The Apple vs. Microsoft ad war

According to a piece I saw over on Huffington Post (eke! someone may be able to suss out my politics!), Apple is coming after Microsoft, claiming that they’re ads on the under $1,000 PC’s - the “Laptop Hunter” campaign - are misleading.

The battle between Microsoft and Apple seems to never end. PC World reports that at a Microsoft conference on Wednesday, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner revealed to the audience that an Apple lawyer actually called him to complain about the ubiquitous ‘Laptop Hunter’ ad campaign.

Here’s PC World:

“And you know why I know they’re working? Because two weeks ago we got a call from the Apple legal department saying, hey — this is a true story — saying, “Hey, you need to stop running those ads, we lowered our prices.” They took like $100 off or something. It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I’ve ever taken in business. (Applause.)”

Apple has also come up with their own counter-ad, pushing the virus-and-instability buttons big time.

Yes, I know that cool and smart people are supposed to be Mac-niks, because it’s so natural and intuitive and full of grace. But I’ve been using Microsoft since the days of MS-DOS and Multiplan. After all these years, it’s their interface that’s natural, intuitive, and full of grace. (Yeah, and I’ll probably get the Blackberry with the full keyboard rather than the more iPhonish one. I’m a typer, not a glider.)

Plus every time I’ve looked at Apple - which was every time I’ve purchased a laptop, and I think I’ve done that 4 or 5 times - I’ve always come out on the side of: it’s cheaper and easier to stick with Intel/Microsoft. So, I do.

Anyway, Apple is crying ‘no fair’ over the Microsoft ads which, other than the “I’m a PC” thang, which i always think I mis-heard and don’t really get, I think are pretty good. And, frankly, I’m sick of the smarmy hipster in the Apple ads who’s so much cooler, cuter, and in-the-know than the podgy nerd who represents Microsoft.

I’m not a huge Microsoft booster. Frankly, they’re the devil I know.

But it does look like they’ve gotten under the skin of the apple here.

Anyway, over on Huff Po, you can take a poll on which ad you think is more effective. It’s almost neck and neck - Apple was a couple of percentage points ahead when I looked.

Interesting….

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