Microsoft Isn’t Going to Take It Anymore
I’m a big fan of the Apple/PC commercials, but it’s not because they enlighten me on the truth between the two computers. It’s because they’re well done and funny. Microsoft is tired of the the commercials being taken as fact and will be starting a campaign to battle that mindset.
In a clear dig at Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) and it’s ‘I’m a PC, I’m a Mac’ advertisements, Brooks suggested that Microsoft is preparing to retaliate against "noisy competitors" with a major new multi-million dollar advertising campaign, something that many channel partners have been hoping the software giant would do for months.
Security is probably one of the biggest targets that Vista has had on its back, which the facts clearly don’t support.
Vista has actually had a cleaner security track record in its first year since launch than any other open source or commercial OS in history, Brooks said. Vista also had 20 percent fewer security problems than XP in 2007, and users running Vista are 60 percent less likely to get malware than those running XP SP2, he added.
Now that XP is off the shelves and everything will be loaded with Vista are more people going to start to see the benefits and advantages of Vista? Will they also see that given the timeline of release between Vista and XP, Vista is much more advanced and ahead of the game than XP was at it’s same age?
I regularly here more comments from people that say they like Vista. There may various situations or individual items that are frustrating, but again, XP had some of the same frustrations for most people at some point in their life of usage of the operating system.
What do you think? Should people just get over XP and understand that the more people just jump in and start using Vista, the more opportunities for improvement will be available?
Source: ChannelWeb Microsoft: The Vista Bullying Stops Here via VistaNews and Deb Shinder
Tags: Apple, commercials, facts, Mac, marketing campaigns, problems, truth, Windows Vista, Windows-Vista, Windows-XPRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Corporate News, Windows Vista, Windows XP Home, Windows XP Pro
7 opinions for Microsoft Isn’t Going to Take It Anymore
Douglas Karr
Jul 13, 2008 at 1:21 am
I work on a Mac daily. The most ironic commercial for me with the Mac vs. PC series was the one where PC had to ask the security guy permission to do everything.
When Leopard came out, it worked almost exactly the same. Every app I download opens up a ‘this was downloaded from the Internet, are you sure’ permission, then a keychain permission, and sometimes an admin permission.
My son runs Vista and we both get about the same volume of ‘Are you sure?’ messages.
It’s about time Microsoft woke up.
Quikboy
Jul 13, 2008 at 2:15 am
I really hate the ones that say that you can only do “real” media work on Macs.
I use Adobe products all the time on Windows, and my work is just as great, if not better than those who use Macs.
Oh, and I have a wonderful Sony Vaio laptop that beats the heck out of any MacBook I’ve ever used.
Eric Hamilton
Jul 13, 2008 at 7:24 am
I’d love to see a comparison between known security BREACHES, not known security flaws. More known security flaws could simply mean that one OS maker is better at finding and reporting the bugs.
And as much as I love the mac laptops I’ve used — my workhorse desktop behemoth is a Windows box — because it was a lot cheaper to build than a Mac would have been to buy. Windows is winning the bang for buck contest, in my book.
I still like OSX better, though.
Jason Bean
Jul 13, 2008 at 10:24 am
Eric you’re a photography professional too right? I think that’s interesting given the normal expectation of anyone that’s doing serious photography or video editing is probably doing it on a Mac. It sounds like Quikboy would concur as well.
Aleem
Jul 13, 2008 at 4:45 pm
I think the problem here is more deep rooted and the challenge that faces Microsoft is greater than the one that faces Apple.
Apple is the underdog, and underdog’s always get the sympathetic vote. Microsoft has had a lot of antitrust cases and it is simply not possible to portray any company in new light whilst overlooking all history–managing perception is not that trivial and Microsoft has some real challenges here. Even if Vista has fewer security issues, most people think of viruses, blue screens, netscape and what not when they think of Microsoft.
Further, Mac has had great success with marketing because the of its obsessive users and cult following. I know 7-9 people with an iPhone and each and every one of them has told me that this is the greatest phone they have ever owned and have told me they would never switch to anything else (even though they complained about the lack of MMS, SMS’ing multiple users, etc).
The other reason why Microsoft has their work cut out for them is that their market share is much greater which makes them a much more lucrative target. A lot of people don’t consider this but if you’re a robber looking to hack a safe, you’d rather crack the one that yields better returns. As a security firm you’d rather try to find holes in Windows because that will get your more headlines, and more business from firms looking to protect their systems and so on. Microsoft will always be a more lucrative market for software developers and deviants alike.
The playing field is not level. Microsoft has to support thousands of drivers while Mac has to support only a handful. Microsoft has to provide backward compatibility all the way back to systems it made a decade ago while Apple deliniated all its old users and started life anew with its new operating system and consequently its Intel transition.
Apple wants to undermine Microsoft and pin point its failures because it can, because it is much more agile, because Apple can ship out a change in a week by testing it on a handful of configurations while Windows must test it against thousands. Microsoft should not react to these commercials.
Instead, Microsoft should focus on its own strength. It should focus on how it just makes this work–compatibility and interoperability, it’s embedded security solutions… security center, passport, live, office, exchange, etc and Microsoft should focus on integration of all these components. How it can do this whilst avoiding antitrust law suits from antivirus companies, security companies, google search etc is a different matter… Microsoft sure has it’s work cut out.
Apple Guy Responsible for New Microsoft Marketing
Jul 17, 2008 at 10:55 pm
[…] I was directed to a blog today that talked about Alex Bogusky, a guy that was a Mac user and responsible for some great advertising and marketing campaigns using Apple’s famous products. He’s now working on the new PR push of Microsoft that will be launched soon. […]
asudduth
Jul 18, 2008 at 8:28 pm
In response to “Should people just get over XP” - I think the answer is a big yes. Most people don’t remember 2001 when XP was released when most people were happily using Win9x. People were still clinging to the old OS’s complaining about upgraded hardware requirements and all of that. Vista is better and it is the more vocal minority that thinks otherwise. Always there are business cases, out of the 1200 machines I manage I know that about 100 of them can’t go to Vista yet because of vendor software that even struggles with XP SP2, but that is the exception rather than the rule. Should everyone buy an upgrade copy of Vista for their 3 year old PC? Absolutely not! Should people try to find any way to avoid Vista? Not at all. Vista is here to stay, and will only be imrpoved in Vista R2 umm.. I mean Windows 7.
I agree MS does have their work cut out for them, I don’t know how one battles the perception of a failure… Maybe the commercials should be real users who are using Vista, Office2007, etc… real stories with real people. You may be a Mac, but I’m a real person and here is my story…
Anyways, just my $0.02
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