Apple demanded Microsoft to stop its Laptop Hunters ads

Apple may have publicly responded to Microsoft's Laptop Hunters ads with a counterpunch of its own back in May, but it looks like it may have been singing a slightly different tune behind the scenes more recently, at least according to Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Turner.

Speaking at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference earlier today, Turner said that he knows the ads are working because "two weeks ago we got a call from the Apple legal department saying..

[Blaze929]

Apple Apple Apple. *sigh*

Microsoft was clever with the idea behind these ads, the prices for Macs are ridiculous.

[N4PS3G]

I have a macbook pro and even i admit the prices are ridiculous

[EXCLUSIVEGAMER]

lol, yeah apple really needs to start thinking in a practical manner regarding price/config.

apple: pleez, mr gates, stop pointing out that were overpriced with your commercials!!! pleeeeeeeez!!!

gates: ok, you win...no more commercials. ....well just open windows stores next to your apple stores and do it in person.

WIN/WIN

[RememberThe357]

They can dish it out, but they can't seem to take it.

One of the things I don't like about Apple is that they act like they are doing us a favor buy selling us their crap. I'd rather buy a Vaio lol.

[brianleppez]

For those who can buy them. The same applies with the PS3.
But Apple started pointing out in their ads all the little weaknesses the PCs have. And now Microsoft is pointing out just ONE weak point for MACs, which is the price and is already causing attention. And what I love about the commercial is that Microsoft seems to embrace the "I'm a PC" slogan, pointing out that there's nothing wrong with it.

Props to Microsoft, though I don't always agree with their decisions, these ads are just brilliant.

[EXCLUSIVEGAMER]

with these two american behemoths battling it out, apple will most likely drop their prices and micro will most likely fix their shortcomings.

[Blaze929]

lol you know, funny that you mention the ps3 as an equivalent to macs. Microsoft should start a new ad campaign giving people $200 asking them to go find a current gen console to buy. Not a bad idea actually...

[EpsilonTeam]

Agreed. Why do we keep (and most people) buying them then?

[Thugbot187]

I guess it's ok for Apple to run ads against MS but not for MS to run ads against Apple.

[Boob]

Obviously you don't get it. He brought up Sony's PS3 in an article about Apple and Microsoft. Completely irrelevant and has absolutely no bearing on this article. He obviously is in the wrong place.

[evrfighter]

@Leon

are you lost or something? Unless those craptastic games could be played on a pc or a mac gtfo wrong section...

lol

[MEsoJD]

After all those stupid hey I'm a PC and I'm a Mac ads, Microsoft finally got something to counter and now Apples b1tching about it.

^_^Paybacks a B1tch^_^

[FamilyGuy]

WTF? I havn't seen these commercials until now, that was fvckin epic.
Apple can't stop them from running those just like coke can't stop pepsi.

And in all fairness, it's true. Macs are more expensive.

[derseb]

i think the prices are ok.

you have to take the software into consideration. if you buy a windows machine with the capabilities of the iLife software and so forth, you clearly have to pay more than for the mac.

also, try to find a desktop machine like the imac (size) at dell or another store. you will see they cost almost 1000$ more.

[Tony999Montana]

.. Your all acting like it makes apple look bad.

Have any of you ran a successful business. In a competitive market such as theirs everyone is going to try to gain the upperhand. If Apple can legally make a stand a against an anti-apple advert then what would you expect them to do? It seems that you would rather let Microsoft ignore the law and apple bury their own grave.

[Tarasque]

Quote
"One of the things I don't like about Apple is that they act like they are doing us a favor buy selling us their crap. I'd rather buy a Vaio lol."

I understand there is Sony fanboys but....but...You are kidding right? Surely that lol at the end was sarcasm. Vaio laptops are the highest overpriced turds on the market. Sony's mid level camera's and game machines are great, tv's not too bad but pricey. But the computers are junk.

[MikeGdaGod]

i got the new macbook pro and it was overpriced IMO, but i can afford it.

after having it for a few months now, i really like it and i doubt i'll ever go back to pc, especially with me having VMware Fusion on it. i got the best of both worlds.

[Tito Jackson]

cry me a river, build me a bridge, and then get the f*ck over it.

[raztad]

Apple laptops are way overpriced. I got a high end Sony Vaio including BD playback/burner and it cost me much less than the roughly equivalent MacBookPro with only DVD playback/burner.

[lokiroo420]

Apple is a bunch of biatches,M$ needs to keep showing off those sony laptops, lmao.

[kewlkat007]

I mean I like to buy new toys and such but it's not like it's going to be my main machine so why spend so much money on it?

I'm sure apple can find all sorts of reason to justify it's huge profit margins...but MS did what they had to do. Only the matter of time.

Don't you love capitalism/competition...

[f789790]

After your I'm a mac and I'm a pc ads, why wouldn't Microsoft counter?

[njr]

Macbooks are good, I just don't understand the reasoning behind the price. Seriously, they shouldn't charge that much for style.

[Lifendz]

It's a Mac book pro and even with the education discount it was almost double what I would've paid for a PC. The only reason I went with a Mac is because almost everyone I know that has one has had no problems with it and I'm pretty sick of the blue screen of death.

But on topic: I thought the MS ads were genius. Apple wants to portray Windows owners and chubby nerds while Mac owners are slim young people so why can't MS fight back by showcasing it's biggest advantage over a Mac: the price.

In a way, this situation between MS and Apple is very similiar to the one with MS and Sony. Price is a big advantage to the average person.

[shovelbum]

The ads are just fine. I'm a recent (under 2 years) Mac convert and while I mostly love the product, it is overpriced like all Apple merchandise. However you get what you pay for with them. No issues whatsoever since I gave my Dell laptop to my daughter and picked up a Macbook Pro for me and an iMac for the den. Same complaints with my iPhones (4 total for family). We love them but it's a steep price to pay initially and monthly but it's definitely worth it.

[Kakkoii]

@brianleppez:

You mean the weakness's that both Mac's and PC's actually have, but Apple skews to try and make it look like it's only a PC problem? Or the problems that are only a result of PC's being a huge install base, while Mac's install base is still quite small.

Mac's are like designer handbag's, the handbag's are made in cheap foreign factories just like cheap handbags, but the label on it makes it oh soo expensive :P.

[cherrypie]

I think everyone agrees, Apple is a high-priced fashion brand.

Nothing more.

If you want unix, get LINUX or run FreeBSD -- after all, OSX is merely a FreeBSD fork.

It never ceases to amaze me why people pay $130 every 14-16 months for a service pack for their over-priced hardware. Absolute suckers.