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”.

Cold hard numbers in sales – preferably during an economic period not skewed as dramatically as current context – is what counts. Sitting back and blathering about what adverts are doing to perceptions is time-wasting of the worst sort unless you’re a flack selling adspace.

Useless.

1. The criteria the shoppers use in the ads strike me as pretty superficial in the sense that they don’t seem to seriously consider the MacBooks at all and jump quickly to Windows laptops.

In fairness, though, complaining about a Mac only having 2GB of RAM can be a valid criticism if a) that model tops out at 2GB, or b) you can upgrade to more memory, but it requires removing all the existing memory (all slots occupied). [Apple is not alone in filling all the memory slots, however.]

2. Shopping for a Windows laptop is a lot more work than shopping for a MacBook. When I’ve bought Windows laptops, it has taken me days (even weeks) to wade through brands, models, and configuration options, all the while trying to manage price. In the end, the Windows laptop cost me as much as a PowerBook/MacBook but is a lot more hassle to buy, configure, and use. They leave that effort out of the MS ads.

3. Price vs. [total] cost is analogous to the market share vs. installed base comparison, except that nobody ever seems to look at installed base numbers. In my experience, Windows machines become unusable after about 3 years, while Macs last considerably longer. So using market share & “mind share” as a basis of comparison seems pretty bogus. (I have a 7 mo. old MacBook Pro, but I’m writing this on a 5 year old PowerBook and still use my 8 1/2 year old iBook for e-mail and photo storage on trips.)

4. The biggest additional expense I’ve encountered by buying Apple laptops is the Windows laptops I’ve been coerced into purchasing for work and/or school (to be “compatible”). With the advent of the Intel Macs and virtual machine software (esp. the free VirtualBox), that problem has gone away; I wish it had happened sooner.

And that is why I only buy Macs. I have a 4-year-old PowerPC that only show’s signs of slowing down when I’ve had it on for weeks at a time. After a fresh reboot, it’s good as new. Even with Photoshop, After Effects and Final Cut Pro running at the same time. Granted that’s with 7GB of RAM, but it’s still an old processor and standard video card.

And you want a way to get Macs cheaper? Do you have a friend or relative that’s in school or a teacher? They can get up to 10% off.

And don’t about forget that extra money you “save”. You still need to buy an AntiVirus and you most likely will get a stripped-down version of Vista at the sub-$1000 price point. There is no stripped down version of Mac OS.