OperaDad

I'm a PC, and this time Microsoft's buying
By JESSICA MINTZ

SEATTLE (AP) - Apple's Macintosh computers may be cool, but Windows PCs are easier on the wallet.

That's the recession-sensitive message Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) (MSFT) 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. (AAPL) (AAPL) 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." ...

My Way News - I'm a PC, and this time Microsoft's buying

glindawantsme17

I think it's funny that Lauren's a member of the Screen Actors Guild. When I saw the commercial I immediately thought, "Well, she looks artsy."

TomTheCat

Lauren was right. She's not cool enough to be a Mac person

randomgrandeur

LOL (for real).

ALF

I hope that MS runs another ad in 4 years when (if) Lauren graduates to find out if she still has her HP and how much money she has spent over that time in virus- and spy-ware, memory upgrades, repairs, service, and (probably) the new laptop she has bought since.

momfromme

I've had PCs for years and have been wondering if our family's next computer should be a Mac. What are your thoughts?

sweetpotato

my family had mac early on...then i switched to PC in middle school. had a dell lap top for two years at school and now i have a macbook. all i can say is GET A MACBOOK for school (unless you are an engineer). i never did things like illegal music downloading that would give the PC viruses, it just broke down all on its own. same with my dell desktop at home, that thing practically exploded when i really needed it during finals of my junior year in high school (okay, so the hard drive fried, it didnt explode, but u get what i mean)

sweetpotato

PS. vista can suck it...if you go for a PC get XP

fabrizio

1. I hardly think Georgia Tech is the exception when it comes to universities’ providing commercial anti-virus software free-of-charge. Even if it were, free anti-virus software has come a long way in the past few years and is as good as or better than the name brands. Perhaps you meant how much potential downtime she might experience as a Windows user?

2. What, Mac users don’t upgrade the memory on their computers? Please. Even if you want to assert that OS X does a better job of using memory than Windows, the “more is better” mantra would still hold for RAM and OS X.

3. I thought there was something called a warranty? I only had to use my warranty once for my Lenovo ThinkPad, and my experience was wonderful. I called support on Monday, got a box on Wednesday and shipped it out the same day, and got my laptop back on Friday with the problem fixed.

4. I don’t know that many Mac users who are still using G4-based iBooks and PowerBooks. I see a lot of MacBooks and MacBook Pros on campus, but I’ve only seen two G4-based laptops. Besides, if you want to employ stereotypes and generalizations, aren’t Mac users notorious for always upgrading to the latest and greatest from Cupertino?

fabrizio

Vista is underrated. Use it for a month and you’ll never go back to XP Pro SP2. Compared to XP, Vista

1. gets to the login screen faster
2. logs you in faster
3. speeds up the more you use it as opposed to slowing down the more you use it
4. assigns IP addresses faster
5. powers off faster

I’d especially like to talk about points three and four. To veteran XP users, Vista will initially appear to be very slow. Why? It doesn’t know what you like! Thanks to Superfetch, the more you use Vista, the more it knows about what programs you like to use and when. Soon enough, you’ll notice that applications load faster because they were precached. By comparison, XP doesn’t have this, and the more you use XP, the slower it gets.

Back when I used XP Pro SP2, every now and then my computer wouldn’t be able to recognize the Ethernet connection. I would right-click and select “Repair Network Connection,” but it never worked. This has never happened under Vista. It has always recognized a plugged-in Ethernet cable and what’s more, it assigns IP addresses far more quickly than XP does.

Interestingly, Vista is only a bad operating system for nerds who are stubborn and refuse to heed the advice of “forum tech gurus”. With XP, you needed to tweak it for optimal performance. With Vista, it works best when left alone! Thus, Vista works for computer novices who don’t know that you can tweak an operating system and for non-stubborn computer enthusiasts who know that tweaking is counterproductive for Vista.

Another_Adam

These ads are kind of a joke.

I just saw the mother and son one yesterday.

The kid wants a gaming computer. I don't know much about gaming, but from what I hear, Macs aren't the best for it. So I guess Microsoft is reassuring themselves that they've got the demographic that wasn't going to buy a Mac anyways?

The people clearly already have something in mind, and it's not as if they're learning something they didn't already know.