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Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Apple’s Get a Mac series is just a riot and a half. They are too funny and now they continue on with the addition of three new ads, Work vs Home, Out of the Box, and Touché. The later plays on the Boot Camp software that Apples are now both Mac and PCs. In keeping with the humor of the dunce PC, he commends the Mac with a, “Touché,” to which the Mac tries to set him straight grammatically. To no avail, the PC doesn’t get it and the question is did Apple when it made this ad?
I can see it once the masses start purchasing Macs because now they can run Windows on it and then here comes all the fun of Windows with it. Spyware, malware, viruses, crashes, and on and on. Who do you think people are going to call? Microsoft as they are suppose to (since you need a retail version of Windows and thus Redmond gets the support calls by license)? Heck no, they’re going to call the place where the dude that sold it to them works. Apple.
AppleCare is sure to get a slew of calls from people who don’t understand how software support works. Or maybe they’ve been derailed with previous hardware when calls to Microsoft pointed them to the OEM manufacturer of their product such as Dell, HP, or Gateway. Either way, Elk Grove, California is going to get a few more calls than average and they’re going to be about Bill Gates first love (no, not Melinda.) Is Apple prepared for this? I hope so…and I figure they are. One most likely will hear a recorded message (”Please listen carefully for our menus have changed…”) instructing any one that has installed Windows on a Mac to call Microsoft. Further, Apple will most likely remind the caller that Apple does not and never has supported Windows products in any way.
If Apple dotted all of its I’s and crossed all of its T’s, I think this won’t be a large headache. It could taint Apple’s image slightly when a few clueless customers complain that Apple “left them out in the cold” but for the most part, I can’t see this turning into a really bad thing. If anything, this ad may be the very one that puts them into double digits for market share. Now we just need the “get tomorrows OS today” ad. (It’s coming, I’m sure.)
June 14th, 2006 at 12:30
Apple doesn’t stock Windows at the Apple stores or at the Apple online store, and from all accounts, they have no intention of selling any Windows software at any time in the future. Furthermore, the Bootcamp installer is festooned with disclaimers indicating that Apple is not responsible for Windows support.
Ergo, the guy the Windows-using customer is going to call is the poor schlub who works at Best Buy or Walmart. That will result in at least a week of lost time in the bowels of the Best Buy / Walmart phone tree, and then the customer will get handed off to Microsoft.
June 14th, 2006 at 19:44
Right now, Boot Camp is a public beta, therefore, installing Windows XP is completely on the consumer’s shoulders. But, when Boot Camp become a part of Leopard 10.5, then Apple assumes some responsibility. I assume that Apple has thought this through.
Perhaps, Apple will set up a protected virtual space to run Windows in; some of Intel’s virtualization hardware promise this. If the Mac OS or Intel’s hardware acts as a firebreak, then Microsoft programs will run like they do in VirtualPC now.
This article might be quite premature, since we don’t know what Apple has planned. Let’s hope that, whatever it is, is fantastic.
June 15th, 2006 at 1:06
Welcome to the Wintel world. In the PC world, the hardware vendor does not support windows for free, you are usually referred to MSFT once the vendor almost always determines its a software issue. In the case of Dell and some others, you have to pony up $$ when the rep tries to convince you that that hard disk crash is a software problem so is not covered by their warranty. Whose kidding who, putting Windows on a Mac in no way changes the playing field.
June 15th, 2006 at 8:54
stingser said:
“Whose kidding who, putting Windows on a Mac in no way changes the playing field.”
Think of Boot Camp and the new ads as being part of the same intent to take a larger share of the consumer computer market. Apple doesn’t have a prayer regarding the commercial computer market, but take a look at Apple’s Mac@work web page: it is aimed at the Mac’s tradition graphics customers plus SOHO. Apple does want a larger share of the education market, but it hasn’t repositioned itself with new products yet. What Boot Camp can be seen as a crutch to help Windows user let go of Microsoft. Also, boot Camp answers the complaint that the Mac isn’t mainstream because it doesn’t do windows. Well… It does now. For the moment, Boot Camp is all on the customer’s and Microsoft’s shoulder. But, that might change with Leopard 10.5. We’ll has to see.
June 15th, 2006 at 9:35
I should have said “doesn’t reduce the level of support Windows users are used to.”