Okay Geek Farm
Tearing apart Microsoft's claims that PCs are better than Mac
Brandon Davenport
I’m not saying a company can’t support their product, but do they really have to stoop to this level? — not to say Apple hasn’t done the same thing, but usually it was in the form of cute commercials, or claims actually backed by evidence or demonstrations. I’m also not saying that competition like this isn’t good, it’s just not a great idea to do it in this way — but before we start, let me mention it took me about 20 minutes to actually find the page because of the mess their website is, know what I mean?
That’s a pretty blunt statement huh? — I’m not saying that most people would rather prefer a Mac over a PC or vice versa, I’m just stating that it would be nice to see the facts. I mean, Microsoft could have done a study, or found some evidence to back this claim. In my mind, if Microsoft isn’t going to show me the facts, these are just words on my screen - and they shouldn’t effect our buying decisions.
Tripping over their tongue
NOTE: These are all direct quotes taken from this page
Microsoft Says: “You can’t get a Mac that ships with a Blu-ray player, TV tuner, Memory Stick reader, or built-in 3G wireless. You can with PCs running Windows 7.”
Fact: I am watching a 1080p movie from my memory stick on my Macbook as I type. What are you talking about?
Microsoft Says: “If you use Apple’s productivity suite, sharing files with PC users can be tricky. Your documents might not look right and your spreadsheets might not calculate correctly.” — “If you use Apple’s productivity suite, sharing files with PC users can be tricky. Your documents might not look right and your spreadsheets might not calculate correctly.”
Fact: Last time I checked, Windows Live Share and MSN didn’t work with Mac either. Also, you make MS Office for Mac (and it works pretty great), so you might want to check your facts (literally). This is almost embarrassing…
Microsoft Says: “Things just don’t work the same way on Macs if you’re used to a PC. For example, the mouse works differently. And many of the shortcuts you’re familiar with don’t work the same way on a Mac.”
Fact: It works both ways (I switched “Mac” and “PC”) — Things just don’t work the same way on PCs if you’re used to a Mac. For example, the mouse works differently. And many of the shortcuts you’re familiar with don’t work the same way on a PC.
Microsoft Says: “If there’s a Mac version of a program you need, you’ll have to buy it again and relearn how to use it on a Mac.”
Fact: If you need a Mac version of a program, your probably using a Mac already and your probably used to it by now. People don’t just go out and buy Macs so they can use the Mac version of a piece of software… that makes no sense…
There are many more: over at Microsoft’s website, which quite frankly are really shocking. They give no evidence, and have nothing to back them up.
So the moral of this story is, you can’t let big companies dictate what you buy. I mean, it’s like a guy who sells popcorn tell you that chips suck — are you going to buy popcorn instead? Well you shouldn’t, you should try them both out and see which one is best for you (and ignore the chip guy as well).
As you can see, Microsoft has decided not to give us useful consumer information, but instead to rap off general (and insanely vague) claims about their OS and the PC’s that run them, with no actual evidence to back it up. This, in the end, is just going to confuse consumers.
Now the thing is, Apple does this as well, but not to this extent, they usually go on and give you some numbers or a comparison, and are a little more quiet about it, but we all can’t forget the ridiculous “Antennagate” videos that really made Apple look like a bunch of dweebs. But in the end Microsoft takes the cake for this stunt.
Microsoft just seems to be clinging onto whatever they can to stop from slipping away, and they continue to throw their excess weight around to persuade consumers to buy their products (but isn’t that the whole idea?). But above all, has anyone figured out that sh*t-storm of links on their website? I still can’t find the “buy now” button…
What do you guys think about this? - @t3chh3lp
