I can understand how advertisements such as those can be painful, and observing TV advertising from several election cycles tells me that an ad can be very effective without containing one ounce of truth.

For this reason, I'm a little dubious on MSFT's current advertising tactics. I'm in engineering and not marketing, but I am a complete third party that enjoys Macs just as much as PCs so I think that qualifies me to at least a critical degree. Apple's advertising throws out feelings, whereas MSFT's ads throw out numbers. I suppose MSFT's ad would probably be helpful if I was drafting my annual household budget when watching TV, but the viral relaxation of the Apple ads would probably stick with most people. If you stopped a random person on the street who has seen several of the Long-Hodgman ads and asked them to list all of the facts that they came out of it, I am positive they would not be able to come up with one specific fact about how well Vista's launch went other than to comment about how silly John Hodgman looked in each of them.

The point I'm trying to make here is I believe that "less is more" when dealing with these sort of advertising wars. Spend more time infusing the idea that they are completely locked in to Apple if they choose to go their route. Mention how technology is constantly updating, hold up a Mac Mini, look puzzled and ask the fourth wall if you have to throw the entire machine away if you want to upgrade any particular part. Stay away from discussing > $1000 Macs then showing a $699.99 laptop from Best Buy. Making people do even the most basic of math in their head is a bad thing while they are waiting to see who gets voted off the island/dances the best/cooks the best/gets fired/sings like crap/dances like crap.

I'm glad to see some more relevant ads coming from Microsoft.

It really fumes me to see a growing number of TV shows prominently displaying Macs. Ex. The Apprentice, Daily Show, Colbert Report, Iron Chef, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Last night my wife and I were watching The Apprentice and there was approx. 10 minutes cummulative where a Mac was being used. Not to mention iTunes getting plugged during American Idle. Its almost like you can't get watch TV for an hour without seeing either a product or Apple Ad being shown. Product placement is key. But before Microsoft can compete with that I think they need to address a major hurdle with their partners. Product Identification. The little Windows sticker when you buy a new machine doesn't cut it anymore. You guys need to push for a Windows logo on the products exterior case with some sort corresponding "Designed by Dell" designer label. Personally, I love the Windows logo used in the "Start Windows Phones" ad (see link below)..a simple & clean design that is easily recognizable. A silver version of this should be on the back of every laptop/netbook lid, etc. This way, TV/Movies can display a Windows PC no matter the "designer" (Dell, HP, etc). Something along these lines needs to happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwV4LkObryY&feature=player_embedded

As a Mac man since 1984, I'd like to chime in. I used PCs from the mid-late 70's until I saw my first Mac. As soon as I saw how transparent my computing experience became and interacted with the GUI, I was hooked. Over the ensuing years, I still worked on PCs as needed (e.g. when I was composing original music for several SuperNintendo games, the developer forced me to use PCs because THEY were using PCs and didn't yet know how easy it is to work on MIDI files on either system; that's another conversation). There's nothing I've seen so far that remotely comes close to convincing me that PCs are better.

To sum things up, yes, it's more expensive to buy a Mac. That said, it's worth every penny to never have to worry about whether my entire system will crash due to a misplaced period or corrupted DLL file (for that matter, it's worth every penny to NEVER have to deal with DLL files at all. Ever.)

The Mac computing experience is a joy, and since the operating system IS the GUI (as opposed to Windows, which is an application running on top of the operating system), troubleshooting (which I have to do 1/1000th of the times I had to while using Windows) is a breeze. Say all you want about a higher entry price, but given that I never have to deal with code, viruses, or any of the other myriad problems associated with Windows, again I say it's worth every penny (especially when compared against all the extra money I'd have to spend on simple Windows upkeep, repair, virus eradication, etc.).

There's something for everyone, so I continue to deal in a Windows world as needed. But thanks to my 25-year hassle-free experience with Macs, you'll never, EVER convince me that Windows is anywhere near as satisfying.

Thanks for reading. May your computing be relatively crash- and virus-free. (And if you want it to be so, simply buy a Mac. )

:)

I live in Europe where we don't get these heavy ad-wars. We are getting an Apple invasion however, supported mostly by word-of-mouth. The only thing I've seen Apple advertise heavily here is the iPod. Now, to qualify myself: I've spent thousands on both camps, can switch between MacPro and PC using a kvm switch and I can see great things in both platforms.

Just one thing is different: for someone who considers a computer to be just a tool, who doesn't want to know about the inner workings of the OS and the hardware and wants top-notch, well-integrated software included to get fun things done with amazing results - and I think that describes most non-geeks - you just cannot beat the Mac user experience. You may buy a $700 laptop running Windows, but what does it cost once you add the virusscanner and all of the applications that make up iLife? How much hassle do you have to go through? The freebies you get with a PC are usually awful and non-integrated. When people see my Macs, they're amazed about the slideshows, the movies, the photobooks and all the other stuff that you can create so easily. They don't sit there comparing RAM, CPU and HD sizes.

It's the disjointed, 'you-have-to-know-someone-to-get-it-to-work-properly' user experience that's killing MS at the moment. And because of the 3rd party business model, that will not change anytime soon. One of MS's most profitable products is Office. That should have been a clue. Where is the iLife equivalent suite called 'Home' or similar? Instead of adding small, insignificant apps to the (already heavily laden) OS, there should have been such a suite. Same thing for phones: whereas the iPhone feels like a natural extension of the MacOS, the Windows Mobile OS doesn't even seem to be related.

Of course Apple locks you in and constrains you. That's why I love Windows, because it can do so much more if you have the right software and aren't afraid to peek under the hood. As a geek, I can easily work with it. But then I have to support the rest of my family and several neighbours as well who are struggling through viruses, ad-ware, malware, network issues and exotic hardware...

"Home users have no IT department to fall back on."

That note should have been stuck to someone's screen in the upper management of MS a long time ago.