Microsoft has initiated a new aggressive ad campaign that takes a direct shot at rival Mac besides also highlighting how the Apple MacBooks lag behind PCs powered by Windows 10.
The ad series titled ‘The Bug Chicks’ comprises of four ad clips where the first in the series actually serve to introduce the Bug Chicks in the first place, two ladies whom we are led to believe as ‘real people paid for real opinions.’
While other three ads in the series each highlight a specific feature of Windows 10 that OS X lacks at the moment. These features include Cortana, Windows Hello and touchscreen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6SVsf0k2i0
The ad ‘Windows 10 and Cortana’ sure is all about how convenient things will be to have a personal digital assistant of the calibre of Cortana to sort things out in our everyday affairs. That, of course, is in the context of PC with Cortana being intelligent enough to pick up voice commands to accomplish such tasks as searching for a file and so on.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHoHKjjttvQ
However, Microsoft’s advantage here might be for the short term what with Apple reportedly working towards integrating Siri into OS X, which is expected to happen with version 10.12 due out later this year.
Similarly, ‘Windows 10 and Hello” is about security and new smart ways that Windows 10 supports for unlocking PCs. The new biometric feature includes fingerprint, iris as well as face to identify the right individual for unlocking a computer. However, not all PCs might have all three working at the same time.
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- 15.6" diagonal, HD (1366 x 768), micro-edge, BrightView, 220 nits, 45% NTSC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOV1tQpgAs8
Then, of course, there is a 15-sec spot dedicated to ‘Windows 10 and Inking’ which highlights the convenience of having a touchscreen display, which together with the latest Windows can work wonders. At least, that is what Microsoft would like us to believe.
To further drive home the point, the two ladies get into writing and drawing directly on PowerPoint slides, not bad for getting things done quickly and easily. Apple though has staunchly defended their no-touchscreen policy for Macs.
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- 10th Generation Intel Core i5-1035G1 processor
- 12GB system memory for full-power multitasking
- 256GB Solid State Drive
- 15.6" Micro-edge touchscreen display
So that’s one area where Microsoft can enjoy an edge over Mac if it can convince buyers rightly enough how much of a convenience is to have a touchscreen display over non-touch computer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln5LU532GuY
Microsoft sure will need to have such ads in place to further push Windows 10 adoption if it indeed wishes to see the version powering more than a billion devices that the company hopes to achieve by 2018.
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- Latitude 7480 Laptop 14"
- Intel Core i7 6th Gen i7-6600U -Core Processor 2.6GHz (3.4GHz With Turbo Boost)
- 256 GB SSD Hard Drive & 16GB Memory
- 1920x1080 FHD resolution Non-Touch with Webcam and an integrated graphics chip
- Wireless Wifi & Bluetooth
So far, the Windows maker has been extremely proactive in promoting Windows 10 and has been working hard to iron out deficiencies that the OS has been identified with. Towards that the latest Redstone build has been a major update and introduces several new features and bug fixes, including the one that led to sleep/wake and overheating issues on the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book.
Microsoft’s move to directly target Mac in the new ad is also understandable considering the good show that Macs have put up which defies the general slide that the PC segment is faced with worldwide.
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With the top four PC vendors, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Asus reporting negative growth in PC shipments in the fourth quarter, Apple is the sole company to buck the trend with a 2.8 percent rise in shipments, having shipped 5.7 million Macs in the fourth quarter of 2015.
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