New Microsoft site targets users looking to switch from MacBook to Surface Pro

Posted:
in General Discussion edited November 2015
While it was Apple who for years targeted Windows switchers to the Mac platform, the tables have turned as now Microsoft is now the underdog, focusing its efforts on trying to win over MacBook users with its Surface Pro hybrid computers.




In its latest effort to attract potential switchers, Microsoft has debuted a new website called "Making the switch: MacBook to Surface Pro 3." The site aims to ease the transition from one platform to another, providing information on making the jump to the latest-generation Surface Pro 3.

The help guide is divided into four sections explaining the basics of Windows 8.1, what MacBook users need to know, how to move their content to the new hardware, and how to use the Surface Pro 3 with Apple products and services like the iPhone, iCloud and iTunes.

In particular, the "Surface Pro 3 for MacBook users" section of the site explains unique Windows features that could confuse users making the jump from a Mac, including right-click, keyboard shortcuts, searching, and installing applications. There's also a section devoted to viruses that notes "most computers, including Macs, can get malware," before detailing the protection tools included in Windows 8.1.

The new website is just the latest part of an ongoing campaign by Microsoft which has pitted the Surface Pro 3 directly against Apple's hot selling MacBook Air. The ads espouse the virtues of the Surface Pro 3 over the MacBook Air, including its tablet-style touchscreen capabilities, removable keyboard, integrated kickstand, and Bluetooth stylus.

The Surface-versus-MacBook Air campaign has been running for months, though it's unclear how well the company's efforts have been received. Microsoft's entire Surface strategy has appeared ineffective at times, with NFL announcers continuing to call the Surface an "iPad" -- despite a sponsorship deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars -- while news anchors on CNN continued to use their iPads even as Surface devices sat on the table in front of them.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 60
    Careful. Win 8.1 is not a good time to introduce anyone to Surface Pro!

    Edit: and by not a good time I mean it's a horrible time! Win 8.1 with its "Modern" environment and traditional desktops is a astonishingly complicated. (source: my experience supporting Windows users.)
  • Reply 2 of 60
    Just look at that photo of the Surface Pro!

    On the left, sitting quietly is the elegant MacBook. On the right, a garbled Heath Robinson monstrosity.

    Like Google and Blackberry, Microsoft need to get out of hardware.
  • Reply 3 of 60
    zabazaba Posts: 226member
    Lol
  • Reply 4 of 60
    paul94544paul94544 Posts: 1,027member
    Surface = there's nothing much underneath, just a superficial case of lipstick on a PIG. The underlying OS is world of hurt. For example: Just try to recall where a document gets saved, usually in the documents folder by default. The OS is so primitive if you are working in another folder say a finance folder , you would think that it would save it there, no it always takes you back to the default system directory "documents" . and then you have to manually move it over to where you want to store it for maintaining a well organized system. There are literally 100's of things like this in Windows which drive me completely nuts when using it at work. It tries to help you when intuitively I don't need help and I have to cancel out the dialog boxes to get back where I was, and at other times it doesn't do something which is intuitively obvious. This example it typical of Windows and even after 25 years they still haven't fixed it. The Mac OS is a polished OS with seamless interactions an highly productive ways of doing simple things. Windows is tangled mess of an OS and I look forward to the day I no longer am forced to use it when I retire.

    Typical Microsoft double speak : "Windows features that could confuse users making the jump from a Mac, including right-click, keyboard shortcuts, searching, and installing applications." yes they are correct Windows features are overly complicated and not obvious. There is no need to switch why would a sane person want to switch from the Mac OS that makes everything simple to one that makes the same features un-intuitive, slow and more complicated. Yes that's a jump! a dumb jump!
  • Reply 5 of 60
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Just look at that photo of the Surface Pro!

    On the left, sitting quietly is the elegant MacBook. On the right, a garbled Heath Robinson monstrosity.

    Like Google and Blackberry, Microsoft need to get out of hardware.

    No idea why Microsoft is in hardware (besides Xbox) anyway. They should just focus on cross-platform software and services.
  • Reply 6 of 60
    "Anyone switching from a Mac to a Surface"... You'll be back, poorer but wiser.

    Even back when Apple was in its worst state and close to dying, the switch from Macs to Windows was only 5%.
  • Reply 7 of 60
    Does it hackintosh well?
  • Reply 8 of 60
    "Your Surface comes with Windows Defender and SmartScreen Filter in Internet Explorer to help protect you from malware, so you don’t need to purchase antivirus software."

    Ouch... Windows Defender is awful, and this is bad advice...
  • Reply 9 of 60
    And this just reminds me why I hate Microsoft now, no more Xbox for me, no more windows, nothing Microsoft for me. This is why I like HTC, and why I hate Samsung and Microsoft. Ive never seen an HTC commercial with an iPhone in it or apples name in it, however Microsoft and Samsung seem to be more obsessed with apple than themselves. Instead of putting so much focus into apple (Microsoft snd Samsung) put more focus into improving your products, which is what apple does.
  • Reply 10 of 60
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member

    I recently got given for a Surface Pro for work and I quite like it, but it's a weird looking beasty.  Putting its image next to a MacBook Air makes it look like a strange origami-like creature.

  • Reply 11 of 60
    appexappex Posts: 687member
    Apple should make a Mac tablet.
  • Reply 12 of 60
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Macky the Macky View Post



    "Anyone switching from a Mac to a Surface"... You'll be back, poorer but wiser.



    Even back when Apple was in its worst state and close to dying, the switch from Macs to Windows was only 5%.

     

    Lol. They don't seem to know who they are targeting really. It is usually other way around. People start with Windows first, than once introduced to Mac nirvana, they never look back.

  • Reply 13 of 60
    moreckmoreck Posts: 187member
    I didn't know that Microsoft was switiching from computers to comedy. They must be, because that's hilarious.
  • Reply 14 of 60

    Weird that MS is hitting the MacBook crowd so hard. Can't watch 20 minutes of TV without seeing that commercial. Or a Yoga commercial.

     

    Aren't Macs around 10% of marketshare? So MacBooks are even less... what does it mean that these companies are targeting such a small part of 10% of the marketshare!

     

    Anytime I see a MacBook in an Ad that's not from Apple I see it as some kind of concession... 

  • Reply 15 of 60
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Xian Zhu Xuande View Post



    "Your Surface comes with Windows Defender and SmartScreen Filter in Internet Explorer to help protect you from malware, so you don’t need to purchase antivirus software."



    Ouch... Windows Defender is awful, and this is bad advice...



    Given the lesser of all the evils, I'll take (and use) Windows Defender than the Nortons, or Symantecs, or etc....  At least Microsoft's version is free and for the most time, relatively transparent to the user.  Can't say the same for the others that have since day one, been nothing but a pain in the backside, and would all by themselves, corrupt the PC, or bring it to its knees due to the A/V crap slowing it down.

  • Reply 16 of 60
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rich Gregory View Post

     

    Aren't Macs around 10% of marketshare? So MacBooks are even less... what does it mean that these companies are targeting such a small part of 10% of the marketshare!


     

    I get the feeling that the real considered threat is the iPad, but the MacBook Air is an easier target, and the iPad and Apple in general is a convenient collateral damage.

     

    To speak up a bit for the Surface, it's screen wipes the floor with my MacBook Air.  Really nice.  Not much else I can say that favours the Surface over the MBA, but the screen is definitely a plus.

  • Reply 17 of 60
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Xian Zhu Xuande View Post



    "Your Surface comes with Windows Defender and SmartScreen Filter in Internet Explorer to help protect you from malware, so you don’t need to purchase antivirus software."



    Ouch... Windows Defender is awful, and this is bad advice...

     

    Who are you quoting? I can't imagine Microsoft giving that advice.

  • Reply 18 of 60

    Having read the first few pages of Microsoft’s site, I can honestly say I would rather be sealed in vat of my own excrement than use Windows.

     

    Would anyone exchange the seamless Apple experience for the horrors and confusion of Windows ? Have you noticed that what takes one paragraph (or one sentence) to explain in the MacBook column takes several paras on Surface Pro column ? Read "Why isn’t the menu bar at the top of my screen anymore?” section for a good example of how not to write copy: even Microsoft make the SP sound like a second-rate experience.

     

    Did any Mac user ever go back to Windows ? I have never met anyone who has

  • Reply 19 of 60
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Haha. If page counters were still a thing, you won't see it higher than a 1000. And if you exclude Microsoft IP addresses, it'll be way less than that.
  • Reply 20 of 60

    "...and we're excited to see what you do with your new Surface" - is it just me or shouldn't that read "...what you will do.." or "...what you can do..."?

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