Microsoft Surface ad fails to Excel at math, according to Apple's Numbers
Less than a month after a Microsoft PR executive dismissed Apple's Pages, Numbers and Keynote productivity software as "watered down imitation apps," the company has erected giant billboards depicting its own Excel failing to add seven numbers correctly on a Surface tablet.
The advertisements (including the one above at Market Street at Sanchez in San Francisco) depict a Surface with a bright blue keyboard displaying an Excel spreadsheet for calculating vacation expenses and presenting them as a pie chart.
The device also displays a photo of Hawaii in a separate window at the same time. "This is not just a laptop," the ad announces, "this is the new Surface. One device for everything in your life."
The ad was presumably approved by Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Communications Frank Shaw, who last month penned a scathing dismissal of Apple's iWork productivity apps for Macs, iCloud and iOS devices after the company announced it would make new versions of its software available for free with new hardware sales.
In his scoffing public tirade, Shaw stated, "Surface and Surface 2 both include Office, the world's most popular, most powerful productivity software for free," adding that "Apple's decision to build the price of their less popular and less powerful iWork into their tablets [is] not a very big (or very good) deal."
Shaw added, "let's be clear - helping folks kill time on a tablet is relatively easy. But helping people be productive on a tablet is a little trickier," and ended with a jab at the "struggling, lightweight productivity apps" Apple is now offering at no additional cost.
The correct sum for the numbers is $9,500, which Apple's Numbers app has no problem calculating on either an iPhone, a Macintosh, or even the beta version of iWork for iCloud accessible via a web browser. Despite lacking some features, such as chart editing or 3D depictions, the browser accessible Numbers can still add correctly.
The only explanation for Excel's big billboard bug blunder is that perhaps Office is stuck writing off most of the cost of the Surface in its calculations, after Microsoft was similarly forced to erase $900,000,000 of its earnings after Surface tablets failed to sell last year.
That figure was larger than the total revenues Microsoft reported collecting from Surface sales, without figuring in the $1 billion advertising campaign for Surface and Windows 8 that featured dancers (above) jumping in fountains while clicking and snapping at the cover of the Surface device while presumably doing serious calculations in Excel.
The advertisements (including the one above at Market Street at Sanchez in San Francisco) depict a Surface with a bright blue keyboard displaying an Excel spreadsheet for calculating vacation expenses and presenting them as a pie chart.
The device also displays a photo of Hawaii in a separate window at the same time. "This is not just a laptop," the ad announces, "this is the new Surface. One device for everything in your life."
"Helping folks kill time on a tablet is relatively easy. But helping people be productive on a tablet is a little trickier" - Frank Shaw, Microsoft
The ad was presumably approved by Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Communications Frank Shaw, who last month penned a scathing dismissal of Apple's iWork productivity apps for Macs, iCloud and iOS devices after the company announced it would make new versions of its software available for free with new hardware sales.
In his scoffing public tirade, Shaw stated, "Surface and Surface 2 both include Office, the world's most popular, most powerful productivity software for free," adding that "Apple's decision to build the price of their less popular and less powerful iWork into their tablets [is] not a very big (or very good) deal."
Shaw added, "let's be clear - helping folks kill time on a tablet is relatively easy. But helping people be productive on a tablet is a little trickier," and ended with a jab at the "struggling, lightweight productivity apps" Apple is now offering at no additional cost.
Enhance!
Despite the incredible "power" of Office's productivity, Microsoft's own depiction of its software running on its hybrid tablet results in a $500 error. Charged with adding up just seven rows of numbers, Microsoft Excel running on the Surface comes up with a total of $9,000, as can be seen in the zoomed in detail below.The correct sum for the numbers is $9,500, which Apple's Numbers app has no problem calculating on either an iPhone, a Macintosh, or even the beta version of iWork for iCloud accessible via a web browser. Despite lacking some features, such as chart editing or 3D depictions, the browser accessible Numbers can still add correctly.
The only explanation for Excel's big billboard bug blunder is that perhaps Office is stuck writing off most of the cost of the Surface in its calculations, after Microsoft was similarly forced to erase $900,000,000 of its earnings after Surface tablets failed to sell last year.
That figure was larger than the total revenues Microsoft reported collecting from Surface sales, without figuring in the $1 billion advertising campaign for Surface and Windows 8 that featured dancers (above) jumping in fountains while clicking and snapping at the cover of the Surface device while presumably doing serious calculations in Excel.
Comments
Did you yourself spot the error? What a rabid newshound you are!
I'm amazed that even you would catch this error, as it's such a tiny detail of an otherwise very bad billboard design--hard to read text "at a glance" and such a NON-eye-catching design. They need to take some lessons from McDonald's. But then, they need a product or two which is half as tasty!
All I want to say is:
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
DED should be sending this piece along to a few of the major news outlets - would be funny to see how MS responds.
Just how desperate is MS, that they've resorted to *advertising* Excel?
Office is entrenched. Has been for years. I can't remember the last time I've seen any of it marketed so openly like this.
We're talking about the so-called lowly iWork, something that MS recently dismissed. And now they're trying to promote their spreadsheet software over Apple's? LMAO
Office software is MS' last bastion. They can't do hardware right (or profitably.) They've already screwed their OEM partners. And now they feel their core biz being threatened by Apple's little Office suite.
This is Microsoft's idea of "doing work".
Wait - the Surface is the one device for everything in your life? I thought the Xbox One was the one device for everything in your life. More numeracy issues?
Hold on a second, you mean sometimes the things displayed in adverts are a mockup / edited image of the actual product? I had no idea.
Edit: I notice DED hasn't even bothered to check if the issue affects actual copies of Excel and seems to have treated the billboard as a functioning copy.
I noticed in the ad the cell with 500 is still highlighted. If this means that the user entered the 500 without committing the change (hitting enter), the value would not have been counted in the total. I couldn't see if there was an active cursor in the field, but if there was, that would be the clincher. If there wasn't, it could just mean that the software that made the screen shot did not include the cursor in it.
Sorry to put a damper on the Microsoft bashing. They do a good enough job with their comical attempts at copying Apple.
LOL
A good catch by DED and pretty embarrassing for MS. Somebody in marketing is in trouble =p If the Surface actually did calculations like this that would be another thing and it would be in serious trouble too. Well..... more serious trouble than it already is in.
DED's charts show a problem too, which is equally embarrassing given the fact the point was to slam Microsoft =p It shows car twice and no surf rentals as someone previously noted, but it is an actual screenie from a Mac (unless DED takes the time to draw these things up). Additionally it chose to put the wrong labels on the bar charts showing what looks like the 'food' expense as 'car' as well as simply choosing to skip a few columns.
Again, I doubt that is an actual error on the Mac's or iWork's part...
Maybe the take away is marketers and sensationalist journalists should stay away from math and tricky charts
Here is the spin--or maybe the truth--"We wanted to showcase one of the powerful features - Automatic Calculations turned on or off. In this instance, automatic calculations are off. We wanted to showcase this great feature."
I cannot understand the requirement of an advertisement of MS Office! after all if the one shown in the ad is a productivity thing, then such can be easily accomplished by old calculators for that matter.
Almost as funny as Microsoft choosing to replicate an error in the date function from Lotus because they decided compatibility was more important than accuracy and this error persists to this day...
Found this out when converting between Excel and Numbers. Numbers gets it right.
[URL]http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214326[/URL]