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Microsoft's New Ad Says Apple's Mac Costs Too Much

With the Jerry Seinfeld era behind it, Microsoft is moving ahead with a new Windows advertising strategy that aims at Apple's Achilles' heel: Higher prices. The commercial appears to be the first in a series called Laptop Hunters, and it puts Microsoft on the offense instead of the defense.

Microsoft's just-released Windows commercial taps into the price-conscious, recession-driven consumer mind-set by following a woman on a mission to find a laptop that's fast and has a comfortable keyboard and a 17-inch screen -- for $1,000 or less.

In the ad, the voice-over says Microsoft told Lauren, a redhead with glasses, that if she could find a computer that met her demands, she could keep it. In other words, Microsoft would buy it for her. With that, she becomes a laptop hunter.

'I'm Just Not Cool Enough'

In the commercial from advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Lauren goes into an Apple store, quickly walks back out and reports, "For $1,000 they only have one computer available, and that's a 13-inch screen. I would have to double my budget, which isn't feasible. I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person." That statement is a direct hit against Microsoft's longtime rival that implies you don't get much computer for your money when you buy a Mac.

Last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer set the stage for the new ad's debut when he said, "Apple gained about one point, but now I think the tide has really turned back the other direction. The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment -- same piece of hardware -- paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be."

Lauren was excited when she entered a retail store with a variety of PCs. She tries out a few keyboards and looks at the specs on a few others. Finally, the look of one PC draws her. She settles on a Hewlett-Packard model that meets all her qualifications -- for under $1,000. The commercial ends with Lauren telling the camera, "I am a PC and I got just what I wanted."

Guru Sees Another Failure

According to brand guru Rob Frankel, the ad is typical of Microsoft's weak, misdirected efforts. He predicts it will fail miserably.

"Microsoft has no brand strategy. Never did. They have an identity, but no brand strategy. As a result, Microsoft is never proactive, but always reactive to its competition," insisted Frankel, author of The Revenge of Brand X. "The main beneficiary? Apple, which gets tons of extra media exposure because they're Microsoft's main target."

Frankel said attacking Mac's "higher cost" will fail because it's a misdirected message. As he sees it, Microsoft is making a poor bet that a short-term recession strategy will connect with price-conscious consumers.

"For one thing, most shoppers now know that by the time they add in all the built-in Mac components to a PC, the costs are close. Macs are also retained longer and replaced less often than PCs. And then there's the reliability and repair cost issues," Frankel said. "Another failure, big time, for Microsoft."

Yahoo! News - Microsoft's New Ad Says Apple's Mac Costs Too Much by NewsFactor: Yahoo! Tech

IE8 receives an increase in market share by 30%

 

Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) received a small bump in market share yesterday as the company launched the final version midday, according to Web measurement company Net Applications Inc.

IE8's market share averaged 1.63% for the day Thursday from noon Eastern time onward -- when Microsoft posted the new browser for download -- a 21% increase over March's daily average of 1.35% through Wednesday. Net Applications has posted hourly market share numbers for IE8 on its Web site.

The browser's share climbed again today, to an hourly average of 1.75% through 11:00 a.m. Eastern time, bringing IE8's total increase to 30% over the month's daily average.

Even with that kind of increase, Vince Vizzaccaro, Net Applications' executive vice president of marketing, was critical of Microsoft's low-key launch. "I was a little surprised that there wasn't any advanced warning," said Vizzaccaro, "and no marketing push from Microsoft about IE8. At the minimum, there should have been something for IE users that popped up and said 'there's an upgraded browser available ... download it.'"

IE8's market share climbed above the 1% mark for the first time last month, when it accounted for 1.2% of all browsers used. That boost had been fueled by the last January launch of the browser's release candidate.

By comparison, Google Inc.'s Chrome, which debuted last September, had a 1.15% market share during February, while Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox -- IE's biggest rival -- owned 21.77% of the business.

"Chrome got off to a fast start," said Vizzaccaro, "but it really hasn't moved much since then. And they had a low-key approach when they launched it, too. On the other hand, Mozilla made lots of noise about Firefox 3.0, with a special download day, and they got millions to download it.

"Microsoft is doing the same thing that they've done with browsers in the past, but that didn't work for Chrome," Vizzaccaro said. "If I were Microsoft, I would do something more on the Mozilla model. I'd be a lot more optimistic [about IE8's chances] if there was a large public announcement that it was available."

Microsoft released the final edition of IE8 for Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008 Thursday, upgrading the browser for first time in two and a half years.

Overall, Internet Explorer controls 67.5% of the browser market, according to Net Applications' numbers, which are collected from the systems that surf to some 40,000 sites that the company tracks for clients. Almost three out of every four IE users run 2006's IE7, while nearly all of the remainder run the even older IE6.

Currently, IE8 is available only as a manual download from Microsoft's main download center and the IE8 page. The company will begin automatically installing the new browser on machines now running IE6 or IE7 at some unspecified future date, at which point its market share will undoubtedly climb.

IE8 launch bumps browser's market share by 30%

Microsoft's 2nd gen Surface, SecondLight, gets a second projector

 

Microsoft is playing it straight with the next generation of its Surface table. Called SecondLight, it will be just that — an upgraded Surface table with a second projector. The added projector will allow the Surface to layer one screen over another, so a satellite overlay could be projected onto a city map, or a render of a completed building over a set of blueprints, and so on.

In addition to the second projector, Surface 2 will also have higher definition cameras and infrared sensors that can interpret gestures, so you may not even have to touch the table at all. Really, though, it's that added projector that sounds exciting — but tossing a lot more of those in there would probably bump the Surface 2 up higher than its predecessor's already high $10,000 price tag.

DVICE: Microsoft's 2nd gen Surface, SecondLight, gets a second projector

Microsoft Silverlight 3 emerges

 

Microsoft started releasing the beta of its Silverlight 3 interactive technology overnight, in advance of this morning's Mix keynote session in Las Vegas. The company is trying to build more momentum for the Silverlight technology, its rival to Adobe Flash.

Emil Protalinski at Ars Technica and Eric Krangel at Alley Insider are on top of the story. See Next Best Geek for a list of key links.

We'll have updates later today as more details of Silverlight 3 emerge. Microsoft's market results with the technology have been mixed, with the Obama inauguration choosing it for online streaming but Major League Baseball dropping it for Adobe Flash.

Microsoft Silverlight 3 emerges - TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News Source

Microsoft buys Dell: April Fools!

Okay, I will come clean - the piece about Microsoft buying Dell is an April Fool piece. Slightly in advance it’s true, but that’s because the column was automatically taken from the issue of PC Pro that’s out now (see left), and it’s that issue that will be out on sale on the 1st of April!
To be crystal clear - I have no knowledge of Microsoft intending to buy Dell, or Krispie Kreme doughnuts or NASA either.
PC Pro has a long and honourable tradition of doing April Fool pieces. Remember David Moss’s epic “The Ten Pillars of Microsoft” spoof? Or Windows For Trainsets?
The response has been truly amazing. I have had emails from senior people at Dell and Microsoft, asking who my source was. Clearly they believed Something Big was going on, and that they were not party to it. I have had emails from the IT teams at large corporations telling me that they are HP houses and now they will have to give serious consideration to shifting over to Dell.
I thought I’d given a big enough clue in the first paragraph, but it seems that many skipped over that and dived into the story. It appears that some readers have panicked at the contents, and if this caused them distress or upset, then I sincerely apologise.
However…
The heart and soul of a good April Fool is that it is credible. That it could almost be true. In the current climate, there is much sense in the view that Microsoft plus Dell would be formidable. And would raise the quality bar still further. There is no question that one of the major strengths of the Apple platform is the tight integration of hardware and software - “it just works”.
Microsoft has been making hardware for years, albeit at the keyboard and mouse level. But the new Surface platform is apparantly entirely Microsoft-alone, and some Softies have expressed the view that this is a step in the right direction for the company.
Given that Microsoft has the money still in the bank that it didn’t spend on Yahoo, and due to the global recession is facing either a stagnation or even downturn in its turnover, it is entirely possible that the board of Microsoft might consider doing something radical to move the company forward, and to try to finally push the share price upwards.
This was the background for the thinking behind the piece. A great big “What if?” that leant itself immediately to a spoof.
And who knows - sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Maybe this will actually come to pass.
I hope you enjoyed it. I am still somewhat stunned at the reaction it has created. And if you have any suggestions for next year, feel free to let me know.

Microsoft buys Dell: the truth PC Pro blog

Job Hunting in a Tight Market

"There are many unanswered questions about today's job market: Will the economy get worse before it gets better? Will companies lay off more people? Can I still find a new job?

Any answer is, of course, an educated guess at best. Yet, you shouldn't assume that tight budgets and slowed job growth -- if they continue -- mean everyone is tied to their current jobs forever. People will still leave jobs and others will come in to replace them.

Retirements, career switches, births, relocations -- the many reasons workers have left jobs in the past will continue through 2009. You should expect a little more competition for these open positions, but your job search shouldn't stop."

MSN Careers - Job Hunting in a Tight Market - Career Advice Article

Microsoft to buy Dell?

Update: Microsoft buys Dell: April Fools!

The news that Microsoft is to buy Dell, which should become official at the beginning of April, comes as no big surprise. Dell hasn't been doing that well recently, and the global economic downturn is certainly contributing to its woes.

Few companies are prepared to splash out on new hardware when money is tight, especially without a clear indication that it really will run the latest version of Windows in a satisfactory way. Until now, this has been an ongoing guessing game with each new release - will the months of hardware R&D pay off and bring true synergy to the platform paradigm? Even the best have been getting it wrong - remember the outrage at HP when it discovered that the graphics hardware requirements had changed a few months before the release of Vista? You might think Vista simply sucked, but deeper analysis shows this is an over-simplistic analysis of the situation. It was a lack of synergy that made all the difference.

PC Pro: Blogs & Analysis

Kirill Tatarinov: Microsoft's Russian rocket

"Even with somewhere north of $1 billion in annual sales, Microsoft Business Solutions is dwarfed by the enormous Office business that it shares space with in the company's quarterly reports.
But Kirill Tatarinov, the group's leader since July 2007, said MBS brings more to the broader Microsoft than revenue from its Dynamics-branded systems, which manage a company's customer relationships, suppliers, inventory and other business basics.

It provides a 'proof point to business decision makers' using the whole set of Microsoft server technologies, Tatarinov said. The Dynamics products 'take advantage of all the innovation that's happening' on Windows Server, Visual Studio, Office and other major products Microsoft sells to businesses."

Microsoft Kirill Tatarinov: Microsoft's Russian rocket Seattle Times Newspaper

Microsoft get Windows 7 right

 

Apple significantly helped Microsoft "get it right" with Windows 7. Our technical team has looked at the Windows 7 beta. This is a team that doesn't throw out idle praise and certainly doesn't pull any punches when reviewing Microsoft technology. To say that the early returns from our team on Windows 7 are positive would be an understatement. Microsoft appears to have delivered. And the timing for Microsoft could not be better.

Apple helps Microsoft get Windows 7 right | The Open Road - CNET News

FedEx Office offers free resume printing

 

For those who may have been victims of recent layoffs, FedEx Office is offering one day of free resume printing.

On March 10, the FedEx Corp. subsidiary will offer up to 25 free copies of resumes submitted and picked up inside a store for customers currently job hunting.

The resume can be submitted as a digital file or by hand during regular business hours to any of the more than 1,600 FedEx Office Print and Ship Centers in the U.S.

The resumes will be printed in black-and-white and on single-sided resume-quality paper.

As of January, there were 11.6 million unemployed Americans, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

FedEx (NYSE: FDX) is Memphis’ largest employer, counting about 32,000 on its payroll locally.

FedEx Office offers free resume printing - Memphis Business Journal:

How to Use Facebook to Get Fired: Say Your Job is Boring

 

So as not to give companies more excuses to kick employees to the curb in this tough economy, I've warned before about watching what you post to your social networking site. After all, MySpace photos have gotten an Oregon mayor recalled, and now a Facebook post about how boring her job was has gotten Kimberley Swann of Clacton on Sea in England fired from her job at Ivell Marketing and Logistics Limited.

Kimberley Swann, 16, came home one day and typical of a 16-year-old, posted what she later called a "throw-away comment" on Facebook. Thing is, while that's what she told the BBC, there was more than one update on Facebook about how boring her job was:

• first day at work. omg!! So dull!!
• all i do is shred holepunch n scan paper!!! omg!
• im so totally bord!!!

 

Thing is, big deal. The name of her company isn't even mentioned. However, after allowing some of her colleagues at work access to her Facebook page, word got back to her employer, and viola: fired.

Tech-Ex: How to Use Facebook to Get Fired: Say Your Job is Boring