Microsoft Windows Phone commercial mocks Apple-Samsung wars to promote Nokia Lumia
Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 platform may have stumbled out of the gates, but that hasn't stopped the software giant from poking fun at smartphone industry-leading rivals Samsung and Apple in a new commercial touting Nokia's Lumia 920.
The commercial, set at a wedding, starts off tamely enough, with attendees snapping pictures of the nuptials on their iPhones and assorted Galaxy devices. One guest berates another for blocking the action, and the fight is on, with Apple and Samsung partisans flinging the stereotypical Android vs. Apple barbs back and forth before a Kung Fu brawl breaks out.
While its aim is to highlight Nokia's flagship handset, the Lumia 920, and the Windows Phone 8 platform, the ad draws attention to the near-duopoly in the smartphone sector. Apple and Samsung are essentially the only manufacturers whose mobile segments are generating profits, capturing 103 percent of handset profits when accounting for the losses their competitors, have taken.
Nokia is one of those competitors that's been losing money. Once comfortable atop the cell phone market, Nokia has since gone on to massive losses and nosediving market share as Apple's iPhone and other smartphones have come to dominate. The Finnish manufacturer lost $3 billion over the course of 2012 as it struggled to cut costs and reverse its slide.
The company's difficulty in clawing back market share is possibly compounded by its choice of operating system. Hemorrhaging users as iOS and Android rose, Nokia bet large on Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, sticking with it through Windows Phone 7 and on to the current Windows Phone 8, even delaying the release of its new Lumia handsets until a massive, Microsoft-guided launch event that showed off a line of Windows Phone 8 devices.
Nokia has seen positive signs of late, though. Its new line of Windows Phone 8-based Lumia handsets have received generally solid reviews, and sales have picked up, with the company moving 5.6 million Lumias in the past quarter, up from 4.4 million in the previous quarter. Two-thirds of those phones were running Windows Phone 8. Nokia is also targeting emerging markets with inexpensive Lumia handsets, while the manufacturer is also said to be preparing to release a model on the United States largest wireless carrier, Verizon.
The commercial, set at a wedding, starts off tamely enough, with attendees snapping pictures of the nuptials on their iPhones and assorted Galaxy devices. One guest berates another for blocking the action, and the fight is on, with Apple and Samsung partisans flinging the stereotypical Android vs. Apple barbs back and forth before a Kung Fu brawl breaks out.
While its aim is to highlight Nokia's flagship handset, the Lumia 920, and the Windows Phone 8 platform, the ad draws attention to the near-duopoly in the smartphone sector. Apple and Samsung are essentially the only manufacturers whose mobile segments are generating profits, capturing 103 percent of handset profits when accounting for the losses their competitors, have taken.
Nokia is one of those competitors that's been losing money. Once comfortable atop the cell phone market, Nokia has since gone on to massive losses and nosediving market share as Apple's iPhone and other smartphones have come to dominate. The Finnish manufacturer lost $3 billion over the course of 2012 as it struggled to cut costs and reverse its slide.
The company's difficulty in clawing back market share is possibly compounded by its choice of operating system. Hemorrhaging users as iOS and Android rose, Nokia bet large on Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, sticking with it through Windows Phone 7 and on to the current Windows Phone 8, even delaying the release of its new Lumia handsets until a massive, Microsoft-guided launch event that showed off a line of Windows Phone 8 devices.
Nokia has seen positive signs of late, though. Its new line of Windows Phone 8-based Lumia handsets have received generally solid reviews, and sales have picked up, with the company moving 5.6 million Lumias in the past quarter, up from 4.4 million in the previous quarter. Two-thirds of those phones were running Windows Phone 8. Nokia is also targeting emerging markets with inexpensive Lumia handsets, while the manufacturer is also said to be preparing to release a model on the United States largest wireless carrier, Verizon.
Comments
This in an ad done right. It's great.
I find the ad was entertaining. It parodies, exaggerate and dramatize what we already see every day. And the tagline was really the icing on the cake: don't fight, switch.
I won't buy a Lumia, but I like the ads.
Of course that they all still committing a big mistake about stereotyping iOS users as fanatics. While millions buy the iPhone for status, the best costumers are the ones that use it to get work done. EVERYONE that buys a galaxy S only do it because of ads. The phone is mid range at best, be it on build quality, screen or "work-ready" features and the ecosystem is very very low-end.
Is the Lumia different? It just looks like a a different toy, it won't look good to a serious smartphone user that already has an iPhone.
Two words: Zune Guy:
Good ad, too bad the product they are selling is a piece of junk with no decent apps available. That's why Windows phone users can say much, no one uses them.
Hahahhahaha.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMEHTA
Well Steve balmer can only influence ads and not actual products
With all the wedding chairs and people flying around, I wonder where the advertising company got the idea for that ad?... Hmmm, maybe a Microsoft Executive meeting?!
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Yes, if it actually was a MS ad.
But I think you should aknowledge this to be a Nokia ad.
A fantastic ad!
The satire of everything in the ad is spot on with the reality of the phenomenon in our society.
The smarter the gadgets get, the more stupid people seem to be getting.
The reality is that for most of the things that people do with a smartphone, especially those people who either because of cost or lack of need, haven't bought a smartphone as yet, just about any phone will suffice.
What do most people want to do most on a phone? In no particular order, phone calls, text, Facebook, Tweet, Email, take and store photos/videos, music player, Calendar, browse web, play a few games, use as an ebook reader and maybe maps. And if the person is "old", you can generally remove Facebook and Twitter. Any smartphone does those things.
OS aside, I like these Lumia phones. Their industrial design reminds me of the first IPod Mini.
I'm not giving up my iPhone, but for the market that isn't using a Mac or iPad, they don't have to go with an iPhone. Thinking that they do, regardless of the superiority of the Apple ecosystem, is being arrogant or living in denial.
IMO, the next iOS needs to be "must have," not another small evolutionary step. Apple is no longer the only company who knows how to execute decent screen design. It's Apple who is now looking "plain".
Still a piece of junk though.
Was their target for this the waitstaffs of the world?
Edit: Rewatched - the lady (waitress) is cute!
Haha! I have to mute and go grab a beer during those ads so they do serve a purpose. Probably not the intended.
Hello..is that ballmer?