“Apple on PC market share with a newly posted Canadian page trying to steer buyers away from desktop and notebook Macs,” Electronista reports.
“The ‘Do the Math’ site tries to play on stereotypes of Macs always costing more by showing Windows 7 PCs that are supposedly either cheaper or offer more features for a comparable price,” Electronista reports. “Some comparisons are valid, though the comparisons ignore like real-world battery life, where Apple usually comes out on top, and the greatly reduced need to use security software.”
Electronista reports, “The comparison, however, openly tries to deceive buyers when comparing the MacBook Air. It pits the 11-inch Air against netbook-class systems that are much slower and bulkier. While they have advantages in price and raw storage capacity, the comparison deliberately sidesteps performance, including graphics and the impact of the SSD in the Mac.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Desperation breeds lies. Let’s all really “do the math” by clicking here: Enterprise Desktop Alliance: Apple Macs cost a lot less than Windows PCs to manage (March 09, 2010). Okay, now let’s do some more math: How many related articles are listed below and what do they tell you?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple dominates PC Mag Readers’ Choice Awards: Wins notebooks, desktops, phones, PMPs, and Wi-Fi – September 8, 2010
Apple Mac desktops, notebooks, iPhone, iPods, top PC Mag’s Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey – again – September 17, 2009
IT survey finds Macs in the enterprise easier, cheaper to manage than Windows PCs – March 18, 2010
ACSI: Apple Mac again leads Windows PCs by wide margin in consumer satisfaction – August 18, 2009
Study: Apple beats Dell and HP in customer satisfaction – June 26, 2009
Longtime Windows sufferer tries Mac, dumps Windows, switches business to Mac, sees productivity soar – April 22, 2009
Survey: Apple Mac users report highest level of satisfaction by far – February 19, 2009
ChangeWave: Apple Mac holds its corporate share; clearly leads in corp customer satisfaction – December 31, 2008
ACSI: Customer satisfaction rockets for Apple’s Mac; rest of Windows PC industry drops again – August 19, 2008
ChangeWave: Mac OS X Leopard satisfaction far outpaces Vista; Apple Mac strong despite PC slowdown – March 26, 2008
ChangeWave survey shows big Apple Mac sales, very high Mac OS X Leopard, very low Vista satisfaction – January 17, 2008
Apple Mac desktops, notebooks top PC Magazine’s Annual Reader Satisfaction survey – again – September 18, 2007
Apple Mac desktops, notebooks top PC Magazine’s Annual Reader Satisfaction survey – again – August 22, 2006
Apple Computer tops PC satisfaction study – August 15, 2006
Pfeiffer Consulting: Mac vs Windows: Total Cost of Ownership, Productivity and Return on Investment – March 30, 2006
Windows to Mac switchers: recommendations and Total Cost of Ownership analysis – September 29, 2005
Apple Mac desktops, portables top PC Magazine’s 2005 Reader Satisfaction survey – August 24, 2005
Apple continues to lead in customer satisfaction, Dell loses more ground – August 16, 2005
Security expert sums up first month with Mac: ‘much safer, more secure, more productive than Wintel’ – June 02, 2005
Apple Macintosh leads in personal computer customer satisfaction – August 24, 2004
Apple Macs top PC Magazine’s ‘17th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey’ – August 10, 2004
They see the franchise slipping away.
Apple’s answer to “netbooks” is not MacBook Air. It is iPad.
Exactly, MS still doesn’t get it. The iPad, iPhone and iPod are going to eat MS’s lunch, not the Mac. Their entire mobile strategy is a complete dead end even if it is “successful.” Selling $8 to $15 WM7 licenses will accomplish nothing unless they were to somehow miraculously achieve a mobile monopoly. Say MS sold 50 million wm7 licenses in 2011–a HUGE stretch, of course. That’s only $750 million, best case scenario. Apple is already making over twice that much ($1.7 billion) per year on the app store!
Microsoft sees Ballmer’s Monkey Boy Dance as comparable in style points to the winner of Dancing with the Stars. Apart from masses of jiggly fat, on some parts of the female dancer, there’s no similarity at all. Whatsoever. Nada. Zilch.
And how many hours of your life are used up, reinstalling system software, after you get infected? Buy a Mac & have more time to do things you like.
For consumers, Microsoft puts a malware remover on everyone’s PC that removes all the bad stuff, once a month.
Apparently being malware free two or three days a month, without having to do it yourself, is a good thing.
…so you have to reinstall Windows every month?
Bummer.
But think about how many IT people they’ve kept employed. Microsoft is a make work project!
I actually feel sorry for MS Engineers now. You guys went to school to work for these chumps? And you’re Engineers. And you’re not getting laid. Ugh. Brutal.
The more Microsoft hammers away with their deceitful “Windows machines are cheaper” message, the more they’ll get what they deserve from it: tons of cheapskate buyers who buy disposable plasticky machines, who most likely won’t spend a dime on software or music or anything else.
(And you have to wonder what Microsoft’s hardware makers think of this, as it persistently undermines any efforts they may be making to attract non-cheapskate customers.)
That story is so old and worn out. There are hardly any people out there who hadn’t heard it before and who may fall for it. By now everyone out there aspires to a Mac. Those who think they can’t afford it (“I really can’t spend a grand on a computer, I can only spend $400, so I’ll have to make do with the cheap Acer…”) still want it, but misguidedly end up spending more money over the life of their cheap Acer than they would on a MBA, MB or MBP. The point is, everyone wants a Mac, as they by now recognise value.
Got to call bullshit on that. Some Windows users are so cheap they won’t even buy anti-virus software. Others build their own ‘game machines’ for less than $200. Still more use the free PCs at the library.
Spending $1000 for a Mac when they have to grow their own dope? Not gonna happen.
If you buy an Acer now, it’ll clap out before the year’s out. They’re that cheaply made and unreliable. Of course keeping your hard disks spinning all the time while you’re downloading the latest definitions of Windows anti-virus doesn’t help matters.
Buy Acer only if you believe in the Mayan apocalypse as your computer will die before you come 2012.
MDN’s related article list often serves like an disillusion shattering weapon. Rendering counter arguments nigh impossible, if not by weight then wit.
Have to reprint this from the Electronista web page, concerning false comparisons:
“With a careful selection or omission of features and facts it’s easy to make one thing look better than another. For example:
Steve Ballmer vs. a spider
Legs: 2, 8
Hair: No*, Yes
*Sold separately
Early grasp of the significance of the web:
No, Yes”
I’m not sure of the significance of that research. Is there a correlation between spiders and Steve Ballmer? Or is Steve Ballmer a two-legged spider with no hair?
Ballmer has lower specs than the spider, legs for instance, and the spider was web wise eons before Ballmer.
But the analogy breaks down because it presupposes that Ballmer, while lower on the specs, is actually more valuable than the spider.
What about his right nut? Doesn’t that count?
Brilliant, ilove it.
The ad that the article’s about lies about prices, too – they’re completely wrong, in M$’s favour, of course.
Microslut is right about one thing. Cheap shit. FUD.
@MDN
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I think we should all buy windows machines. After all, the computer repair industry needs support too.
As the cliche states, the definition of insanity is repeating the same actions over and over and expecting different results. This didn’t work for Microsoft the last time — their “PC shopper” ads were believed to have heightened interest in Macs. For Microsoft to trot this tired argument out again smacks of desperation that approaches panic.
And the “Do the math” thing… That reminds me of Napster’s laughably failed attempt to take down iTunes way back when.
——RM
I *thought* that “Do the math” tagline was familiar! Leave it to Microsoft to choose an already-failed slogan…
lol. They probably looked at the Air and said “well it is missing a DVD drive it MUST be a netbook!”
I could see their marketing guys being about that smart honestly.
Steve Jobs had it right. Problems occur when the top guy is a salesman.
Used to be “spin” could convince people. Ballmer has yet to find out that people compare notes on the Internet and the actual truth gets published REAL QUICK.
You used Internet and actual truth in the same sentence. Wow, I didn’t think that was possible.
It’s called “Marketing-As-Management” and is an excellent way to destroy your company. Ask Microsoft, Sony, GM, Ford, Chrysler, AIG, Adobe, blahblahblah…. It’s an inevitable disease of an aging company unless deliberate steps are taken to prevent it or end it.
Steve Jobs caused the illness to happen at Apple when he hired John Sculley as CEO. The results were textbook classic, including the 1996 catastrophe of $1 billion in unsold Performa Macs rotting in the warehouse. The return of Steve Jobs to Apple was the solution to the problem.
This website has debunked the complete list microsoft has posted.
http://techztalk.com/techwebsite/05-05-11-microsoft-starts-misleading-do-the-math-campaign-against-mac
They can’t even get screen size right. First, they use a single quote for inches, which normally means feet. Then, they get confused about decimal points from one to the next. On the MBP13 page for example, it says 13’3 for one screen and 13.3′ for another.
Good golly gosh. A deceitful FUD article fraudulently suggesting the superiority of Windows boxes over Macs? What is the world coming to? Oh the horror the shock and awe and
**snore**
Old news: There is not one single independent professional study comparing the cost of comparable Macs versus Windows boxes that found Windows boxes to be cheaper. Not one.
Why is that? Cost = Shelf Price + our of Ownership – Return on Investment. Where Windows boxes consistently lose big time is on Cost of Ownership and Return On Investment. Price your computer using shelf price alone and you’re shooting a hole through your wallet. Poor, sad, dejected Windows victims.