Microsoft: “PC’s are a lot Cheaper than Mac’s”
Written by Fareed Warrad on March 27, 2009 – 2:30 PM -This may be one of the fewest times when Microsoft has not told a fib. For years big brother Microsoft has been growing a reputation of lies and deceits, but today they seem to changing all of that (even if it’s just momentarily). Recently Microsoft has hired Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the ad agency behind the campaign pairing Bill Gates with Jerry Seinfeld, to recruit ‘unwitting subjects by posing as a market research firm studying laptop purchasing decisions’. It still tickles me pink to know that Microsoft would rather hire ‘dumb, computer illiterate’ people to help promote their products. It’s almost as if Microsoft is saying ‘If your dumb, then buy Windows. If your smart, go with Mac’, but we won’t get into that today.
According to the ad agency, participants found on Craigslist (apparently that’s another site in which unwitting people use. Hell, don’t a lot of Nigerian scams run off of that site?) were given between $700 to $2,000 to buy a computer fitting certain criteria, and were told they could keep the computer they selected. One ‘unwitting’ participant named Lauren was told to buy a 17″ notebook for less than $1000. She was then filmed entering an Apple Store where she couldn’t find one. Lauren then heads to Best Buy and selects a $699 HP machine running Windows. That experience was turned into a 60 second TV spot for Microsoft after the agency told the buyer that the purpose of the excursion was really to promote Windows.
Of course the new ads don’t go into details on hardware purchases; they simply make the case that PC laptops can be found for cheaper, playing up tight funds in the tough economy. Best Buy actually does sell the DV7-1245DX, an HP notebook with 17″ screen, but it lacks fast wireless 802.11n, fast Gigabit Ethernet, digital audio inputs and outputs, weighs 7.75 pounds, and only features the screen resolution of Apple’s 15″ notebooks: 1440 by 900. Technically, it is a 17″ notebook in terms of size, but it doesn’t have the 17″ resolution of Apple’s MacBook Pro, which is 1920 by 1200. Hmm, I guess that’s why they were looking for “unwitting” participants.
“This notebook has the worst screen I have ever seen in my life. It’s the 1440×900 screen and the viewing angles are so poor that even when sitting directly eye level with the screen it is totally washed out. If I go a little bit off-axis the screen results in a negative image. I was using the default settings. Unfortunately I didn’t read reviews before I purchased.” One HP buyer pointed out in regards to this model series.
Not to mention, the HP notebook runs Windows Vista, rated by ChangeWave as having the lowest operating system satisfaction rating in rankings that were led by Mac OS X Leopard and also included Linux and Windows XP. Many PC makers continue to add a “Windows XP downgrade” as a feature on their new PCs. This makes it particularly interesting that Microsoft would advertise its product by citing the price of the hardware it runs on, rather than calling attention to any of the features in its own product. It’s not that Microsoft hasn’t tried. Vista’s first “Wow” campaign portrayed customers in a state of pleasant shock when using it.
So in closing, Micorsoft seems to know it can’t fool the computer geeks, or the enthusists, so it looks for the ignorant, unwitting to pray on in an attempt to show other unwitting or ignorant potential buyers that ‘hey all this fuss about Mac’s is nothing, choose a PC it’s cheaper’, but sometimes cheaper doesn’t mean better. That’s like comparing a hooptie to a Lexus. Now understandably, not everyone can afford a Mac. That’s where Microsoft can come in and say ‘Hey, if you cannot afford highend, go with PC’ (FW)
