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I think the ads are a way to attempt to recapture some lost customers, and a response to the Mac ads. Some of them even begin with a guy who looks like the PC guy in the Mac ads.

They say to me, "Cool people use Windows." The people who say, "I'm Windows," are doing something pretty attractive or exciting, or are themselves attractive. These type of ads don't sell features and benefits... they sell cool.

They may not work on you guys, and they won't sway diehard Mac fans, but if they run the ads often enough, they will sway buyers who are on the fence, and some who are buying their first computer... kids... the grand prize.

One thing that is known in the ad biz... repetition works. Look at Nike, Coke, Mac, McDonalds, etc. They run a slew of ads positioning their products as the cool ones to buy, and people (mostly kids) respond to that in a big way.

On the other side of that, if you have a mediocre product, like, hmmm, American cars, the cool factor can be overshadowed by practical concerns, like fuel economy. And the practical concern of having a buggy, crashy, infected computer may end up torpedoing this particular campaign as well.


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The first I'm a PC ads may have their issues, but they don't bother me too much. At least they are well produced and the people in them don't seem unlikable. It's the user videos that I think are so awful.

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One thing I've always wondered about is that, in 99% of the movies, where there's a shot of someone using a computer, it always has the Apple logo. I seriously can't remember seeing a PC. It does make the actors look cooler, I suppose

Anyway, my girlfriend just bought a PC laptop with Vista in it. A cheap one; you know, just to check her email, surf the web, use word, etc. I helped her set it up.
It took us several minutes for her computer to see our wireless network, the email app crashed twice, and we still haven't figured out why MY MacBook Pro CAN see her laptop via Blue-tooth, BUT hers can't see mine

Of course, I wanted to instal Norton Internet Security to avoid her being eaten by viruses and mal-ware, but of course, it doesn't work with Vista. For that, I'll have to buy a new subscription to get the right update and go back to the ol' days of dealing with those internet plagues... that affect only PCs

One thing that worries me a bit, though, is, how long before all these viruses, trojans, etc., start being nasty in Mac-world too? I suppose the more market share they whisk away from Windows, they closer we'll get to the threshold where the low-lives who program these things start learning Mac OS and doing the same to us. IOW, how much longer before we have to buy internet security systems for our Macs?
Anyone using one already??

FMiguelez wrote:Of course, I wanted to instal Norton Internet Security to avoid her being eaten by viruses and mal-ware, but of course, it doesn't work with Vista. For that, I'll have to buy a new subscription to get the right update and go back to the ol' days of dealing with those internet plagues... that affect only PCs

Before you buy something, check out Avast!:

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

They have a free edition for non commercial use and I have it on my Windows machine and it works wonderfully. It will periodically update itself and the virus database. A friend of mine told me about it. I installed it right after I installed Windows on my machine and it has never gotten infected by virus or trojan!

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Cool!

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out.

She has like 10 days left with the "demo" trial version of McAfee (or whatever you spell that), but if Avast is free, and does a good job, then it's a no brainer. I'll make sure to get it and instal it the SECOND she runs out of protection from the trial... literarily, a few minutes of internet-usage, with Windows, and no protection, is enough to get a couple of these nasty things.

Funny. When we both are using our computers, she keeps looking at my 17-inch screen, at my Mac, as if she was jealous... Well. She IS... she just won't admit it

FM stay away from Norton.

twistedtom wrote:FM stay away from Norton.

Why? Have you had a nasty experience you might wish to share? I like horror stories

But anyway. James' suggestion seems very good. I'll get that one.

Yes on both Mac and PC it in beds itself and does bad things to your system.

Yeah, Norton AV was a vile POS and never worked properly on the Mac under Mac OS 9 or OS X. However, Norton SysemWorks – their maintenance app – does a good job on Mac OS 9. I think when OS X was released, Symantec never really got the hang of it.

Kind regards.

I'm telling ya... Avast! is one of the best kept secrets going. I'm on my Windows machine now with Avast. It protects you from all kinds of stuff. Blocks trojans and bad stuff from web sites and every so often a little box will pop up at the lower right and my machine will say "Your virus database has been updated." It keeps both the app and the virus database up-to-date on it's own, and best of all the home version is free for non-commercial use.

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Actually, now that you guys mention it, I remember I USED to have Norton for Mac... LONG ago. I think I used PT back then. The point is that the system wouldn't even attempt to run without me disabling the Norton thing before.

Hmmmm....

Yeah. Who needs that? To hell with them. I'm trying Avast. Thanks for the tip, James

The ads are so bad because MS has probably never seen the need to hire the best marketing talent out there - I mean, when you have successfully achieved over 90% market share with your product (in spite of its poor quality), why bother with flashy marketing campaigns?

Their dilemma is now that so many more people are becoming familiar with Apple's products (and seen how much more elegant OSX is), and many are starting to switch over to Mac's, they see that their stranglehold on the OS market could slip.

However, if they really believed in Vista, what they should do instead of bringing a bunch of people in, showing them Vista and pretending its not Vista, is have a Mac with Leopard and a PC with Vista set up side by side, have them play around with both and then vote for which one they like better. Somehow, I don't think MS would air those ads...

Resonant Alien wrote:Their dilemma is now that so many more people are becoming familiar with Apple's products (and seen how much more elegant OSX is), and many are starting to switch over to Mac's, they see that their stranglehold on the OS market could slip.

The dividend of the iPhone and iPod. Mr. Job's "halo effect." It's working.

Just look at what we are saying; you need 3rd party software to protect your PC just to go on the net.

twistedtom wrote:Just look at what we are saying; you need 3rd party software to protect your PC just to go on the net.

I know. It's scary. But don't be too surprised, my friend. Remember we're talking Windoze here

But again, I wonder how much longer we Mac people will be able to enjoy going on-line without protection... we don't need accidents

I had heard Intego was one of the best options for Macs, but I haven't seen any reasons to use protection, so why bother (YET)?