Pc vs Mac (for a change)
After the rather poor (and bizarre) Seinfeld and Bill Gates adverts were cancelled this week, Microsoft have launched a new “I’m a PC” series of adverts, which are, actually pretty good.
It is very different to what they normally do, and yes, they are having a little bit of fun with Apple too, which cannot be a bad thing (lets face it, Apple have ripped Microsoft for a long time, and with good reason).
Here’s another of the new ads:
They certainly seem to have recruited a few A list stars, and they do a good job of getting a message across. Except, I think the message could be “don’t be so embarrassed saying you use a PC”. What do you think? Fundamentally, with marketing, you need a remarkable and damn right hot product from the off. And Microsoft just doesn’t have that. Windows Vista(ster) and XP are just too middle of the road right now.
Far from remarkable.
OSX is better, more stable, more secure, better to use and looks amazing. That is at one end of the road. At the other end, is the likes of the new Netbooks, offering tiny computers, which people only need to run Firefox on. Ok, you CAN run XP, but quite a few people immediately change to a version of Linux. Firefox is all you need to access your cloud, and this is undoubtedly the way it is going.
Hardware, design, battery life and wireless connectivity are going to be the features that people demand. It is not going to be about software. This is a BIG scary fact that Microsoft are very, very worried about.
