture shown is not the writer of the article.
Could be totally wrong on both counts, but that's my impression
Re:Welcome to Capitalism (Score:5, Insightful)
But then again, the Apple switch ads don't offer a single reason to use a Mac that WinXP doesn't have. You can burn cds and dvds, which you can do on WinXP. You can make movies, whihc you can do on WinXP. Neither sides has any really good arguements, because people wouldn't respond to the good arguements (things like the cariety of software on Windows vs Mac or the better usage of the power of a Mac vs WinXP). Neither side really will convince someone to switch, it will just hopefully make them check out both and make a decision after looking at both of them.
Re:Welcome to Consumer Satisfaction (Score:5, Insightful)
And you've completely missed the exact same thing that Microsoft missed about the Switch campaign.
The point isn't to show these people talking about all the things they can do with their macintoshes. The point is to show how happy that all these people are about all these things that they can do with their macintoshes. The point is demonstrate to all those disgruntled windows users in the Great Unwashed, using real people, that computing can actually be a pleasurable experience.
Apple doesn't want you to pay attention to what any of those people in the Switch ads are saying. What they want you to pay attention to is the quiet, joyful glow in Ellen Feiss' eyes as she talks about how happy she is that she doesn't have to worry anymore about the computer going all, like, BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP and deleting, like, half her paper. (And it was a really *good* paper.)
They want people to see these Switch ads and go, "Wow. These people all seem to actually enjoy using their computers. I don't enjoy using my computer at all. Maybe if I bought an apple, I'd enjoy using my computer too."
(Of course, usually the ACTUAL effect is that people see that quiet glow and they go "Wow. Maybe if I started smoking pot, I'd be happy too". Or they start stalking Ellen Fiess. But the point is the intent of the whole thing.)
This is why the switchy-PR thing on MS's website is such a joke. [S]he's describing how "great" her experience with WinXP has been, but the experience that she describes sounds about as fun as a trip to the DMV in which the line was short and you managed to get in and out and get everything you needed done without particularly any hassle. Meanwhile, any emotion that there is in the article feels about as real as Anne Coulter.
observation (Score:4, Interesting)
If I was an Apple user I would be encouraged by this bit of marketing. It implies that Microsoft is concerned about their image compared with Apple and is willing to violate this empirical rule.
Re:Welcome to Capitalism (Score:5, Funny)
See, the great part is that Microsoft tried doing A and B *together*! Now that's novelty.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not capitalism, it's promotion (Score:5, Insightful)
Since one can't generally can't make a correlation between an advertising campaign and increased sales (too much of a lag and too many factors), there are a few milestones for promotions that indicate success:
1. A coined term being adopted by the industry. In this case, "Switcher" is being used in all sorts of contexts, albeit in articles talking about Apple. But if someone in the computer industry uses the term "Switcher", most people in the know will think "Apple". I guarantee you someone in Intel's marketing department grins whenever an analyst talks soberly about "Moore's Law".
2. Grass roots movement/fan clubs: Exhibit A is Ellen Feiss [gloriousnoise.com]. I doubt if anybody outside of Dell' marketing department builds fan sites for that annoying geek they're using
3. The competition is forced to respond to you. Pepsi constantly mentions Coke, but Coke never mentions Pepsi. But Pepsi's marketing department would love to see that happen. If anything, it's free advertising, because your product is being mentioned without you having to pay for it.
4. Finally, some sort of parody exists. I've seen a few on the web, but Apple would hit pay dirt if Saturday Night Live or someone painfully mainstream would do a parody. That would show that Apple's Switchers campaign has become a small zeitgeist, like the Mastercard "Priceless" ads.
The Microsoft ad was so bad because it was so easily dismissed. All the talking points could be dismissed just as easily as they are brought up. Make no mistake, someone in Apple's promotions department saw that pathetic Microsoft ad and grinned from ear to ear.
Re:Story: (-1; Flamebait) (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Mac versions? (Score:4, Insightful)
I find it more amusing that despite AppleWorks being a little less feature-rich than Office XP, it is about $300 cheaper (as in $0 for Apple to $300 for Office).
And of course there's the fact that M$ sells Office X for Mac, and Internet Explorer is the default browser for OS X. I can guarantee that the entire M$ advertising team that proofed that page isn't even aware of this fact.
The point? I dunno about everyone else, but every day I'm getting closer and closer to wanting a Mac as my main PC (and by PC I mean PC, not Server
Re:Know what's funny? (Score:5, Funny)
LOL!!
I can see the Linux ads now:
"So.. like, I bought this Firewire Video camera, and I like shot some footage of my dog and stuff... and like when I plugged the camera into my Linux laptop.. uh.. well it didn't work. So first I went to find a firewire driver. And uh.. well I couldn't find one of those, but I find a kernel update that had firewire support. So I downloaded and recompiled and typed this in and that in and that kind of worked. Then.. then I had to find a free-app that'd do DV-capture and editing. After a few days of posting news groups, I eventually did find one that sort of worked. Of course, I had to fix a bug or two for it to be useful. But hey! It's free!! Isn't that the great thing about Open Source? Fixes happen like really really fast. Anyway, so I sort of got that running... and uh now I can get video from my camera to my laptop. It only took a few weeks! So like there's no way I'm going back to Windows now because I put all this damn effort into this and finally got it working.
My name is Ronald and I'm a Linux Zealot."
It's a joke, laugh.