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Why would Apple, if they are really serious about being a serious threat to M'soft, keep putting up losers in their advertising? Mainstream America, especially mainstream business America, is never going to regard Steve's followers as serious if they all look like Steve.

These new ads are targetted at everyone BUT business users. The ads make business users come off looking less serious thatn the home user.

i like the new ads a lot, but i would have liked to see screen shots of os x or ilife in action - show, rather than just tell....

I noticed the same thing as Wondering. No matter how much a dufus the PC guy, the point is the Mac guy looks like someone with nothing else to do but play with his unit.

Just Wondering,

Apple is not going after the business market. The ads tell you Apple's target market: young consumers. Without much advertising or targeting, the business market will come last to the Mac - eventually forced to do so by their own employees.

Watch and see.

Come on guys, mainstream TV ads are not for CIOs and IT directors. They are for consumers. Ever notice the Microsoft TV ads? They are about home computing, too. Business ads make sense in Businessweek, Forbes, InformationWeek, etc.

I'd just like to SAY that I think the Mac ads are a step in the right direction.

The Mac is "Think Different" and the "Mac dude" looks like someone who isn't into conformity ("PC world").

Apple isn't looking for 90% of the PC market - but moving from 4% to 12% woudl tripple the penetration.

I think 12% of computer users would relate better (or prefer to atleast) to "Mac dude" than "PC world").

After watching these ads a few times, I think they are brilliant, and will do a great job. Hopefully Apple really hammers them to the point almost everyone sees every ad.

Davidlow, this MDN post is all about Business - stock market and all that suggests. Everybody not in business who is interested in Macintosh already has one or more and will, like the dutiful followers they are, buy another as soon as they can put the coin together. The point is, this ad campaign is not going to entice any switchers - the Mac guy is not someone they want to identify with. Look at him.

Just Wondering: You are so right. They should have used someone more believable, smart and classy.

[url="http://images.usatoday.com/life/gallery/pinups/dell.jpg
"]Like this guy.[/url]

I don't know why my html keeps screwing up! Dang it.
And yes, I was just kidding.


MW: members, as in Members Only.

No new Mac buyers from these ads. Reinforces the base, that's all. Market share remains in single digits now and forever unless Apple gets serious. Hey, it's fine with me if they don't - I love what we have. Just hope it isn't going away.

I liked them at first, and after a few repeats they were even better.
I hope they use them in the rest of the English speaking world - i.e. Canada, Australasia, the UK and Ireland.

The ads are obviously targeted at the coveted 18-35 age group. Madison Avenue long ago figured out that by 35 or so, most buying habits and brand loyalties have been established for a lifetime. Those 18-35 are more likely to be swayed by advertising in general and are more receptive to what is new, hot or 'hip'.

Apple lost the battle for the Baby Boom Generation when Windows 95 launched and Apple couldn't ship a new OS until OS X came out years later. During that critical time the computer went from a segment of the population to an almost universally adopted device. Apple had high cost machines that were arguably as crash happy & virus prone as Windows while costing more and being far less available. Steve Jobs, prior to coming back to Apple, said that Apple had blown a 10-15 year lead in operating systems. Apple needed OS X and the mini in 1995-1996 and flat missed the boat. If these people get Macs it will be as a gift from their kids or something.

""These new ads are targetted at everyone BUT business users. The ads make business users come off looking less serious thatn (sic) the home user.""

Maybe Apple is showing that pleasure before business can be a good thing.

I too would like to see OS X in action in a cool ad set to music. Expose, Dashboard, Genie, Fast User Switching, etc. What I hated about the old OS/2 ads was that they never showed what they were talking about, just showed people talking about it. I wanted to know what OS/2 looked like, and the ads didn't give me that. Apple's "switch" campaign made the same mistake. While this is better than "switch", I think nothing gets through to average consumers like pretty eye candy.

The problem is not the images of these guys. It's the lies about not crashing, always working, problem free, etc.

If the claims were true, why are we told over and over and over to clean caches, rebuild permissions, trash pref files, restart, backup, be careful, and don't do anything out of the ordinary. Pretty much the same instructions that come with every PC.

Other than virus immunity (which we are losing) what's the difference?

I'm holding off on any opinions for a while. Since Apple has almost NEVER advertised the Mac, anything seems like a huge monumental success.

For the last 2+ years, posters here have been divided into two camps. 1) Show OS X and how it works, show what it can do. 2) Showing screen shots is boring and will never work to sell something complicated liike an OS.

The new ads seem to satisfy both sets to a degree. They do highlight some advantages of the OS. AND They do it with out boring screen shots. The actors make the tech stuff more ... wel, human for lack of a better term.

The ads will make alot of people think about things like, Macs have fewer (no) viruses, What if there was a computer that didn't freeze? What if there was a commputer that was easier to use, and just worked?

Its a great start to build mind share and awareness. I hope in 12-18 moths from now Apple will bust loose and actually promote products to capitalize on the mindshare and convert it into some cold hard marketshare.

To Lies and More lies..

I dunno. I used a pc all throughout college. I got the blue screen of death on a daily basis. It was kind of the norm for everyone else too. I even had the advantage of father who was an IT guy. I finally had it when the system somehow got a corruption that destroyed my thesis ONE WEEK before I had to defend. It managed to infect every back up copy I had, including ones saved on disks. Don't know what happened... didn't really care. All that mattered was I had a shitload of work to redo in one week. I switched to an iBook and can count the times I've had to restart due to a crash on one hand.. And that was like six or seven years ago. Compared to that pc, my Mac is completely hassle/worry free.

The difference is, when was the last time you had a kernel panic with a Mac. You know, something that made you have to actually power-off the machine and reboot it because the computer is locked up?

For me, its been about 3-4 times in the last 3 years, with 3 different Macs.

Sure apps crash, but the OS doesn't.

On the other hand my Windows PC locked up yesterday and had to be reset, and thats common about every one or two weeks for me.

Thats the difference.

Okay, you complainers (about the Apple ads). I don't know about you, but PC users are well-aware of the problems that they deal with every single day.

Unless you've been living under a rock, over the last year or so, we have been bombarded by AOL ads showing how dangerous the world is without AOL, with bewildered and befuddled users being bombarded by spam and viruses.

Best Buy has been heavily promoting the idea that PCs constantly crash and burn at the most inopportune times with their Geek Squad tech service.

Yet, not one peep about how "insulting" these AOL and Best Buy ads are towards PC users, considering they make out the average person as a pathetic figure just dying to fork over money to be rescued from the multitude of Windows problems.

Consider that when viewing the new Apple ads because, as it turns out, many PC users already agree life pretty much sucks on their side of the fence. That's who these ads are targeting, not Mr. I.T. or Joe Gamer who hates Macs with a deliberate (if uninformed) passion.

"Lies and More Lies"

Your so full of shit your eyes are brown and your blind, keep your FUD to yourself you MS Troll aka Microsoft Windows Butt Monkey Lemming Ignorant Fan Dork.

Rise my phoenix, RISE!!!

Crush thy enemies and make the Redmond microserfs shite their pants in mortal fear of their lives!!

KILL KILL KILL!!!

I would like to see the secret market surveys done by Apple and others that say Windows users want to switch to Apple.
I really doubt many want to. They may want a better Windows computer, but they don´t want to switch to an unknown.
Apple has been around for 30 years, tons of press, the Apples stores are great marketing tools, OS is great....but yet Apple market share barely budges.
Are there just as many Apple people switching to Windows as Windows to Apples?
For all Apples effort its market share barely improves.
---------

The only way Apple share will grow significantly is if some major calamity happens to Microsoft - whatever that may be. Once markets and routines are established they never change unless some major 3rd party outside interference intercedes.

Re: Lies and More Lies

I can count the number of times I've had to do those maintenance tasks on OS X on one hand. And most of those times were on pre-Tiger releases.

But nevermind that. Microsoft advertises a lot. I have yet to see any screenshots of Windows in action. I see lots of "Where do you want to go today" and "People Ready" slogans though. The new Mac ads are at least as good as that. Actually, they're better--everyone who has ever used Windows knows the truth expressed in the new ads. What they don't know is that the Mac is different. To the uninformed all computers are the same. The new ads make it clear that's not the case.

"Virus" and "Digital Camera" are the most effective, IMHO.

Lies and More Lies - I agree. Crashing Mac OS9 is when our family bought our first Windows computer.
We have bought 4 more since. No problems with the XPs.

Truth: are you the Mac guy in the ad? You are just what I think of when I hear Macintosh.

I rest my case.

You are why we are doomed - no real reply to the critics, just bombastic bullsh**.

Sorry, Lies & More Lies. We are not all such losers.

What utter nonsense from Winnie P. See and Lies and More Lie.

All of us who have had years with PC's know it is utterly unreliable. OSX is COMPLETELY reliable. The odd app will have a hissy fit and have to shut down. OSX will only crash if there's a hardware fault. It IS rock solid. So you poor Godforsaken Windows defenders really should look to switch because the arguments are being won today - by Apple.

Macaday - I own Macs and PCs. I have no problems with XP. Never had a virus, never a crash, no problems at all. The oldest PC is 4 years old, the newest 2 years old. Networked to Macs and everything else on the internet.
No problems with Macs, No problems with PCs.
I like my Macs, I like my PCs.
I don´t try to hyperventilate and scream that one is better than the other. Both are fine.
I am more concerned about the software I use them - Photoshop, Maya, Illustrator, and others. Now there´s where I wish there was more development.

Own Mac and PC -- Yaah, I can write things on BBS's too. Big deal. You sound like someone who stays on top of all the maintenance you need to do to a typical PC. Guess what? Most average users don't. And can't.

There's no way you can honestly say that a Mac needs as much babying and preventive maintenance as a PC. No way.

Good thing I just bought 3

For everyone who seemingly wants to have an Apple infomercial and hate the new ads (what a shock that is) you need to consider that these ads are very simple and deliver a basic concept that is easy for people to take in and understand. More people will realize that you can run Office on a Mac by hearing those two people talk about it than if they showed a screenshot of it.

It's delivering a basic concept and the new ads do it very well.

Macromancer is right about basic concept and good point about people hearing that Macs run Office. I get asked about this when talking about Macs ALL the time.

And for everyone talking about screenshots and eye candy, I think those are great, but I don't think they would be good in an ad. Again, the concept is people just want a computer that actually works and does what they want.

Many people won't see the usefulness in something like Expose and how it can show you all 20 windows you have open and find the one you want. If anything it might confuse them.

Flaccus - "...someone who stays on top of all the maintenance you need to do to a typical PC."

What is all the maintenance one has to do with a PC?

I just turn my computers on.
There are Windows updates, but I have it set up that they automatically do it themselves without my involvement. Norton Anti-Virus does its thing without my involvement.
Tip to all you Mac owners installing Windows: Using Firefox instead on IE browser is the way to avoid any nasty things coming into the computer.

Flaccus - I suggest you put Windows XP on your new Mactel. You will be surprised at how fast it runs compared to OSX and you can judge for yourself all the maintenance problems you don´t have. If you don´t like it - delete!

Yes, Apple will stay profitable and Apple will stay a niche player in the market.

Once markets are established and mature it takes a very unusual event or third party force to change the market. And with with Apple having 3% vs. 97% for the other sides, Apple will be happy to increase its market share up a point or two.

What would change the market to favor Apple? Lets say that Apple brought out a new processor that was 4-5 times as fast and half the heat and half the cost as the competition - then Apple would shift lots of market share around. Unfortunately, Apple has now joined on the Intel bandwagon and its internals are now the same as its Windows competitors.
Another shift would be if Bill Gates suddenly resigned or some governemental action severely limited Microsoft - but this is unlikely. Apple is more dependant on its CEO than the behemouth Microsoft.

So Apple fans forget the market share scramble, just be happy with your Apple products and use them to make some really fun and creative things.