Beyond Binary

Microsoft's latest anti-Apple campaign continues to draw fire, a sure sign that the company has finally at least gotten in the game.

The latest critique comes from BusinessWeek's Arik Hesseldahl. Hessedahl points out that the sticker price of the laptop is just the start of the comparison and suggests it is the Windows computer, rather than the Mac, that is loaded with hidden costs.

Microsoft, of course, made the opposite claim with it's "Apple Tax" return, which argued that owning a pair of Macs costs thousands more than two PCs over their lifetime.

And although I was the first to call Microsoft out for its faulty math, I will also say this. The fact that Microsoft was able to get people fired up shows that Microsoft has at least found the right area to focus its energies.

Until now, its 7-month-old Windows advertising campaign has been a rambling affair, shifting quickly from one disparate subject to another, from Seinfeld's shoes to cute little kids. In fact, one of the only things that the campaign's early pieces had in common was the fact that none were the kind of thing that would generate much real discussion on the issues.

That hasn't been the case since Microsoft shifted to its "laptop hunter" ads which focus directly on costs. Whether you agree or disagree with Microsoft's math, we are all finally talking about the relative costs of a Windows PC versus a Mac.

Even Apple has chosen to weigh in on Microsoft's latest claims. In a statement, Apple notes that "millions of people have switched to Mac because they love the security, stability, and power that comes with world-class hardware and amazing software that just works, right out of the box."

It puts its own spin on the price issue.

"A PC is no bargain when it doesn't do what you want," Apple said.

Let the games go on. At a minimum, this should be fun to watch.

With three genuine installments on the Web, it's naturally time for the parodies of Microsoft's "laptop hunter" ads to start rolling in.

The first one I've seen is from LandlineTV. It features Frank, a homeless guy with $1,000 to spend on a laptop.

Frank's first stop is the Apple store.

"These are beautiful," he says, spotting a MacBook Air that is "so thin" but costs $1,700.

"What can I get for $1,000?" Frank asks. Eventually, he winds up in front of a Windows PC.

"Windows Vista Home Premium...This is (BS)," Frank says.

"Is this plastic?" he asks, before noting that the computer has "second-rate Korean components."

In the end, he uses the Windows laptop to cover his face while sleeping on the street. I've embedded the video below, but you should click play only if you don't mind some coarse language, partial nudity, and complete PC bashing.

Microsoft, for its part, declined to comment on the parody. As for Landline, it is a three-person outfit that has been doing Web video since September. Among its earlier videos was one called "Hockey Moms for Truth."

"We're sort of a Saturday Night Live meets the Twitter Age," CEO Jared Neumark said in an e-mail interview. Neumark said the company aims to crank out about two videos per week.

Microsoft and technology analyst Roger Kay have made a couple of changes to their charts outlining the "Apple Tax," but the update does little to address broader critiques of their math.

On Monday, Microsoft noted that it has updated both Kay's white paper and the accompanying blog post and chart to reflect the fact that both failed to take into account Apple's latest hardware specifications. The new paper and chart use slightly different models on the PC side.

However, the main points I (and others) made last week regarding Microsoft's bad math haven't changed. Kay's report (and Microsoft's accompanying tax return) still put charges in the Mac column that they fail to account for on the PC side when it comes to both software and services.

Suggesting that users can just bring their old copy of Office and Quicken--and that they won't need to upgrade over the five-year life of their new PC--assumes a lot. It's particularly laughable as Kay and Microsoft add in a charge for updating iLife on the Mac side.

On the services side, Microsoft had a fair point of AppleCare being more than Dell's basic three-year warranty. But then it threw in all kinds of other services, such as in-store training and the optional MobileMe service to again lose credibility.

I mean, really, one could have added (as several readers suggested) the five-year cost of antivirus software only to the PC side as well as a one-time charge for removing crapware from the PC. Personally, I'd recommend antivirus software for both the Mac and the PC, although clearly Windows users have had greater need of it to date.

Microsoft's assault on Apple is continuing, as the software maker is ready with the third in its "Laptop Hunter" series of Windows ads.

This time it's a mom and kid in search of an entertainment notebook. Guess, what? They go with a PC--a Sony this time. And, instead of going to Fry's, they hit Best Buy.

Otherwise, it's pretty much the same thread as the earlier spots, though this time Microsoft once again plays the kid card.

Microsoft had said when it launched the "Lauren" spot that there would be several ads along the same theme.

The new spot comes just as the company has made its latest "Apple Tax" claim online, an argument I argue overstates their case.

I'm sure the new ad will be on TV soon, but here it is via YouTube.

Microsoft puts forth a 'tax return' showing the cost difference between a Windows PC or Mac purchase. However, CNET News' Ina Fried suggests auditors take a close look at the itemized deductions.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft is back touting the "Apple Tax" that it says Mac buyers are paying, this time filling out a fake tax return listing all of what it claims are the extra costs of opting for Windows' leading rival. But I'd argue that this time Microsoft is in danger of being audited.

The document, posted on Microsoft's Windows Blog on Thursday, compares the cost of a PC and Mac purchase, making the case that buyers can save more than $3,000 in buying two Windows PCs as opposed to two Macs. The "tax return" is based on a Microsoft-paid-for white paper (PDF) from technology analyst Roger Kay.

While I don't take issue with Microsoft's basic point that Macs can be more expensive, the assumptions in the white paper and the blog strike me as suspect.

Kay looks at the five-year cost of buying the two machines and making a series of upgrades along the way, as well as buying certain software and services.

The paper assumes we are talking about Windows switchers who already have two licenses to Quicken and Microsoft Office, so Kay adds $70 and $149 for the Mac side and assumes zero cost on the PC side. Even if that were true, that makes the assumption that users would not want to upgrade their software.

But Kay makes a different assessment when it comes to Apple's iLife, which is included in the cost of a new Mac. In his five-year cost analysis, Kay adds a $99 upgrade of iLife in year three, something that is optional, rather than mandatory.

On the services side, Kay adds a three-year warranty to the PC and AppleCare on the Mac side. AppleCare is somewhat more than Dell's warranty. Fair enough.

Then, Kay also includes Apple's one-on-one, in-store consulting service, for which there is no PC parallel. One could even argue that the PC buyer should have to add in a cost for the Geek Squad service that removes crapware from a Windows machine.

The analysis also includes Apple's definitely pricey, but also totally optional MobileMe service. Although Microsoft has its free Windows Live services on the Windows side, cost-conscious Mac users can also use a variety of free services from Google, Yahoo, or even Microsoft itself.

I talked to Roger Kay about the analysis he did, which was commissioned by Microsoft. Kay said he had already shaved from his analysis some of the costs that were presented to him by Microsoft.

"If there's a couple more in there, I wouldn't be surprised," he said, referring to my quibbles. "If I found another $500 (in savings) it wouldn't change things much."

On the hardware side, Microsoft has its clearest case of being cheaper, but again, Kay and Microsoft overplay their hand. For a desktop on the Mac side, Kay goes with Apple's professional Mac Pro desktop. Now, to be fair, there aren't a lot of Mac models to choose from, but the far less costly iMac is really the company's only consumer desktop line.

"You could have chosen another machine," Kay said. But with PCs, he said, you get to shop around. "That particular piece of the economics seems to hold up pretty well."

Microsoft first started touting this idea of an Apple Tax in an interview last October. I'd argue, as I have, that the tax exists, but it is one that the average buyer knowingly pays for what they perceive as the differences between the PC and Mac experiences. In any case, the economic differences, while large, aren't as big as Kay and Microsoft make them out to be in this study.

Belkin's new $50 cable aims to make the PC-to-Mac move even easier.

(Credit: Belkin)

Back in 2006, Microsoft was only too happy to tout a cable from Belkin that made it easier to move from XP to Vista. It even gave away the devices as part of its CES press kits.

However, a new twist on that cable is likely to get a far chillier reception in Redmond.

While Belkin's original USB cable--the Easy Transfer Cable--was aimed at moving from XP to Vista, its latest product is aimed at those moving to a Mac.

The $50 Switch-to-Mac cable "automatically moves your music, movies, photos, files, and Internet preferences" from a Windows machine over to a shiny new Mac. It works with either XP or Vista on the PC side and either Tiger or Leopard on the Mac as far as Macs go.

There's obviously other ways to move files and make the switch, but if this cable works as smoothly as the XP-to-Vista one did, it's likely to make life easier for switchers.

As for Microsoft, it declined to comment on Belkin's announcement.

While acknowledging Microsoft is in a tough spot in trying to recast Windows after years of attacks from Apple, one ad executive said she is highly skeptical of Microsoft's new approach.

Ad agency CEO Kathy Sharpe said that casting the PC guy as a victim doesn't work for her.

Microsoft's latest ad, which starts running tonight, features a Microsoft employee who looks very much like the PC guy from the Apple ads, saying "I'm a PC and I've been made into a stereotype."

"Casting Microsoft as a victim still doesn't work for me," said Kathy Sharpe, CEO of New York-based interactive ad firm Sharpe Partners. "They aren't victims. Apple just is smarter about this sort of thing."

The PC guy in Microsoft's ads, by the way, is Sean Siller, who has been with Microsoft since 2005 and works as a senior program manager for networking in the Windows Core Operating System Division.

Sharpe said she does like the notion of showing the PC as diverse and used in many different ways, suggesting potential if that's where the campaign goes from here.

Sharpe was also skeptical that Microsoft really intended to end the Seinfeld bit so abruptly. She said that if, as Microsoft said, it didn't film more Seinfeld ads, it's probably because the first ads tested poorly. Microsoft insists that the shift was always part of the plan and the initial ads were simply an "ice-breaker."

Whatever the case, Sharpe said the Seinfeld bits clearly missed their mark.

"The first two ads and their variants were a very expensive way to build buzz--and not necessarily positive buzz," she said. "I don't know who they thought they were targeting in those ads."

Sharpe suggested that what Microsoft needs to be doing is appealing to the under-30 set, which she said is a tall order given how many of them carry iPods or iPhones and perceive Apple as cool.

And Apple's "Mac vs. PC" ads have been very effective, she said.

"Somehow the Mac always wins but they do so charmingly," Sharpe said. "It's just a very well done campaign."

If you want more from CNET News' Ina Fried, check out her Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/inafried or follow her @inafried.

Microsoft's new ads begin with company employee Sean Siller saying "I'm a PC and I've been made into a stereotype."

(Credit: Microsoft)

After two weeks of running a series of ads with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates that left many people scratching their heads, Microsoft's latest spots take direct aim at the Apple ads that have turned Windows into a punch line.

"I'm a PC and I've been made into a stereotype," says Microsoft employee Sean Siller, who looks a whole lot like John Hodgman, the actor who plays the PC in Apple's ads.

The spot then goes on to have other people say that, they too are PCs, including an Obama blogger, a McCain broadcaster, actress Eva Longoria, a school teacher, and a fish salesman, among others. (My favorite is a guy standing near cows saying "I turn No. 2 into energy.")

Bill Gates does make a cameo, saying "I'm a PC and I wear glasses." The ads will debut later Thursday on NBC's The Office.

The purpose, Microsoft says, is to show that Windows is part of a common language uniting people around the globe.

The software maker is counting on the massive ad push to help improve Windows' image. The campaign is expected to last beyond this year and spending has been estimated at around $300 million.

Microsoft will also run print ads focusing on the notion of "Windows without Walls" and "Windows: Life without walls"--notions that Microsoft expects to use for years to come. A series of print and outdoor ads shows a single image split across multiple desktop, laptop and Windows Mobile phones, aiming to show Windows as an experience that spans many devices.

Another facet of the campaign tries to play up the notion that Windows works across multiple devices, from desktop PC, to laptop, to phone.

(Credit: Microsoft)

In an interview, Microsoft VP Brad Brooks said Thursday that the new ads are aimed at making sure the story of real Microsoft employees and customers get told.

"So far the story that has been told about Windows over the past couple years has been very negative," Brooks said. "It's just not true."

Despite some reports to the contrary, Brooks insists the plan was always to shift away from the Seinfeld-centered ads. He said that the company did not film any other spots with Seinfeld.

That is consistent with what Brooks told me in an initial conversation a couple weeks ago, though I must say the shift in conversation seems quite abrupt with little connection between the first ads and the new pitch.

"Hey that's fair feedback," Brooks said. "We'll work from that."

As for whether it got the value of the reported $10 million it spent to hire Seinfeld, Brooks had several things to say.

"We spent nowhere near $10 million for Jerry," Brooks said. "We've got options with Jerry and we consider Jerry to be a very good friend of Windows and Microsoft. Right now, we are entering a new phase, but it's not to say we might not bring back (Seinfeld). We've got our options open with Jerry."

Brooks said to expect the "I'm a PC" notion to run for some time, being joined by a Web push that will go live at Windows.com tonight and invite users to tell their own "I'm a PC" story, some of which will be made into online advertisement.

"We're definitely not afraid of the truth," he said. "The problem is it just hasn't been told."

Brooks cited surveys that show 89 percent satisfaction among Vista users. However, I must say, he also quoted a statistic that 78 percent of people liked the Jerry Seinfeld-Bill Gates spots.

The print portion of Microsoft's new ad campaign characterizes the Mac vs. PC debate as an epic struggle between "Windows vs. Walls".

(Credit: Microsoft)