Microsoft Laptop Hunters Anti Apple ads

Microsoft is taking another shot at Apple with their new Laptop Hunters ads. The commercials feature young hip people who go to shopping malls to buy notebooks, equipped with a certain budget which Microsoft is going to refund them, once they buy a precious Windows powered laptop and speak bad about Apple. The campaign is focused on pricing differences between Macs and PCs.

Third ad: Lisa and Jackson get a Sony VAIO

The latest television advertisement continues the “Laptop Hunters” theme in which a mother and her son, Lisa and Jackson, are tasked with finding a speedy $1500 sub-laptop with a large hard drive that is also good for gaming. As usual they don’t like the Apple notebooks and finally decide for a Sony VAIO. Like the previous ads, they specifically point to higher cost of the Apple machines.

Second ad: Giampaolo gets an HP HDX

In the new commercial, “Giampaolo” is given a budget of $1,500 with which he has to find a laptop with his desired features of portability, battery life and power. After browsing several PC’s, Giampaolo takes a look at Apple’s notebook offerings, but ultimately decides against them saying: “This is so sexy, but Macs to me are about aesthetics more than they are the computing power. I don’t want to pay for the brand. I want to pay for the computer.”
Finally, he buys an HP HDX 16t closing the commercial with the comment “I’m a PC because I’m really picky.”

First ad: Lauren gets an HP Pavilion

In the first commercial, “Lauren” is given a $1,000 budget with which she has to find a 17-inch notebook computer. After a brief stop at a “Mac Store” where she comes away empty-handed noting that the only computer available for under $1,000 has a 13″ screen and saying “I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person,” she settles on a $699 HP notebook from Best Buy.

What should the undecided customer think?

First of all, don’t go out on a shopping mall without preparation and buy a notebook. Everybody has different requirements for a laptop computer, not only concerning the hardware. The design and operating system are also important, you decide how important each category is for you. If you don’t know your personal computer requirements yet, the first thing to do is to get a piece of paper and to write down what you will do with the notebook, how large the screen should be, where you will take it and so on. All without looking for actual offers yet, preparation comes first.

After you have your requirements, do your research on the Internet. Sure, Apple notebooks are more expensive, but on the other hand they feature the best design and a very stable operating system. Depending on what you do, you will probably not need great performance, but if you use Vista, you will not get lucky with 2 GB RAM. And speaking of customization, the best way to get that is on the Internet. Not only Dell lets you customize your notebook, other manufacturers have similar shop systems now, too.