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[Biff]

Okay, I am sure we have all ready those myths posted on Apple's website.....www.apple.com/myths

I just had the most annoying conversation with some of my family members about Windows. I told them I bought a new iMac and they told me I was crazy because we won't be able to communicate anymore. They told me Windows is the standard and we should all be using it or else we would have some serious compatibility issues. I just can't take their uneducated ramblings anymore.

Why doesn't Apple make TV commercials demonstrating some of these myths and/or show how we are just as good or better than "they" are? That way the general public will become aware of Apple and what they are really like. I can't count the number of people who I run into who say Mac's are incompatible with the world and don't work with anything.


Sorry, this turned into a little bit of a rant.

[symphonix]

Today, in a conversation with a Windows NT administrator, I stumbled across an odd thought. The reason people don't pay any attention to the alternatives to Microsoft is that they don't even realise they need an alternative.
When someone buys an operating system for $250 which does nothing new, except for fix a few bugs from the last OS that cost $250, they don't even see the problem. They don't understand that they are being bled.
There are thousands of MCSEs floating around out there. Each time somebody sits an MCSE exam, Microsoft charges thousands of dollars, only to turn them into industry-accepted experts who have been taught that only Microsoft can provide servers and operating systems.
Essentially, each of these people is an incredible marketing asset for MS. MS knows that these people would like to go out and work in computing, so it instructs them in using and installing only MS products, convinces them that there are no alternatives, charges them some money for the exam, and turns the ones who pass loose.

If you suggest to people that Linux is a viable alternative, you only get a funny look in return that says "Umm, then I wouldn't be running Windows! You can't have a computer without Windows!"

You will be familiar with this phenomenon if you've ever told someone you've bought a computer only to be asked "What version of Windows are you running?"

The problem isn't that people don't believe Mac or Unix to be as good as Windows. The problem is that they accept, without argument, that there is no alternative to Windows. And its only through the leadership of the rebels in the Mac and Gnu camps that we can change these opinions.

[phatsharpie]

Well said, symphonix! Those Microsoft certification tests are a joke. I know plenty of people who have never used specific versions of MS products (i.e. SQL Server, etc.) and were able to pass the test with flying colors. So they become "certified experts" who have never even worked with the products they are certified for! How ridiculous is that?! MS's certification process has made certification in the industry a joke. At lease Cisco and Oracle expects you to know their products inside and out before giving you their paper approval. With MS, all you do is handing them money it seems.

Hate to say it, but that's why I have no respects for MCSE's at all - half the time they are little better than computer illiterates. Blah!

-B

[Koelling]

Advertising is a must from Apple. Someone, I am not mentioning any names here but this would be my girlfriend, has the funniest ideas. She is a smart person but she has been fed lies all her life from her dad. She thinks there is no software for Macintosh, they are 10 years behind everyone else and other such nonsense.

She then used iMovie for a project for school and now she is trying to convince her dad to get an iBook. He is still stuck thinking what he always thought so it is difficult to get through to him.

My best friend is a linux guy and the smartest person I know and even he has had some pretty bad misconceptions about Mac. Once I gave him an account on my computer for ssh he found he was reasonably comfortable on regular unix stuff.

The point here is that while personal contact with a Macintosh will convert a person eventually there are so many people out there that know nothing and have no first had contact with Apple computers. Commercials like that old Dinosaur Painting commercial geared for kids as well as ads promoting open source should be played on TV. Each in it's own demographic such as Cartoon network for kids and Discovery channel for Pros.

Spending money on webmail for the current mac users is great but a little more exposure to the mainstream market will bring in more customers.

[dricci]

I agree, I think different ad levels at different times on different channel would be a huge success. It'd spread the right message to the right group at the right time, and would spark more interest, even more than a dancing iMac could do

Hopefully, they're listening and looking into this. They only have *billions* in the bank, I'm sure they could come up with something useful.

[Hypernate]

The problem with TV ads is that they're really not the best medium for giving information. The informative ads are often the most boring. For example, an ad with a dancing iMac is a lot more interesting than one where they list all the software availible for macs....


But, know Apple. they'll find some way to do it.

[apb3]

you can still make an "informative" ad entertaining...

for example:

a poor slob in a MS shop gets a last minute job he must complete for a client meeting/presentation at 6AM the next morning. He takes the windows disk from his boss and says, I'll do it on my Mac tonight... <shocked look on bosses face> maybe a snide comment...

next morning poor employee comes in with an apple DVD (prominent apple logo on the case). sigh from boss... But no time to wait, the clients are here.

employee pops the dvd into the "standard" OS, beautiful presentation, looks of awe, clients pass around the APPLE! DVD and you overhear the whispers between the client CEO and his IT guy... "we gotta get us one of these."

cut to employee in new corner office in a completely transformed Apple shop...