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Microsoft commercial infuriates Mac followers

March 31st, 2009
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The recent M$ advertisement targeting the relative expense of Apple computers as being elitist has stirred much commotion. As many websites have commented, the “not cool enough to be a Mac” comment made in the ad has peeved the folks at Cupertino.

You can spin the Mac vs PC argument in any fashion, arguing for the simplistic Mac designs or eye candy of OSX. The premium you pay for a Mac is self-explanatory–you get a nicer looking system with some (arguably) nicer hardware. Whether you buy a Mac sort of depends on how much money you’re willing to spend or how vain you are. Equivalent software applications exist for nearly all products, and any differences are simply personal preference.  End of story.

However, what I can say is that I can extrapolate some interesting conclusions about hardware and operating system preferences based on my web server traffic. Nearly all of my traffic hits from Apple computers come from the United States and its adjacent islands.  About 45% of my web traffic also identifies as Mac OS X, which is much higher than the actual market share of Apple computers.

1) Are Apple computers generally too expensive for non-US folks? Maybe. I assume that most middle-class wages outside of the US are relatively lower, and for many people, it’s simply not practical to pay nearly twice as much for a nicer looking computer with similar specs. You tell me. Contact me if you live outside of the US and have a Mac.

2) Since most of my traffic comes from academia and medical centers, I’m not surprised that I get a skewed distribution of Mac users on my website. However, why does this demographic tend to use Macs more? Are we all snobby bastards? Does Mac software suit our needs better?

I can only speak for myself. I owned an iBook (circa 2004) while in medical school. It was smooth, white, and woke up from suspended mode incredibly efficiently. However, it had a 1.2ghz processor and 256mb ram. With multiple browser tabs open, the system crawled along. It would not even run emulation software. I hawked it off once its usb port died (high quality hardware, eh?). I now have an IBM Thinkpad T42 (circa 2003), with 1.5gb ram and 1.7ghz processor. It runs most programs like a dream, except video editing and graphics intense processes. I miss having a native unix shell, but these days, I don’t have time to be hacking scripts anyway.

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  • http://kitchenfreshblog.blogspot.com Jon

    As a recent Mac convert, I have to say that I am very pleased with my Mac and gladly paid the premium for my Macbook Pro.

    First off, regarding the commercial, I think the “anger” is just part of the typical Mac vs Microsoft hostilities you see on the Internet. The same sort of thing exists for XBox 360 vs PS3 where message board and blog posters continuously flame each other while pushing their own brand loyalty. Whatever the group psychology that leads people to this is kind of interesting, I guess.

    Specifically for this commercial, there is a little bit of fanfare surrounding it as well. Microsoft has been hit hard by the “I’m a Mac” ad campaign and the Seinfeld attempt to fight back fell hard. So this is the new salvo. Personally, the only problem I have with this commercial is that it doesn’t seem totally clear what it’s selling. Is it an ad for HP, Best Buy or Microsoft? I don’t think that completely comes across.

    Last thing about the ad – Windows runs (very well) on a Mac. You’d think that Microsoft would promote this feature as well. Although few would use Windows as a primary OS on a Mac.

    Now personally, I thought the Mac was worth the splurge. It comes down to simplicity. I don’t need to worry about viruses (Conficker?), backups (Time Machine) and transferring to a new computer when I get a new one. There are far fewer updates to worry about and every time I bring home a virus on my USB drive I don’t need to worry about it spreading to my machine. With Boot Camp, I can even run anything for Windows anyway. For some, this simplicity may not be worth the price, but I hate having to constantly make sure that my virus scanner is up to date, my hard drive is defragged, and researching if I have the latest drivers. Boot time and shut down time is much better and there’s generally easier install. Also, no crapware came installed either on my computer. So it’s just a matter of saving time and simplicity.

    A friend from Japan told me nobody in Japan has a Mac. As for the other question, I think younger people are more susceptible to marketing and Apple has had better marketing than Microsoft. That’s why you see more young people wanting Macs.

  • http://kitchenfreshblog.blogspot.com Jon

    As a recent Mac convert, I have to say that I am very pleased with my Mac and gladly paid the premium for my Macbook Pro.

    First off, regarding the commercial, I think the “anger” is just part of the typical Mac vs Microsoft hostilities you see on the Internet. The same sort of thing exists for XBox 360 vs PS3 where message board and blog posters continuously flame each other while pushing their own brand loyalty. Whatever the group psychology that leads people to this is kind of interesting, I guess.

    Specifically for this commercial, there is a little bit of fanfare surrounding it as well. Microsoft has been hit hard by the “I’m a Mac” ad campaign and the Seinfeld attempt to fight back fell hard. So this is the new salvo. Personally, the only problem I have with this commercial is that it doesn’t seem totally clear what it’s selling. Is it an ad for HP, Best Buy or Microsoft? I don’t think that completely comes across.

    Last thing about the ad – Windows runs (very well) on a Mac. You’d think that Microsoft would promote this feature as well. Although few would use Windows as a primary OS on a Mac.

    Now personally, I thought the Mac was worth the splurge. It comes down to simplicity. I don’t need to worry about viruses (Conficker?), backups (Time Machine) and transferring to a new computer when I get a new one. There are far fewer updates to worry about and every time I bring home a virus on my USB drive I don’t need to worry about it spreading to my machine. With Boot Camp, I can even run anything for Windows anyway. For some, this simplicity may not be worth the price, but I hate having to constantly make sure that my virus scanner is up to date, my hard drive is defragged, and researching if I have the latest drivers. Boot time and shut down time is much better and there’s generally easier install. Also, no crapware came installed either on my computer. So it’s just a matter of saving time and simplicity.

    A friend from Japan told me nobody in Japan has a Mac. As for the other question, I think younger people are more susceptible to marketing and Apple has had better marketing than Microsoft. That’s why you see more young people wanting Macs.

  • admin

    Well written. OS X is a prime example of commercializing a stable, free operating system (BSD) that targets the majority of computer users. Yes, I cannot agree more that Windows emulation on Parallels is surprisingly manageable–my next computer may well be a Mac. The initial iBooks and Powerbooks were somewhat underpowered, but now that processing power is almost overkill for everyday use, the MacBooks and MBP’s are quite spiffy.

    That said, I only have a firewall on my Windows partition (no antivirus), and have never had to defrag or worry about common peripherals not malfunctioning. But I also stripped down my Windows XP installation to boot in 45 seconds and purged all unnecessary bloatware. The trade-off was that I spent about 2 hours tinkering with my computer…

    If we engineers can figure out how to keep fingerprints off of shiny new gadgets, our careers would be set…

  • admin

    Well written. OS X is a prime example of commercializing a stable, free operating system (BSD) that targets the majority of computer users. Yes, I cannot agree more that Windows emulation on Parallels is surprisingly manageable–my next computer may well be a Mac. The initial iBooks and Powerbooks were somewhat underpowered, but now that processing power is almost overkill for everyday use, the MacBooks and MBP’s are quite spiffy.

    That said, I only have a firewall on my Windows partition (no antivirus), and have never had to defrag or worry about common peripherals not malfunctioning. But I also stripped down my Windows XP installation to boot in 45 seconds and purged all unnecessary bloatware. The trade-off was that I spent about 2 hours tinkering with my computer…

    If we engineers can figure out how to keep fingerprints off of shiny new gadgets, our careers would be set…

  • http://kitchenfreshblog.blogspot.com Jon

    In addition to the emulation, you can actually create a Boot Camp drive and then also use Parallels / Fusion to have a virual boot of that drive when you’re in Mac OS. That’s come in handy a few times when software won’t work properly in the emulated environment. It may be a slight price to pay but the Macs are great. Also, around back to school time, Apple has been offering free iPods with the purchase of a new laptop. Last year, it was the $300 ipod touch and that helps close the price gap a little.

    I’m impressed you’re able to get away without antivirus software on your PC. Especially with documents in a hospital environment.

    The nice thing about PC’s is the ability to customize everything, and I’ll admit, in the old days that was really nice, but now with time more of a premium, I primarily want something that works well and doesn’t require much trouble.

  • http://kitchenfreshblog.blogspot.com Jon

    In addition to the emulation, you can actually create a Boot Camp drive and then also use Parallels / Fusion to have a virual boot of that drive when you’re in Mac OS. That’s come in handy a few times when software won’t work properly in the emulated environment. It may be a slight price to pay but the Macs are great. Also, around back to school time, Apple has been offering free iPods with the purchase of a new laptop. Last year, it was the $300 ipod touch and that helps close the price gap a little.

    I’m impressed you’re able to get away without antivirus software on your PC. Especially with documents in a hospital environment.

    The nice thing about PC’s is the ability to customize everything, and I’ll admit, in the old days that was really nice, but now with time more of a premium, I primarily want something that works well and doesn’t require much trouble.

  • admin

    Nice. Well, I think the video succeeded in generating talk on the subject. Yet another review: http://is.gd/pO9O, which is somewhat biased toward the Mac.

    I guess the bottom line is buy what you can afford.

  • admin

    Nice. Well, I think the video succeeded in generating talk on the subject. Yet another review: http://is.gd/pO9O, which is somewhat biased toward the Mac.

    I guess the bottom line is buy what you can afford.

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