Microsoft says Surface Pro 3 more powerful, flexible than MacBook Air in latest ads
Continuing its campaign against Apple hardware, Microsoft on Monday unleashed three new ad shorts for its new Surface Pro 3 tablet with disparaging comparisons to the MacBook Air.
The trio of 30-second spots, uploaded to Microsoft's Surface YouTube channel, harkens back to the days when Apple directly compared its Mac products against Windows-based machines as part of the "I'm a Mac" campaign.
In two narrated commercials, Microsoft touts the Surface Pro 3's processing power, a specification where most tablets fall short of their notebook cousins. As seen below in the spot titled "Crowded," the Mac user notes his machine is running an Intel Core i5, which gets a "this does too" response from the Surface owner.
Surface apparently stacks up favorably to the Air as it "runs Office, full Adobe Photoshop and it's got a touchscreen."
The Mac user says he also has a touchscreen, then pulls out an iPad mini. Undeterred, the Surface owner points out his tablet supports pen-based input, allowing note taking and on-the-go document markups.
Laughably, the Apple user pulls out a memo pad with a big red note to "Call Bill," perhaps an allusion to Bill Gates.
"Wow, I have got a lot of stuff to carry," he says.
"You are more powerful than you think," the Surface owner retorts, an obvious jab at Apple's latest iPhone spots.
The "Power" ad echoes the sentiment that Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 is just as fast as a MacBook Air, but includes a touchscreen and pen input as a bonus. In addition, the tablet features Mini DisplayPort and a USB input, albeit just one compared to the Air's two, as well as a detachable keyboard with kickstand.
"So you're saying it does more than my Mac," says the Air owner.
Finally, the "Head to head" ad lacks narration, but does feature the exceptionally hairless arms and hands seen in Microsoft's recent hardware campaigns. Here again specs are compared, from the 128GB of onboard storage to 4GB of RAM.
From there, Microsoft contrasts the two computers having the MacBook Air user haplessly attempt to perform on the Apple laptop what the Surface user can do on their tablet. For example, the Air owner pokes away at the non-touchscreen display and even attempts to rip it off, highlighting the Surface's multitouch display and keyboard cover typing solution.
Microsoft has been pushing hard to move its "tablet and a laptop" since the first Surface was unveiled in 2012, but sales have been slower than the company expected. The latest Surface Pro 3 is the closest iteration yet to meeting Microsoft's vision of a tablet that can run full versions of Windows 8 and corresponding applications without sacrificing portability, though evidence of its success has yet to surface.
The trio of 30-second spots, uploaded to Microsoft's Surface YouTube channel, harkens back to the days when Apple directly compared its Mac products against Windows-based machines as part of the "I'm a Mac" campaign.
In two narrated commercials, Microsoft touts the Surface Pro 3's processing power, a specification where most tablets fall short of their notebook cousins. As seen below in the spot titled "Crowded," the Mac user notes his machine is running an Intel Core i5, which gets a "this does too" response from the Surface owner.
Surface apparently stacks up favorably to the Air as it "runs Office, full Adobe Photoshop and it's got a touchscreen."
The Mac user says he also has a touchscreen, then pulls out an iPad mini. Undeterred, the Surface owner points out his tablet supports pen-based input, allowing note taking and on-the-go document markups.
Laughably, the Apple user pulls out a memo pad with a big red note to "Call Bill," perhaps an allusion to Bill Gates.
"Wow, I have got a lot of stuff to carry," he says.
"You are more powerful than you think," the Surface owner retorts, an obvious jab at Apple's latest iPhone spots.
The "Power" ad echoes the sentiment that Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 is just as fast as a MacBook Air, but includes a touchscreen and pen input as a bonus. In addition, the tablet features Mini DisplayPort and a USB input, albeit just one compared to the Air's two, as well as a detachable keyboard with kickstand.
"So you're saying it does more than my Mac," says the Air owner.
Finally, the "Head to head" ad lacks narration, but does feature the exceptionally hairless arms and hands seen in Microsoft's recent hardware campaigns. Here again specs are compared, from the 128GB of onboard storage to 4GB of RAM.
From there, Microsoft contrasts the two computers having the MacBook Air user haplessly attempt to perform on the Apple laptop what the Surface user can do on their tablet. For example, the Air owner pokes away at the non-touchscreen display and even attempts to rip it off, highlighting the Surface's multitouch display and keyboard cover typing solution.
Microsoft has been pushing hard to move its "tablet and a laptop" since the first Surface was unveiled in 2012, but sales have been slower than the company expected. The latest Surface Pro 3 is the closest iteration yet to meeting Microsoft's vision of a tablet that can run full versions of Windows 8 and corresponding applications without sacrificing portability, though evidence of its success has yet to surface.
Comments
Wow this is the world we are all dreaming of. Simplicity and no complexity. But not with the Surface
So basically they still don't "get it".
A few observations:
The Surface is never shown in portrait mode. This, alone, tells me that Microsoft don't get tablets, as portrait is the most comfortable way to use a tablet.
The Surface is never held, but kept in a stand, detached. It lacks that personal element that we love in our iPads.
Whilst the Air's keyboard is seen being used, the Surface keyboard is never used, perhaps because it's crap.
I dont really get why they're trying to compare this to the MBA other than they know they can't compete against the iPad Air. IMO, they can't compete against the MBA either with this. The Surface may be decent, but its not great and its expensive for what you get. Not to mention, it has Windows 8 on it. Ew!
Anyone whose ever used the comfortable keyboard and (amazing) trackpad on a MacBook Air 13 knows that Microsoft is painting themselves into a corner by putting the Surface up against the MacBook Air. Microsoft would do much better to simply sell the Surface with a permanently affixed keyboard instead of the floppy keyboard thingy (FKT). Doing anything productive on the Microsoft platform absolutely requires a keyboard and mouse - and not touch - so why not simply put a great keyboard and trackpad on it instead of crippling it with a gimmicky and crippled keyboard. I would much rather use Ctrl+ and Ctrl- to zoom the screen versus pinching fingers on a screen since my fingers are already on the keyboard and I abhor anyone touching the screen on my laptop. Maybe touch will be important on a laptop someday, but that day has yet to arrive.
The thing that Microsoft is touting as the Surface's greatest strength is actually its greatest weakness. No amount of sleight of hand or fancy marketing mumbo jumbo is going to get around the fact that the Surface is a compromise solution for every use case that Microsoft touts it as a tool to solve. The Surface basically does nothing exceptionally well, other than drain your wallet.
The Microsoft Surface is the Pontiac Aztek of the computing world.
My Wife didn't learn and bought a new HP laptop last year with Windows 8 installed. After two months of aggravation, she removed 8 and installed 7.
I bought a MacBook Air in late 2011 and have never been dissatisfied. I also have an iPhone, iPad 2, iPad Mini, all work seamlessly together. Where are the stats and commercials from Microsoft touting THAT capacity.......hmm, doesn't exist now or ever.
I would prefer to just use the excellent trackpad for gestures on the air like I already do.
So funny MS.
By the way A.I. the iPhone A.I. app doesn't let me pinch and zoom (most important feature of iOS) and doen't follow the screen rotation even when i'm playing it fullscreen ...
And why is the web page the slowest I know of?
Could you please fix this.
My company purchased one for testing. These are my honest observations:
The Cons:
It's still a hard sell...
Well i've put the Surface through the wringer and it fell apart just like my iPad note to my self stop putting things through wringer.
I am afraid that the change in leadership at Microsoft doesn't seem to give Microsoft any more forward vision.
Are these similar to the "I'm a Mac" commercials? Yeah, in a way. But in a much more important way they are nothing like the "I'm a Mac" commercials.
The "I'm a Mac" commercials were never about selling a particular Mac. They were about building the perception of all the Mac products, and honestly all of Apple's products. These Microsoft ads aren't about building the Microsoft image. They are just more of the same old stodgy and mostly cherry picked, deceptive ads that most people just ignore.
It is a very thin line to tread. And Apple didn't always tread it well itself. There were a few "I'm a Mac" commercials where they moved much more into the malignant, and these tended to get some well deserved flack. The brilliant and effective "I'm a Mac" commercials were ones that poked a gentle humor at PC. Subtlety and humor are the keys.
Samsung and Microsoft's commercials are about as subtle and funny as a sledgehammer to the face.
/s
Running Windows is oh so 1990's!