“Microsoft wants you to buy PCs because they’re cheaper than Apple products, not because they’re better machines,” Farhad Manjoo writes for Slate.

“Until recently, both Apple and Microsoft have shied away from the price fight. In its ‘I’m a Mac/I’m a PC’ ads, Apple avoids mentioning its machines’ higher prices; instead, it takes on Windows’ shortcomings. The implication is that if you go for a PC to save money, you’ll get what you pay for. I’ve been chronicling Microsoft’s evolving marketing strategy for a few months, and I’ve been mainly critical. The ‘Mojave Experiment,’ which tricked people into trying Vista, didn’t exactly inspire confidence in the operating system’s standalone merits. And its last big campaign, featuring an ethnically diverse lot declaring that they were PCs, came off as the company trying too hard to be cool,” Manjoo writes. “Now Microsoft has taken off the gloves.”

Direct link to video via YouTube here.

“Predictably, Mac partisans have found much to criticize in the spot. They say it appears staged, and they note that Lauren is an actress. Plus, they insist she’ll regret buying that cheapo machine—it’s terribly slow, has old-model parts, meager battery life, weighs a ton, is packed with annoying trial software, and features Windows Vista Home, the most basic version of Microsoft’s operating system,” Manjoo writes.

“And that suggests the danger here for Microsoft. In the short run, its strategy makes some sense… But it’s a terrible strategy for the long term. What happens when the economy improves? …By selling people lots of cheap Windows PCs now, Microsoft risks cementing the idea that PCs are cheap,” Manjoo writes. “By focusing only on price, Microsoft is telling us only one thing about the Windows logo: It’s what you look for when you’re settling.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers "dslarsen" and "Dan Y" for the heads up.]