As much as I love software developers, neither an eye for aesthetics nor user experience do they tend to have even an inkling of. Sure there’s always exceptions, but comparing a Sony Vaio running Windows to a Mac? Really? Really!?

That said, let’s be truly honest for a second. The “I’m a Mac” ads are consistently amusing, but they’re not necessarily more forthright than the Laptop Hunters ones – they tend to rely on generalities and stereotypes about PCs and Macs, except with Macs being framed positively. Any ad that has to distill the complex issue of Macs vs. PCs into a 30 second spot is going to make a lot of oversimplification, and it will always, always be to their own benefit.

Thanks for your comment. I’m a bit puzzled at your overtly bitter dismissal of what is, I believe, a very interesting matter.

If the scores suggested the opposite – that Apple’s ads are influencing customer perception in a disproportionately positive manner right now – would you still consider this discussion “time-wasting of the worst sort”?

I think it’s a legitimate discussion – after all, a big part of Apple’s success is its marketing talent. And one of Microsoft’s greatest weaknesses has, traditionally, been its utter *lack* of marketing acumen.

Furthermore, as any marketing intern in any company anywhere can tell you – the perception of value customers have in your brand/products is crucially important to business. That’s why so much money and time and talent is pumped into managing brand identities; companies devote huge reserves of valuable resources into managing customer expectations (read: “value perceptions”).

If these figures are accurate and representative of what BrandIndex claims, the report might indicate a change that has been a very long time coming, and something of tremendous interest (and even concern) to Apple and its loyal customers.

Hardly what I’d call “blathering” or “useless”.