Doubtful this happened.

I really can't see Apple telling MS to stop - they really have no leg to stand on.

What they should go after are the facts that the laptop people bought did not really meet their needs.

First one was poor battery life, low RAM, and low res screen.

Second was more of the same.

Video Editing girl bought a machine that didn't even have any editing S/W.

The gaming kid's laptop was not up to the task.

All in all, MS is looking more and more scared - opening stores next to Apple? Please.

hm

would it also happen via phone call? i thought that these type of things happened through mail and email as proper procedure (so they can be documented correctly for legal proceedings later). am i wrong?

Come on...

I believe this story no more than I would believe a story about MS calling Apple to say stop your 'Get a Mac' ads.

Apple lawyers don't call people they send letters.

This guy is a tool

Let's see his proof.

alike

Is everyone who works at MS bald and stupid?
No lawyer would call to do this - seriously, if they got a call it was from someone pranking them.
And who DIDN'T know Macs were more expensive before these ads. That is all any PC-er has been saying for 25 years. So are BMWs and Mercedes.

@robttwo

Bald and stuipd??? Maybe so. :-)

But Macs are not more expensive, they just do not make cheap computers. Match item for item and Macs still run about the same price.

PS I mean cheap as in really cheap. I am still running an iBook G3 that is 5 years old and its running Tiger. Runs like a champ. My friend has bought 3 computers, cheap ones that they then added all the extras on (now same price as a Mac) and two of them are in the trash since they stopped running and no one wants to pay $300 for tech support. :-)

Just a thought.
en

mess with the bull

well Apple was nice about it MS laughed in their face
NOW THE GLOVES ARE OFF

i really think Microsoft is going to regret this when Apple fires back with Media that will undoubtedly show the truth
I can't wait to see Mr PC explain why you get 1/2 an operating system with windoze 7 "home edition"
to get the rest ( your graphics drivers ) you have to fork up a "C" note!

Legality

If the facts represented in an ad like this are wrong, Apple has every legal right to stop MS. Only they don't need to call MS directly, they can call various government agencies. Advertisers cannot say false things about their competitors.

MS is a Idiot Company!

Come to think about it. A lawyer would have came to in person rather a telephone call. Is this guy nuts? What drugs do they have at Microsoft?

MS is a Idiot Company!

Come to think about it. A lawyer would have came to in person rather a telephone call. Is this guy nuts? What drugs do they have at Microsoft?

I don't believe it

MS exaggerates in their ads, but so does Apple, even if there are germs of truth in both of their ad campaigns.

But I find it hard to believe Apple said anything in any official capacity. Maybe some Apple employee threw off a remark and this guy decided to run with it to continue their "Apple people are a bunch of whiners" tactics.

One word

doubtful...

(forehead slap)

Folks, come on. Lawyers, especially corporate counsel, use phone, mail, and other forms of communication all the time at various levels of significance. One reason an attorney may call someone versus fire off a letter is to do so in an informal capacity without a paper trail because the subject does not represent an actionable complaint where it would be necessary to show evidence of a range of steps had been taken.Companies in competitive environments snipe at each other all the time. I worked for 15 years in the publishing industry where it was comment to have attorneys send any range of "levels" of complaints, from filing an action with the courts at direction of the Board, to official, management-vetted letters ("nastygrams"), to phone calls and e-mails that that attorneys made on their own without oversight, as part of their independent interpretations of our business goals.Seriously, the comment quality on MacNN is really depressing. Basic knowledge of how business or industry works is cast aside in favor of knee-jerk reactions any time there's the hint of threat to not just Apple's business, but their at times questionable marketing.

I do not doubt it

I do not doubt that an apple lawyer called MS and complained. I do doubt that the lawyer in question did it with the company's blessing however.

I think that both MS and Apple are effectively advertising on their strengths in this round. Apple is hitting on MS's perceived issues with malware and unreliability and MS is going after the perception that Macs are expensive.

Seriously both advertising campaigns are good at laying out the jabs and driving a point deeper into the public's mind.

Will be fun to see how it all plays out.

Funny

My guess is that they called to alert him that their ads were false advertising now, and hence why they had to start aiming for the really low end where Apple doesn't play.

PC Makers Called Too

Dell and HP called to say "Stop running those Laptop Hunter ads-- you are killing our margins. We have had to drop our prices by about $100."

Turner reportedly was so excited by this phone call that he did cartwheels in the hallways.

Wut?

"It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I've ever taken in business."


Wow. some career you got there, fella.

Also, these are the best commercials MS ever had, though some digs are silly (i.e. "the Mac only has 2GB RAM" - yeah, the $20 upgrade to GB is real barrier to buying)

Wut?

"It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I've ever taken in business."


Wow. some career you got there, fella.

Also, these are the best commercials MS ever had, though some digs are silly (i.e. "the Mac only has 2GB RAM" - yeah, the $20 upgrade to GB is real barrier to buying)

ooops

Apologies for the double post

Apple's warning to MS

If Apple said to Microsoft they lowered prices by $100 then they mean an Apple laptop is now in line with the cost of a similar equipped PC laptop. So what they said to Microsoft is our hardware now costs the same and your laptop hunter ads are bogus from this point on. I believe Apple's legal department was sending them a warning and needed to do this legally as a statement for factual purposes.

This is great because Microsoft has now announced it to the world so there will be no question in court that it happened. Apple's master plan worked.

The best defense

The best defense Apple can play is to interview these same people in the MS ads one year later and see if they still feel like they bought a good machine.

Or better yet, give them a mac now and let them use both then see how they feel after a year.

I'm surprised the guy said, "(we're) just going to keep running them and running them and running them." Pretty mean spirited. I think Apple should market the h*** out of this. Follow that guy around all the time and make a quicktime movie out of it.

My God, Apple has dozens of people that would be willing to be in a commercial slamming Windows.

Also, Apple should make the point that the commercials aren't about Windows at all and therefore misleading.

good point

"Um, you're wrong, since Windows comes with Windows Movie Maker. And if the woman's a professional wanting to 'cut video', she'd want pro software anyway, not iMovie or the ilk."

yeah, so she'd settle for Windows Movie Maker. just an excellent point.

MS Phishing Attack

• The only malware Mac users have to deal with are Microsoft ads. They dupe fools into buying PCs.
  
  - If you want a blue screen in Windows, there's an app for that! In fact, there are more viruses for Windows than apps for the iPhone.
  
  - Windows: it just doesn't work.
  
  - Microsoft likes to think of Windows 7 as Windows That's Fixed or more appropriately, WTF.
  
  - Microsoft's ads are right, they are computers for the lowest denominator. MS sales go up when people can't afford to buy real machines!
  
  - Within 2 years of purchase, most Windows machines are unusable because so much of the CPU is used for virus scanning, security updates, and browser toolbars.
  
  - Microsoft is less of an Active X, they are more like a Lazy Z.
  
  - Windows 3.1, 95, 98, NT, Millennium, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7. Maybe it's me, but I don't believe their marketing guys can count.
  
  - When MS makes statements, I can CONFIRM they PROCEED to DENY, the truth because they try to BLOCK users from getting Macs which would ALLOW them to avoid their rotten software.
  

MS Phishing Attack

The only malware Mac users have to deal with are Microsoft ads. They dupe fools into buying PCs.- If you want a blue screen in Windows, there's an app for that! In fact, there are more viruses for Windows than apps for the iPhone. - Windows: it just doesn't work.- Microsoft likes to think of Windows 7 as Windows That's Fixed or more appropriately, WTF.- Microsoft's ads are right, they are computers for the lowest denominator. MS sales go up when people can't afford to buy real machines!- Within 2 years of purchase, most Windows machines are unusable because so much of the CPU is used for virus scanning, security updates, and browser toolbars.- Microsoft is less of an Active X, they are more like a Lazy Z.- Windows 3.1, 95, 98, NT, Millennium, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7. Maybe it's me, but I don't believe their marketing guys can count.- When MS makes statements, I can CONFIRM they PROCEED to DENY, the truth because they try to BLOCK users from getting Macs which would ALLOW us to avoid their rotten software.

I recognize this.

Turner also insisted that, because of the response to the ads, Microsoft is "just going to keep running them and running them and running them."

Shades of Cheney?

Zanziboy

I am sorry to have to be the one to break this to you... but you are a moron. I don't even think mac fanboys will back you up here.

That was just embarrassing.

yeah, right

Those MS ads make me cringe. They are about as realistic as television reality shows. Such bad writing and bad acting on the part of the participants, who are being asked to do something that is odious and false to begin with. I can't watch them anymore, because I'm so embarrassed for everyone who participates in them.

@ luckyday

I'll back Zanziboy up. After being around computers for about 20 years now and having witnessed and used Windows' development from the beginning I can honestly say that MS has progressed little beyond Windows 3.1. For having the money and ubiquity MS has they should be much farther along than they are on Windows. Everything Zanz said is demonstrable.

@ luckyday

I'll back Zanziboy up. After being around computers for about 20 years now and having witnessed and used Windows' development from the beginning I can honestly say that MS has progressed little beyond Windows 3.1. For having the money and ubiquity MS has they should be much farther along than they are on Windows. Everything Zanz said is demonstrable.

testudo...

...you once again rear your cheeto-stained head in defiance of common sense.

have you ever actually tried to use Windows Movie Maker?

you can't possibly have experience with it, because if you did, there is no way you could have posted what you did. it wouldn't make sense, even in your distorted contrarian view of the world, to bring up that failware to support those lame ads.