Give me a break. Microsoft isn’t cheaper than Apple. Dell might be, but Microsoft isn’t!

The last time I wrote about a Microsoft marketing campaign I took a great deal of flack, and was called  a FanBoi, but I’m about to do it again, and this time I’m probably going to be a little more harsh.  I pride myself on calling it how it is, but, feel free to let me know how much you disagree with me in the comments.

AppleInsider is talking about an upcoming Microsoft ad that is highlighting price differentials between owning a PC versus owning a Mac.  PCs are cheaper in their perspective, and pretty much do the same job as an Apple based product.  I don’t “disagree” with them, but I still don’t see how Microsoft has any business talking about price differences between computer producers.  When was the last time you bought a Microsoft laptop…how about a desktop?  Exactly.  They don’t make computers, they make Mp3 players, video game devices, and software.  Unless they’re planning on releasing their own machine any time in the immediate future I really don’t see how it’s their fight.

You want a genius Microsoft commercial?  Here’s one…

You have an entire room of Apple Computers, filled to the max and all the way to the horizon.  The camera starts off facing the back of the Apple machines with all that glowing Apple goodness that’s present on the laptops.  The camera steadily passes over them and then does a 180 coming to a complete stop on the screen.  The Mac boots into Windows, the windows start-up jingle plays.  Text fills the screen.  ”We make software that matters!”  End of commercial.

See, they could address their key market and lay a huge smackdown on Apple’s marketing team.  They’d have a successful ad campaign.  Instead they’re fighting a “PC” fight when really they should be fighting the “Operating System” fight.  You pick fights you can win, not fights where you could “possibly, perhaps, maybe come out victorious”.  They need to hire a marketing team who understands that.

Price Differentials… really?

So now that we’ve pointed out quite articulately that Microsoft makes software and they’re fighting Apple’s hardware division, lets take a closer look at the “cheaper” Windows software versus Apple’s OS X.

The cost of the cheapest Vista alternative? $98.99, and it’s not even the fully featured version.  It’s the stripped down “basic” version.  The ultimate Vista experience?  $179.00ish.  The full featured OS X Leopard runs you  $129.00.  So it might be cheaper for the crap version no body pays for, but you can bet the retirement on the fact that a Best Buy or staples employee will be making you feel pathetic for buying the “basic” version.  You’ll leave the store with Ultimate.

While a “PC” might be cheaper, the Microsoft operating system certainly is not.  Don’t get me started on the additional software that comes on a Mac that is not present on a Windows machine. I’ll leave that argument for another day, because frankly, I don’t think I need to introduce the topic to prove my point any further.

Microsoft isn’t cheaper than Apple.  Dell might be. Actually, that Dell laptop would be even cheaper if you told them you wanted your “Microsoft” tax back because you’ll use Ubuntu instead.

Checkmate.

You can watch the ad below.  Let me know what you think… I’m curious.