While Apple concentrates its ad spend on bashing Vista, Microsoft is focussing its latest campaign on showing the huge breadth of Windows users.
The new 'Real PC' Windows campaign, which launched during the first live The X Factor show on ITV1, was "deliberately designed to address the misconceptions that our competitors have built around PC users," said John Curran, Windows business lead, Microsoft UK.
TechRadar asked Curran what these misconceptions are, and why they are wrong.
"If you look over the last 12 months there have been a number of things that have come out in the press that I think have been misleading about the Windows experiences," said Curran, who pointed to the Mojave Experiment as an example of one method that Microsoft has used to address these misconceptions.
"I was reading a comment from one of our competitors where they said Vista wasn't living up to expectations and that's just not true. The experiences that people are having with Windows Vista today are fantastic - 90 per cent of our customers are highly satisfied. The same number are excited to recommend Windows Vista to family and friends."
Curran believes that the negative perceptions were able to spread in part because Microsoft didn't rebut them. "To some extent we've been silent too long," admits Curran. "We removed ourselves from the conversation and so it was only folks with a vested interest to the contrary who were out there talking, and so they more or less defined the discussion and what people were hearing.
"And when we looked at that, we said that's something we need to address, we need to be more engaged in this conversation, we need to give a voice, an outlet for all the people who are having a great time with Windows and make their voices heard in this discussion. And that is why we've launched this new campaign, to make sure that there is another voice in the conversation and a voice that is able to bring through the truth and the facts."
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andreasaliasante
October 22nd 2008
5. I use both mac os 10.4 and 10.5 and windows XP and Vista at work. At home I use Vista mostly but I use XP on my laptop. When I record music that needs professional editing and mastering I use a mac with OS 10.5.
All OSes are good for different purposes but in my experience Windows Vista SP1 is the best Operating system by far. On my Vista I do graphic design, web design and prepress work. I also do video Editing.( I have Adobe Creative suite 3 & 4 Master collection)Playing new and old games, word processing and internet and other various tasks. If I were to do the same on mac OS it would take me much longer time and it would be much more unstable. Also I payed twice the money for my mac.
If I were to record professional music on my Vista I would have a more difficult time though, mostly because I dont have the software for it. On my vista I record more alternative music that does not need all the high-end realtime editing and mastering which always works exactly as I want it to do.
If I could only choose one operating system for all the tasks I do, I would definatley choose Windows Vista but I am able to use all operating systems so I will use a mac for the purposes I need it for.
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iggy82
October 21st 2008
4. I've had Vista Ultimate since launch, in the early days it was truly terrible. Over time, I have moulded and worked with Vista to make it what I want it to be. In all honesty, I find it reliable, stable and perfectly able to meet my demands.
However, this has come at a cost; my own personal time tweaking it and turning off annoying features I don't want for example. I've also had to upgrade my RAM and graphics card to enjoy it properly which I guess some could argue I might have done anyway.
I have used Windows since the very start of Microsoft and used to consider myself as a loyal customer but now I find considering buying a Mac on a regular basis, if it wasn't for the price tag I would probably have one already.
Whether or not this is the advertising or the aesthetics of the mac, I am not sure. But something has changed, because I never even blinked an eye-lid at Apple before Vista arrived.
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pogo
October 21st 2008
3. Nah, Vista is just ****. It eats disk and memory, they still haven't got a cure for DLL Hell, driver support is pathetic, and I rapidly got sick and tired of being asked if I was sure I wanted to do something - pretty much *anything*, in fact. Dress it up whichever way you like, it's still a steaming pile...
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sam8392
October 21st 2008
2. Vista made me switch to a mac, which I have to say is the best OS (OS X Leopard) I have ever used for many reasons!
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watcherzero
October 21st 2008
1. Now hes right, its a stable and decent operating system, im just glad I waited a year after launch (my dont purchase and OS till first SP is released rule)to purchase it as that first year was hell for all my freinds who were early adopters.
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