NFL Commentators Still Calling Microsoft's Surface Tablets "iPads" 262
AmiMoJo writes: Back in 2013, Microsoft inked a $400 million deal with the NFL to promote the Surface. Unfortunately for Microsoft, commentators and even players couldn't help themselves from referring to the tablets as iPads. Last year, announcers referred to the Surface as an "iPad-like tablet,", while Chicago Bears quarterback called them "knockoff iPads". It happened on more than one occasion, and while you can bet that Microsoft and the NFL have been in talks with announcers and players about the goof, little progress is being made. This year, the problem persists.
Microsoft still can't win can they? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe they just have bad karma now or something but even this post was put under http://apple.slashdot.org instead of http://microsoft.slashdot.org!
Re:Microsoft still can't win can they? (Score:5, Interesting)
Apple has now launched a product lacking the "i" with the Apple Watch, they might be worried about trademark, or they might be worried about the various negative implications of iWatch as a term.
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Nah, a genericized trademark only happens when products are being marketed as such.
Like a Kleenex = Tissue. Microsoft isn't encouraging Surface Pro's to be called iPads, and there's nothing on the device to even suggest they are such. It would be pretty hard for anyone to claim something that isn't an iPad is an iPad since there identifying marks on the devices that say exactly what they are. There isn't on a tissue paper.
Same with "Bandaid brand bandages" People call them bandaids because there is no effec
Re:Microsoft still can't win can they? (Score:4, Insightful)
No, it becomes genericized when people, not the makers or stores, start calling all items of the type by the brand name of one.
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Your facts are off. Aspirin is a lost trademark because of Bayer's actions, or rather inaction, not because you can't find a way to label an Aspirin tablet, in fact mine are, though being in the US, they have lost their trademark on that word.
Elsewhere, not necessarily.
And if I were manager of a Samsung Store, I'd expect them to try to sell a Samsung tablet if you ask for an iPad, they might not succeed, but they should try.
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What is aspirin, bayer or bandage?
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Re:Microsoft still can't win can they? (Score:5, Funny)
Aspirin is a brand name jackass.
I prefer generic donkeys and mules over the overpriced brand name ones.
What is your position on brand name miniature red-head roosters?
Who the fuck can remember all those stupid names? (Score:4, Insightful)
No matter how good, how useful a product is, if the name is stupid, it won't be remember
Take toilet paper - what brand of toilet paper can you think of?
Take sport drinks - other than Gatorade, what are the other brands you can remember?
Ice tea ... can you pronounce 'loo-zee-ann'?
Microsoft Windows successfully toppled OS/2 because the 'OS/2' name was too fucking awkward
iPad, iPhone, iPod are popular not only because of their functionality - they have crispy clear sounding name
As for Microsoft Surface? Who the fuck can remember that?
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Are you talking about a tablet, the table, or the wall-mounted device?
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Everyone. They've recycled the product name 3 times now, and it's written in big letters on the back of the device as well as on the front cover of the keypad. If you have the device and you can't remember the name then it speaks volumes for how much pay attention to your surroundings in life.
Re:Who the fuck can remember all those stupid name (Score:4, Insightful)
Or on how much you care about being turned in an advertisment spewing sock puppet.
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Do you know what make/model of car you own?
Since 3 years: none. But for the sake of the argument: I would know it
If yes, does that make you an adverisement-spewing sock puppet..?
Knowing it? No. Mentioning it each time I'm referring to it? Sure so! "Honey, where is my coat?" "Oh It's still in the back of our Toyota Foobar 310. I'll fetch it later". "What#s for dinner tonight?" "Walmart Great Value Mac'n'Cheese. Wanna watch some Samsung TV while having diner?"
Who would talk like that? That only happend in "The Trueman Show"!
Just curious. I agree that not knowing the name of something you bought is potentially something to be concerned about.
Of course you know it. That#s why you don't keep on mentioning it to others.
And if y
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So I have two questions for you:
1. If you had an Apple device, would you know it's an Apple device, or do you run around calling it a Samsung?
2. If your job depended on being an advertisement spewing sock puppet, would you do what's written on your job description? I mean it's not like these are back office workers we're talking about. It should be as second nature to them as talking about the "Citibank line camera", or the "refreshing Gatorade" the players are drinking, or the "KFC instant replay system".
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"If I had an Apple device" is not unambigous: If I bought it, picked it, wrote about it in my letter to Santa, I would know it as it was a conscious descision. If I had been given it as a tool to simply do my daily job, I probably couldn't care less.
Oh and did I mention that I would always prefer KFC over McD when going to a fast food restaurant as they have the much better replay system!
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They'd think you were an idiot...
Why? For stating such a simple fact?
It's certainly a knockoff something. Apple is not exactly known for originality - just for tweaking other peoples inventions and then suing other people for it,.
Re:Who the fuck can remember all those stupid name (Score:4, Insightful)
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Are you saying companies shouldn't advertise?
And no I don't believe for one second that someone using a device every day for work which says "Surface" on it in 3 places including taking up most of the screen while booting can't "remember" what it's called. Either they are really that stupid (likely), or they are willfully ignoring it (equally likely), or they are directed to ignore it (highly unlikely).
Point is these people are paid to know what things are called according to their advertising contracts. Ca
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Sorry, but your list is ridiculous. I don't live in my parents' basement, thus I must buy my own sport drinks, T.P., and iced tea. Everyone knows Charmin-- they have great marketing. There are also Angel Soft, Quilted Northern, Marcal, Panda, and Scott. Lipton and Nestea are big brands here. Powerade is probably #2 to Gatorade. What's your point?
And the OS/2-Windows war had much bigger issues than OS/2's "awkward" name.
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You're just holding it wrong! [slashdot.org]
The Surface should be easily distinguishable (Score:4, Funny)
Really, nobody should be confusing the Surface with the iPad. There are many differences:
1) The Surface has a keyboard and touchpad
2) The Surface has real USB ports
3) The Surface runs Windows
4) You can play games on the Surface. There are no games for the iPad.
5) The Surface has a kickstand that enables the screen to stand partially upright.
6) The Surface is more secure than the iPad.
7) It is easy to use the Surface. The iPad is so complicated my grandma can't use it.
There really isn't any similarity, and it's really quite embarrassing that people can't tell the difference. For all the promos the NFL announcers have to read, you think they'd get used to calling the tablets used on the sidelines by their correct name, which is, of course, the Microsoft Surface.
Re:The Surface should be easily distinguishable (Score:5, Informative)
Point 4 is entirely untrue.
On point 7, that your Grandma may find the iPad harder to use the Surface is anecdotal evidence for your proposition. It remains that the underlying argument that the Surface is easier to use than the iPad is entirely subjective.
I will not contest the other points, however.
But really, putting something that can be quite objectively shown to be false in your itemized list of differences really negatively impacts your overall argument. You could have left point 4 out and just listed six points and your argument would have been much stronger than how you presented it.
But The Noisy *Surface* IS easily distinguishable (Score:2, Insightful)
a) Noisy fan -- reminds you it isn't a tablet --- at least not the kind of tablet the iPad and Android are on.
b) The kind of tablet that needs anti-virus. Weeeee!
c) Battery life requires you be near a power outlet. Versus an iPad that can do several days.
d) The kind of tablet with really low market share, again reminding you it isn't an iPad.
e) The Surface, unpopular enough, the average joe thinks it is iPad.
The Surface has more in common with the kind of tablets Moses brought down from the mountain, than
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iPad battery? Several days???? Uh, what?
I get about 4 hours off an iPad battery. The battery only lasts for days if I don't use it that much.
Not that I'm suggesting Surface is any better, I haven't used it so I wouldn't know.
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You're kidding.
1) The surface has a joke keyboard. touchpads suck on all devices.
2) The surface has a real USB 2.0 or 3.0 port, too bad you can't do anything with it, since it would tether the device to the item attached
3) The surface "RT" runs a version of windows that doesn't run desktop windows. The Surface Pro runs a full version of windows that consumes half the hard drive.
4) You can't play games on the Surface, there are few. There are far more games for the iPad. You must be thinking of the Surface P
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I'll do you one better: The Surface has 2 places on it where it says "Surface" and 3 if you count the windows bootup startup screen which says only "Surface" on it.
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There is one indisputable point in which Surface is awesome and iPad and android competitors cannot match. If you are going to a conference or a business meeting and you need to do some last-minute edits on your presentation, you can do this on the surface and you cannot on the iPad. The surface has USB support and it has a native version of PowerPoint that is much more compatible with the desktop version.
I have found that both the iPad and Mac versions of PowerPoint are mostly compatible with files made
That's okay. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:That's okay. (Score:5, Informative)
yeah (Score:3)
This problem really shouldn't exist. (Score:5, Insightful)
The commentators are supposed to be professionals and plugging products is part of their profession. Do they fuck up the "Brought to you by Dodge: Take a stand against ordinary." plugs? No. And, if they did, they'd be getting yelled at during the next commercial break. Can you imagine if they said "Brought to you by the Toyota F-150, heartbeat of America." when the dodge logo popped up on the screen? (I just picked Dodge and their slogan out of thin air. I have no idea if Dodge advertises like that during NFL games but you get what I mean.) The tablets are a product and it's being advertised. Microsoft has paid a ton of money for this product placement and I find it hard to believe that their contract doesn't include assurances that their products will be correctly referenced a minimum number of times per game. And it probably has penalties for misidentification. Like calling their devices by the trademarked name of their biggest competitor. You don't need to be an expert on the product you're plugging to get the name right.
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They didn't at first. Somewhere along the way, they got the name on them in big letters on the hand-hold strap.
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As a former announcer, I'm not sure what to make of that. Maybe I'm formerly not that smart?
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Your last name is "The Mindless"...
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Just like Smokey the Bear.
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Newsflash: announcers aren't really that smart.
Or rather they are quite smart (think about hard it actually is to narrate a play as it happens as well as offering interesting commentary) but they're in a habit of not really respecting computers the way they do trucks and other manly-man products..
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Newsflash: announcers aren't really that smart.
...DNS-and-BIND announced.
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Maybe they could turn it into an opportunity and argue that "ipad" has become generic, like "hoover". I'm sure Apple would litigate until the end of time to prevent it, but maybe Microsoft could go the astroturfing route instead.
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Hoover is only generic in one country. Well, maybe two; I don't know what the Scots say. Here in the US we say "vacuum". Hoover is still a brand name of vacuum cleaners.
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You don't need to be an expert on the product you're plugging to get the name right.
Especially if you're forced o use the product. I mean Surface is only written on the kick stand, on the keypad, and is also the word present while Windows is booting.
Mind you this are NFL commentators. I guess 15 years of head trauma does have an effect.
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The tablets are a product and it's being advertised.
But unlike your Dosge example - it is not openly disclosed as advertisement. There is no "brought to you by MS surface". There wouldn't be a problem if MS just bought people to say "And our sponsoring partner Microsoft wants you to have a look at their products called "The surface"". Every moron could read that.
Trying to hide the fact that this is paid-for advertising my letting it creep into commentary and interviews that should be about the subject people are tuning in to see is what is happening here.
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This... More so than any of the other American major league sports, the NFL has inked sponsorship deals for product placement. As an example, Colin Kaepernick was famously fined $10k by the NFL last year for wearing a pair of pink Beats headphones during a post-game press conference. The only reason he's not blowing a gasket over this is that he's too busy deluding himself into believing he'll win the Deflategate appeal.
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The commentators are supposed to be professionals and plugging products is part of their profession. Do they fuck up the "Brought to you by Dodge: Take a stand against ordinary." plugs? No.
That's because, despite the jokes everyone here will make, the announcers aren't illiterate. They have no problem doing the sponsorships when it's on a piece of paper in front of them.
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No, you are right, it shouldn't exist. They should be able to call their thingies iPads and Microsoft should too. It's stupid that Apple can claim such a short word. IP law is illogical and extremely stupid, just like the politicians who created it. May they burn.
As many issues as I have with various IP laws this use of trademarks is perfectly fine.
iPad is a word Apple made up specifically for their product, the use of the trademark is to protect their brand. Hell, the entire point of this story is that people using Apple's trademark iPad is causing brand confusion!
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Does the iWatch have a microphone too?
http://www.apple.com/watch/ [apple.com]
I don't know if it does. Who makes it? We'll check their website.
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NO. Do not excuse them by saying "well, they're just athletes". They are PAID PROFESSIONALS who should be held accountable to the paid profession in which they are engaging. If they are incapable of doing the job, they should quit or be terminated.
Re:This problem really shouldn't exist. (Score:5, Funny)
In other news, NFL professionals still calling Hand-egg game 'football', says Rest of World.
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They are ludicrously overpaid PAID PROFESSIONALS who should be held accountable to the paid profession in which they are engaging.
FTFY
Re:This problem really shouldn't exist. (Score:5, Funny)
They're job ... is to announce the game, not sell product.
The Surface IS JUST A SHITTY IPAD KNOCK OFF
You're just an ignorant prick that has no clue what he's talking about
The irony hurts so very much.
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Yea, because Apple doesn't like when people make fun of Surface and imply that they'd rather have an Apple device instead of the shitty Microsoft version.
Apple LOVE it.
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What do you think a "Steeler" or a "Ram" or a "49er" is?
Talking about products is all those people ever do. This is commercial entertainment, not a real sports game between the people on your street. Go outside and play some sports. And then tell me if any of the other people you were with, said "ooh, ooh, can I be the announcer?" Sports don't have announcers.
This a field of professional entertainers and professional announcers whose job is to sell. They're paid to sell you the teams, the players, and
Although the mind-share is good for Apple... (Score:2)
Yep (Score:4, Interesting)
It is actually a bad thing, overall for Apple. The last thing they want is for every tablet to be an "iPad" because it then makes it much harder to market and differentiate their own products. While I'm sure MS isn't pleased, Apple is likely non to pleased either. Having your brand turned generic isn't something any company wants. Even if you still technically control the trademark, if it is a generic term in the mind of the ordinary person, you've lost.
Other brand names that Americans use ... (Score:4, Informative)
It seems to be mostly an American thing to call things by brand or company names instead of using generic terms...
Jacuzzi - hot tub
Crock pot - pressure cooker
Chapstick - lip balm
Kleenex - tissue
Q-tips - cotton swabs
Rollerblades - roller skates
Scotch tape - adhesive tape
Sharpie - permanent marker
Realtor - real estate agent
Tupperware - plastic containers
Weed eater - string trimmer
Wite-out - correction fluid
Band-Aid - adhesive bandages
Dumpster - waste container
Xerox - photocopier
Post-it - sticky note
Plexiglas - acrylic glass
Styrofoam - polystyrene
etc etc etc....
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Not exclusively American at all.
Hoover - Vacuum
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Sellotape.
Post-It Note.
Portacabin.
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Fön (Hair dryer)
Dixie (portable toilet)
Tipp-Ex (White Out)
Styropor (Styrofoam)
Jenaer Glas (Pyrex)
Tempo
Edding
getting slightly awkward when you don't only have to learn regular vocabulary but also brand names
Re:Other brand names that Americans use ... (Score:4, Informative)
A crock pot is not a pressure cooker. (Try "slow cooker".)
And my wife calls them Tupperware. She's from China, has never lived in an English-speaking country, and only made her first visit to the US about 4 years ago.
Here in Sweden, I hear the terms "rollerblade"; "Xerox", "Post-It", and "Plexiglass" used even in Swedish.
Rollerblades, BTW, are specifically *inline* skates, not any roller skates.
And nobody's had a need for White-Out in about 30 years; do they even still make that stuff?
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No it's not, you just watch too many American movies to realise that every nationality has a tendency to do this. At least half of those are common in Australia and the UK too. Heck even Chinese don't call post-its sticky notes.
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Scotch tape - adhesive tape
clear adhesive tape
Weed eater - string trimmer
We call them weed whackers now.
Plexiglas - acrylic glass
It's not glass. You're calling everything which is clear "glass", while you complain about Americans calling everything by the wrong name. Hooray!
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And there have been cases where it lead to the loss of the trademark, as with aspirin and escalator.
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I believe Bayer lost its trademark to aspirin as part of reparation for WWI, not as a result of the name becoming generic.
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Some corrections:
Because every brand name you mentioned is the largest most well known brand who did it first. In most cases people use the brand name because the brand name they are referring to is the one that isn't a shitty cheap copy of the brand name. People actually want Kleenex, not shitty 'tissue' that hurts when you use it, as an example.
A crock pot is not a pressure cooker in any way. Its just a brand name for a large ceramic pot with its own built in heating for slow cooking stews and such. A
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Notice the syllables. A vast majority of those brand generics are shortening mechanisms. Brand names that become commonplace enough and are easier to say or shorter to write tend to become generics.
Re: Other brand names that Americans use ... (Score:2)
PTFE tape is adhesive?
Well my mum still calls a vacuum cleaner a hoover (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh shock and horror! (Score:2)
Some people do not know the actual brand of their toaster. they call it "toaster" rather than the "Skynet 9000 turbo bread bronzer".
It's a fucking toaster. The fact they confused it with the most widely known brand of toaster just happens. Like how "Centrino" was a CPU in some people's minds.
Some folks don't care (Score:2)
Some people do not know the actual brand of their toaster. they call it "toaster" rather than the "Skynet 9000 turbo bread bronzer".
Toaster, hell. Ask my wife the brand of car we own. To her they are the silver pickup and the grey truck. This is a woman with a doctorate so I'm not insulting her intelligence - she's arguably smarter than I am. She just doesn't care about the differences. At all.
Folks here on slashdot might give a crap about the fine distinctions between an iPad and a Surface tablet. Lots more folks really don't care even a tiny bit. To them the differences are purely academic.
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Folks here on slashdot might give a crap about the fine distinctions between an iPad and a Surface tablet. Lots more folks really don't care even a tiny bit. To them the differences are purely academic.
That's mostly because people on /. knew what a tablet computer was before rumors about the iPad existed.
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I don't know the brand of my toaster, but then again the manufacturer didn't pay me $400m to advertise it for them. If they did, I'd use the product name in every sentence I spoke and I'd have it tattooed prominently on my body. Now perhaps $400m is a lot more significant to me then it is to the NFL, but it's not like this is some 10 second read on Fargo's sports talk show ei
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Yeah we both know you're right...but if you task a some football knuckle-heads with something don't be surprised if they fumble.
Actually, don't be surprised if they take your tablet/iPad/Surface and shake it, sniff it and then take a bite.
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Like how "Centrino" was a CPU in some people's minds.
Wow, have you actually met both of them?
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tell them ... (Score:2)
Why with the surprise here? (Score:3)
And why are we stunned that a bunch of overpaid, undersocialized steroid-sozzled jock dopes can grasp anything other than their playbook?
And, especially, the commentators? They're all a bunch of football-heads. Computers are for fuckin' nerds man!
Everything's an iPad right?
Just like, down south, all cola is "A Coke".
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Wow, could you have shown any better just how ignorant you were?
undersocialized
By definition of what these people are doing, they are more socialized than you, someone no one outside your house probably even remembers your name.
steroid-sozzled jock dopes
The NFL has been steroid testing players for almost 30 years, so no, no steroid's involved in the NFL.
dopes can grasp anything other than their playbook?
Another years pay says you couldn't memorize and understand their playbook given 6 months time to do so. I'd bet my life you're too slow to even come close to executing one of the simple plays aga
That's a funny thing, (Score:5, Funny)
because I've been calling the new iPad Pro the Apple Surface Tablet.
And still... (Score:2)
It's just as funny now as it was when this story originally broke.
Pisses off M$ AND Apple at the same time, LOVE IT
And here (Score:2)
I thought most folks thought the iPad was Apple's entry into the field of feminine hygiene...
Chicago Bears quarterback (Score:3)
>> Chicago Bears quarterback called them "knockoff iPads"
To be fair, Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler is a "knockoff quarterback."
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This. In the end this may be good for Microsoft, as it may ruin a successful competitor's brand name.
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All the same concept. Generic terms for what is and used to be specific brands. A 'tablet looking thing' will be refereed to as an "iPad". Same as if they were using Dell, Asus, Samsung tablet looking things.
iPad.
Tablet.
A word you used both times describing the objects. My guess is this will be what everyone will be calling them.
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Buzz aldrin
I don't think multiple people build X or Y. They're letters. unless we're talking encoding.
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It could only carry one person at a time. They were second and third respectively.
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Honestly: You only remember "first man on the moon" because that was the only event in the space race that the US came out ahead (and the USSR haven't really tried)
First object in space? In orbit?
First living beings in space? returning safely? First human?
First woman in space? First EVA?
First unmanned landing on the moon? On Venus? On Mars?
So it's not only the first X and Y you remember, human nature tends to remember only the Xs and Ys that we were first in and not only ignores second X and second Y, but f
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I've watched GNFOS, much funnier than you.
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What do you expect from these low life who enjoy hitting each other/watch others ram into each others, making millions of dollars for doing it, and getting to sleep with models and pop stars.
TFTFY.
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Anyone who's jealous can take some comfort from the fact that ten years later, they won't be able to remember any of it.
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Or TLDR: The NFL is run by idiots.
I wouldn't go that far, but it definitly is run by people who care more about product placement than football. Being run by idiots would not harm football to the extent that is doing to it.
Re: Sports, their first mistake (Score:2)
Instead of the more obvious option, the Patriots stole the encryption codes and purposely overpowered the real signal with their own.
Stealing the encryption key isn't necessary. "League officials" in a room at Gillette Stadium are monitoring the transmissions anyway (on equipment set up by the Patriots.) The radio broadcast of the game could easily have been fed into the coach's feed at that point.
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Or they'd all call them our personal PDAs or out PDA Assistants. Just as bad.
But, seriously...you get two syllables for a marketable name. Even the acronym is three.