Apple’s Tactic Clear… Wait, Wait, Wait… Go In For The Kill
Posted on 05 September 2009, at 11:24 am, by Dan Cohen
Apple has a tendency to use a remarkably effective method where-by they sit back and watch for some time before making their move. When they DO make their move, however, it is bold, it is effective and… most of the time… it wins the day.
And so, for example, they didn’t jump right into the MP3 player waters until the time was right and they had their plan in place. And it worked. They own the market.
Similarly, they waited a good long while before jumping into the cellphone/smartphone market but when they did… WOW! They transformed it and took a nice – and still growing – piece of it in the process.
The same thing has happened with regard to responding the the “PC Hunter ads”. They did almost nothing when the ads calling their computers overpriced, underpowered eye-candy were released. The ads were effective, and yet Apple did very little to respond. Sure they cut prices and then shortly thereafter placed a call to Microsoft asking for the ads to be changed in response. But THAT’S not really an Apple-esque response.
This is!
Cult Of Mac has a post up showing some of the many 512 by 512 icons that ship as part of Snow Leopard. They are big. They are bold. And one has the bite of a leopard that hasn’t eaten in weeks.
Behold the icon that pops up whenever you are browsing a network and there is a Windows PC on it. Yup, Snow Leopard displays the icon of an beige CRT monitor proudly displaying the Blue Screen of Death.
The message? PC’s don’t work, they are the past, they are “old” technology, and they are ugly, too!
Now some have referred to this as “arrogant and smug“. Maybe it is (I can’t tell because I’m still too busy laughing.)
What I do know is that his is yet another example of Apple sitting back and then going for the kill.
How so? Microsoft has to pay every time one of the laptop hunters ads run, and at some time the campaign will end. In the meantime, millions of Apple computers are already running an operating system that displays a “PCs are old and don’t work” message EACH AND EVERY time there is a PC on the same network. And at no cost they will be running an anti-pc ad for years to come.
Now THAT’S hysterical!
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September 5th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
humorous, but irrelevant…. the only people who will see it and get it is those who already own macs -
September 5th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
You are ABSOLUTELY right… but I am still laughing every time I see the icon
September 5th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
So how does this tactic entice PC users to switch to a Mac again?
September 5th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Yeah… Apple asks Microsoft to update their ads to reflect new pricing – and then boldly displays the Win9x BSOD, a whole 8 years out of date. Heck, the last time Microsoft shipped a product with that BSOD, Apple’s OS still couldn’t handle a single app crash without bringing down the entire system.
September 5th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
@Tariq: It doesn’t. It’s just so Mac users can feel better about themselves for owning a Mac.
By the way, did you notice that this icon (and 512×512 icons) has been around since 2007? Yep, check the “smug” post that you linked yourself; it’s dated October 2007. So… not exactly a hungry snow leopard. Ha!
September 5th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
The whole point is that the icon is hilarious! (And so very true) Yep, since October 2007 a free rib shot has been sent with no extra cost to Apple. A built in anti-PC ad and no need to have actors fake buying computers!
September 5th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
It is more hilarious to find MS fanbois finding faults in everything Apple.
@homsar – your mistaken view of a single app crash will bring down the whole system is hilariously imbecilic.
BTW get to know a Mac before making hilarious comments which reflect more on the intelligence quotient of the person making the comment.