I'm a Mac, I'm a PC. Well, I'm a consumer and here's what I think
Hi, I'm the consumer
I'm not a textbook consumer but I fully empathise with their target audience but even I find it concerning that Apple are placing such rivalry on entirely different products. There's too much focus on why you should have a Mac over a PC rather than upselling the benefits of it alone and I find that a strange trade off.
It frustrates me when companies focus more on trying to claim advantage over their competitors without actually explaining the benefits of the product.
Mac > PC = pointless argument
They're for different uses and saying that Mac's are more fun is like saying your right foot is more fun than your left. My left foot does things my right doesn't, and vice versa but it doesn't mean one is more fun than the other. Macs are very good at certain things but not limited to fun meaningless tasks. PC's are excellent at everything. It seems folly to pitch them in battle against one another.
As a consumer...
I care about price and performance because I need as much bang per buck as possible and for me that means a PC is the logical option. The build quality of Macs is amazing but you pay a premium for that and I've always found it easier to build a powerful PC for a lot less than it's Apple equivalent. I care about what it does and how much it does it for - and these commercials offer none of this.
As far as I'm concerned they increase brand awareness but offer nothing more than a petty debate which does nothing to tempt me to part with my money. I'm afraid if they explained why getting a Mac was a genuinely good idea then I'd be more tempted. I'm not a spanner, I can use a computer without it getting a virus so marketing it on those grounds is not going to win me over I'm afraid.
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Showing most recent 11 of 11 comments
That’s not ignorance. Most people mean "windows" when they say "PC", Apple was just working with the accepted use of the term.
So much for the idea that Mac users aren’t elitist jerks.
Adding up those minutes would mean precious moments lost for me who, like many others, values time and effort. It’s the little things that add up to big ones.
I guess it all comes down with what you’re willing to pay for.
I’ve used a PC for most of my life and switched to Mac two years ago. I think if I’d known that I would spend less time trying to debug, de-virus and "protect" myself from viruses etc., and actually spend more time doing precious work and lovely play on a mac, I would have made the switch a long time ago.
I’m not a Luddite when it comes to PC, and I’m bordering obsessive compulsive when it comes to getting the latest virus software, firewall protection, etc. And I don’t let anyone else touch my PC.
And yet, for the "bang for the buck" talk, I remember spending too much time in figuring out how to clean my PC of viruses that managed to get through my virus software, and spending more money on supposedly better software. I have also reformatted more times than I care to remember. And this was a high-end PC with supposedly reliable software.
I’m not even going to go into the many times a PC has hung on me after only two to three years of use.
A Mac is not for everyone. A souped-up PC is still the way to go for some designers and film editors, etc. who are skint. And I respect that.
But it is also unfair to say that there is no basis for Apple’s ad re: its edge over a PC.
For me, as a writer and entrepreneur, there’s a BIG edge, and it’s this: I’m willing to pay extra for those precious minutes, even hours, saved when I don’t have to clean a virus or reformat.
I’m willing to pay extra for the security of leaving my mac on for a week or more without having it hang on me.
I’m willing to pay extra for the simplicityand straightforwardness of use and the better interface of a mac. Because frankly, between pursuing my dreams, nurturing lifelong relationships, and helping my family, I hardly have time for much else!
I agree - for poor people PCs will give you more power per pound, but that’s like saying you’d rather get a diesel mondeo than a exciting and fast car... oh sh!t, wait, hehe.... sorry!
i think the mac campaign is just supposed to be a little bit of fun, I rekon apple are more interested in upping brand loyalty rather than earning new customers. either way, i’m sure mac didn’t "forget" anything, they’re a pretty smart bunch of people so whatever they were trying to acheive with these adverts, i rekon they did.
besides, the bulk of the price you’re paying for with a mac is the screen, their entry level machine is the mac mini, £300.... that ain’t sodding bad!!! i use both PCs and Macs and I had to put a lot more money and effort into my uber PC than i did into my Mac Pro to get the same kind of performance. As far as i know stevey you still haven’t had the opportunity to live with, and work around a mac... or is that not true.
Apple have this bizarre way of creating loyalty with their brand, i only really converted about 6 months ago, and Apple have sued me since then, yet I still love what they’re doing. I won’t be buying the iPhone though, plebots missed off the keyboard!!!!
They should advertise Mac’s strengths, not the weaknesses of PC. And another thing, they completely left Linux out of the comparison. It was just PC as Windows and most of the weaknesses were actually Windows’ not PC’s. That shows they’re ignorance and leaves a bad impression.
Alex > I’m glad you agree, I find it surprising that Apple were happy to market a good piece of equipment on the strengths of the MOST basic functionality possible.
"It can do pictures" - well done, so can my mobile phone.
"It doesn’t get viruses!" - nor does my computer, what of it?
Macs have their appeal to a lot of people and I think Apple forgot that this time around.
If you’re buying a built computer, aside from special sales, high end macs are equal in cost or cheaper than their pc counterparts. The things is macs don’t have a cheap entry level like PCs do, so a lot of people miss this point.
I use my mac for everything. I don’t think it’s a specialty device. I honestly use it for even more things than I used a pc for (not that I couldn’t use the pc for the same tasks, the mac just made it easy so why not?)