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Apple ran the "I'm a Mac; I'm a PC" ads. Those started off as great advertising because they only pointed out bad things about Windows that everyone already acc
by snprbob86 13y ago
Apple ran the "I'm a Mac; I'm a PC" ads. Those started off as great advertising because they only pointed out bad things about Windows that everyone already accepted as bad things. Once those ads started becoming unnecessarily adversarial, they became bad advertising. Apple probably ran that campaign a bit too long.
Depending on your point of view, Apple's products are either A) Clearly superior or B) Not obviously inferior. For a not insignificant number of people, their choice of smartphone is a personal statement. Attacking products that people love is not a good way to create converts.
Attacking products that clearly suck works until a point. Then it starts to feel like a bully beating a defenseless kid. Microsoft's advertising feels more like a nerdy kid who spent all night thinking up clever and witty retorts, only to fail miserably in delivering them when face to face with the bully. The crowd of cool kids don't laugh with the nerdy kid, they laugh at them.
- tbrownaw 13y agoDepending on your point of view, Apple's products are either A) Clearly superior or B) Not obviously inferior. I prefer systems with a window manager that actually supports multi-tasking. Having one shared menu bar is a pain. Having a row of icons for possibly-already-running applications, instead of a list of what windows you have open, is a pain. Click-to-raise is less of a pain, but still annoying. Which is why I run XFCE on my desktop at home, since MS Windows and Gnome (and I think KDE?) get this one just as wrong as Apple does.
- mikeash 13y agoOne shared menu bar at the top of the screen is supported by Fitts's Law, which says that targets at the edge of the screen are faster and easier to click: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fittss_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fittss_law No comment on the rest.
- tbrownaw 13y agoFitt's Law also says that closer targets are easier to click, and is concerned only with how long it takes to move the mouse pointer rather than how that fits into the larger picture of what you're doing. Having the menu separate from the window breaks spatial locality and associates the menu to the computer rather than to the application.
- iaskwhy 13y agoAnd this is mostly relevant on big screens like the biggest iMacs. It's just wrong, imo.
- snogglethorpe 13y agoGnome doesn't require "click-to-raise," though it's the default.
- nsxwolf 13y agoYou aren't likely to convert any current tablet owner with a commercial. You can influence the customers who aren't married to any ecosystem or brand, though.
- jonas_maj 13y agoOf course you can convert any iPad owner who is eager to have a usable keyboard and a great Office suite on her tablet so she can stop carrying both a tablet and a laptop with her everywhere.