“It seems that Microsoft and AMD have partnered to hand out some nice Christmas presents to select bloggers. Microsoft has reportedly sent out new AMD-equipped Acer laptops in an effort to get prominent bloggers using Microsoft’s new Vista operating system,” Michael Calore blogs for Wired.
Calore writes, “If Microsoft were to give away copies of Vista that would make sense and probably raise no eyebrows at all, but giving away a whole laptop understandably strikes some as little more than bribery… Dan Warne a journalist at APCmag left a comment at the site linked above in which he points out:”
It’s bizarre for one of the world’s largest PR companies, Edelman, to think it could get away with this. Perhaps they don’t know bloggers as well as they thought they did… now that some of the bloggers have disclosed the receipt of the gift, the public knows. Whatever the subtleties of the offer were, it comes across as nothing more than a bribe, and that is a very bad look for Microsoft.
Calore writes, “As Warne says, now that the word is out, expect the negative publicity to be every bit as shrill as the positive which means Microsoft’s PR move may well end up backfiring.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: On which planet are OS-limited Acer laptops festooned with Ferrari logos (hello, 1980’s) running Windows Vista considered “nice Christmas presents?” For the record, we did not receive a free Acer laptop with Windows Vista from Microsoft. Go figure. If we had, we’d have sold it on eBay to some random sucker from the planet Delusional and used the money for a new OS-unlimited MacBook Pro running Mac OS X Tiger.
By the way, if Apple ever sends any bloggers gift MacBooks running Mac OS X Leopard, we’ll let you know and call Apple out for attempted bribery, too. Not sure if we’d be able to force ourselves to send it back if we got one, though. 
Okay, so who’s surprised that Microsoft is seemingly resorting to bribery? And how effective can bribery be when the bribe is the reason for the bribe in the first place?
Oh, look, honey, I got an ugly-ass Acer laptop with a car company logo stuck on it that runs a badly-faked, upside-down and backwards Mac OS X skin atop the same old same old rickety Windows foundation. Joy. Perhaps I’ll blog nice things about it? Are Microsoft’s PR flacks nuts?
Related article:
Bill Gates confronted by glowing Apple logos as every single blogger at meeting uses Macs – December 15, 2006
In some respects, it will be interesting to see whether they can actually buy their way to success. It would be awfully strong evidence of how easily manipulatable people can be. <crossing fingers>
COME TO THINK OF IT, IT’S CERTAINLY NOT THE FIRST TIME, SO HOW MANY OTHER BLOGGERS/PRESS/REVIEWERS THOSE HAVE RECEIVED THIS KIND OF “GIFT” FROM THE LOW MICROSOFT? NO WONDER WE’RE ALL SOMETIMES AMAZED (ANNOYED) AT HOW LOUD THEY PLAY THE DRUMS FOR THE COMPANY’S PRODUCTS…
Isn’t Enderle from the planet Delusional? I always thought it was Remulak.
I think you may have stumbled upon the home world of technology analysts.
If Apple were giving free MacBooks to bloggers, I think the spin would be more positive.
Yeah because spending £10k on bloggers is really going to make Microsoft millions in the long run :rolleyes:
Microsoft doesn’t need good publicity on the net, its MS for god sake.
@Chris
“Just yesterday I was in a Target where the Zune has a prominent spot at the end of an isle while the iPod is in the middle of the isle. You can bet MS is paying for that too. “
In retail that is known as a “Paid End”, its considered the el primo position and companies pay sweet money to get them.
@wyred guy
Speaking of loud, why are you yelling?
>>Oh you silly jealous little Mac fanboys. How you make me laugh.
Get a life.<<
azz0r, We’re supposed to get a life yet you are the one posting to a mac board. Does the expression “Physician, heal thyself” mean anything to you? If not, look it up because I am sure it will be an enlightening experience for you.
“Speaking of loud, why are you yelling?”
It’s so he can hear himself type.
MSter Pusher Man: “Try it, kid. The first one’s free…”
It’s the same old stuff. Give free products to someone using a competing product. Really a non-story, because no matter how much you gripe about it, nothing will come of it. MS was already convicted of these practices on a larger scale and they suffered no real punishment whatsoever.
While Apple will not be affected negatively by this attempt at “PR”, it just shows that MS is incapable of changing it’s ways or thinking up new tactics. Like designing good software.
Glad to see one of the bloggers called em out, though…
MW: How “Low” can you go?
“It’s the same old stuff. Give free products to someone using a competing product. Really a non-story, because no matter how much you gripe about it, nothing will come of it.”
Because there IS no story. it’s commonplace for companies to send people product they want them to review. For MS to send out a hundred or even even a thousand laptops to people they’d like to have play with Vista, use it and comment on it, is chickenfeed in the overall marketing budget.
You find a box with Vista in your mail what do you do? Throw it in a corner figuring you’ll get around to loading it on a machine sooner or later. You get a whole Acer PC set up and ready to go, you probably pull it out of the box and try it.
Seems like MDN’s more then a little bent out of shape that nobody sent them a free Zune, or a free Vista laptop.
Wow, you small percentage of the PC population MacBoys sure are a bitter crowd. Worse than the Linux population which I thought couldn’t be outdone.
If you think Apple has never given away Macs to “bring people aboard” then you are even more dilusional than your posts in response to MS doing it. You are all like crows pecking at fresh roadkill. Sad to see that the best feature of your Mac is posting plain text bashing MS…
omg i didnt believe the logo thing till i saw it
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Actually I find the Acer laptop as one of the best laptops I’ve ever had the pleasure to use. I got it as a gift (affordable AND good looking) and couldn’t put the thing down every since I got it.
It have everything that I need to start college this year, including amazingly fast internet & virtually unlimited hard drive thanks to the built in storage expander.
I honestly have no idea why everyone’s complaining over MS giving away free laptops… and like MicroNix said, I’m sure Apple has done the same numerous times.
God bless you opinionated people but dont you think you should be taking out your rage on other, more important things? like why we’ve been in war for so many years and how it hasnt seem to gotten us anywhere so far? or maybe how the media brain washes us with entertainment so we dont start questioning what is going on with government?
Maybe if there were more people like you on this planet, our country would have enough sense to end this unbeatable war on “terrorism” and instead use the billions of dollars for something a little more useful, like maybe finding a cure for cancer or doing research in stem cell…?
A quick oppinion: if “terrorism” means ‘to cause terror’ then dont you think Bush is the real terrorist by making innocent Americans believe we are in constant threat of our lives?
Dont people understand that we give 3 months worth of salary to the fed. banks.. and there isnt even a single law that requires us to do so? Our government is treating us like slaves to pay off the debt we caused because of the war.
Come on America, wake up and smell the gun powder. Stop wasting away your lives by arguing over pointless matters and lets fight to save what little freedoms we have left.