Also remember that Apple sells computers but Microsoft sells software. Similar but different. (Think Different:)

Personally I use both Windows software and Apple hardware/software.

The Mac Pro hardware is the best designed computer hardware I’ve ever used. It’s physical construction reminds me of the military avionics hardware I worked on when I was a technician in the USAF.

On the other hand, last week I finally broke down and bought an iPod Nano. Now I’m locked into the straight jacket that is called iTunes and have to jump though hoops to get the podcasts loaded onto the Nano because their not listed on iTunes.

OSX beats Windows, hands down in reliability and ease of use but XP is really not too bad. I’ve resisted any upgrade to Vista so far.

I don’t like the business practices of either Apple or Microsoft. Neither do I care for what I’ve read about Gates and Jobs.

So I only watch the advertising for its entertainment value. It has no influence on my buying decisions.

http://www.google.com/products?q=“leather+giraffe”

Personally i see myself switching to linux in the not too distant future…i mean its free.

There are so many free (Linux, Google Docs)or cheaper (Max OS)or better (XP) services that Vista only gets taken up when it is bundled as monopoly with new PCs.

The price of windows relative to the hardware of a new PC is now way too high. I recently bought a new 2 Gig PC tower for $350 and XP was an additional $130 ie nearly half the price of the hardware. Vista was even more expensive so I gave it short shrift (lets not even go into its shortcomings). Even in software you can now buy the entire Corel Office suite for $99 which makes Windows and especially MS Office look outrageously overpriced.

If MS want to stay competitive they will need to sell Vista and Office bundled together for $99 which is a huge price and profit margin drop. But if they don’t within a couple of years free services like Linux and Google Docs will soon eat them alive and even sooner if Windows 7 is not a vast improvement over Vista and much cheaper.

First establish that the identity of your audience is in question. “I’ve been made into a stereotype.” While this is just untrue, Hodgeman’s character is an anthropomorphism not a stereotype, the lie is needed to shift the context from criticism of an inanimate object to a question of personal identity; the users’.

Second establish the vulnerable point in the targets self-esteem. “I am not what most people would call hip.” While I have no idea what that objectively has to do with being a ‘PC’, it focuses attention on the insecurity many feel about how socially accepted they are, and lays the groundwork for suggesting a source of attack on that vulnerability.

Third insinuate specific, concrete attacks on personal self worth. “I wear glasses” from three different ‘PC’s’. Now nowhere have PC users been attacked for wearing spectacles, but the implication is clear, your perceived worth is under assault. “People like us wear glasses, people like us are stereotyped as not hip.”

The “I wear jeans” (’I'm cool, no really’) and “I have a beard” (just bizarre) elements aren’t as strong but lead into the next phase.

Fourth present a palliative associated with PCs. “I have three rings” and “I have one ring” seem ridiculously unrelated to any advantage to be gained by using a PC. Did the PC bat for the baseball player, did the woman in the lounge chair get her husband on an internet dating service? But wait, they are PCs and you as the target audience, you use PCs, you can feel validated by their accomplishments!

Finally present yourself as the champion of the injured identity. Poor fools buy Windows boxes and give money to Microsoft to feel better about themselves. “Take that Apple! Microsoft doesn’t hate me because I am nearsighted! Here $51 billion company take my discretionary income!”

@Frank, basic parasitology, the host is the one the parasite leeches off. You must have meant “Microsoft was hosted by pioneers of this new technology age.” But you are right about the world being the way it is today because of Microsoft.

What is MSFT announcing over the last few weeks, other than: “Can’t you just like us anyway, even though we’ve done so little of use/value with all of the money you gave us for the past 13 years?”

That is the true problem with a monopolist: Not that they make boat-loads of money (I think it’s great that MSFT made plenty), but that they are holding back progress, that they are holding back everyone else and even themselves, that the money is ultimately not put to its highest and best uses.

But I digress, back to the marketing aspect of this:

It’s doubtful that Microsoft can shed the associations (archetypes, etc.) that have been forming in the consumers’ minds for about two decades.

Just ask IBM: They’ve had a lot of little humorous ads out over the last few years (most recently with Disney characters drawn into corporate server room live action!).

So ask yourself: Do you think of IBM as hip and funny?

Microsoft has tried in the past to bring in “The Loyalist” archetype in its marketing before (MS Office as your buddy brand at work, etc.), and it never really worked too well, because their association with “The Powerbroker” archetype is so entrenched. This latter fact BTW explains why they do so well in the B2B (Business-To-Business) realm, because “The Powerbroker” is something virtually every business person understands.

Get more branding details here:
http://businessmindhacks.com/post/microsofts-new-seinfeld-ads-can-they-turn-their-branding-on-a-dime

At the same time, if you compare the business model of Microsoft Vista vs. the Ubuntu one (for example), it’s too clear that sooner or later the Windows rule will come to an end.

Microsoft, one of the most lucrative monopolies ever, however, is no insurgent. Its enemy is smaller, cooler, better liked, more nimble, more creative and more aligned with users. So Microsoft has to not only show “it’s OK to use Windows” but tell us why it’s better and show us a goal that we can all identify with that the enemy cannot provide.

Microsoft “I’m a PC” ads are channeling Apple’s “Crazy Ones”
http://counternotions.com/2008/09/19/crazy-ones/

If you’re against me, then you’re against my users. Bush used the same line on critics of the war, calling them critics of the troops. Are the savvy, “influencer” computer users that blind to this tactic? We’ll see…

The Microsoft commericals have basically said to the world…’hey, the PC stereotype is wrong…don’t forget that PCs connect people around the world.”

I think most people are smart enough to realize that Macs do that too.

Not to mention that the whole point of the Apple ads are that Macs do everything PCs do… but they do it better..and they remind us that Vista sucks, btw.

Microsoft doesn’t seem to have an answer to that. They can’t do that because they would be acknowledging that point in the process if they did.

I think they have, but ignoring the Microsoft commercials when have you ever heard “I’m” and “PC” together? Search for “PC” and there’s no Apple in sight.