New ‘Laptop Hunters’ ad – Apple Macs are for kids
Is it that time already? Time for Microsoft to once again kick the boot into Apple’s smug face? Fantastic. Count me in. Having clearly made the point that Apple Macs are too expensive, not value for money, and more style over substance, it’s now time to turn to the playground for tactics.
We’ve already met Lauren who ended up buying an HP laptop for under $1,000. We’ve also met Giampaolo who also ended up buying an HP laptop but one on a bigger budget of $1,500. Now it’s time to meet Lisa and Jackson, a mother and son team who are the latest “real” people to be given a budget to blow on a Windows-based computer.
Lisa and Jackson want a laptop with “speed, a big hard drive, and a good gaming computer.” As always Microsoft tells them, “You find it, you keep it.” They do. And Microsoft gets a new ‘Laptop Hunters’ advert out of it.
The pair head, with cash in hand, to their local Best Buy. After a quick scout around at the Windows-based PC section they head for the Apple section of the store. On the way there the mother states that, “Macs, they’re kind of popular with this age,” while pointing towards her 11-year-old son/actor. In other words, Macs are for kids. Brilliant.
There are some other carefully thought-out arguments against buying a Mac – they’re too small and they’re way more expensive. Although the mom does concede that they are pretty. So, nice to look at but otherwise overpriced machines only fit for children who need to impress their friends. Sounds about right to me.
They end up buying a Sony Vaio with a Blu-ray drive which ticks all the boxes. And Apple once again ends up having sand kicked in its face.
I know some people hate these adverts but I think they’re brilliant. They get the message across, pointing out all the negative things about Apple Macs while talking up the benefits of buying a PC. Microsoft has stood back for far too long while Apple has eaten into the market share of PCs and been very smug about it at the same time.
It’s clear that the Apple fanboys don’t like it when the boot is on the other foot.
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April 11th, 2009
I’ve been around too long for this, and I’m getting very tired with it.
Read it and weep. Or reap.
I don’t care about how much you love your ugly, unamangable Zune.
I don’t care about the lies you write about how the Windows OS is bug- and virus- free, and how it runs superbly each and every time you boot it up. I’ve been in this business for some time now, so I used to it your fabrications. I also understand why you so much need to use them…you’re afraid. You’re afraid of changing, and you’re afraid of something different.
I don’t care that you’ve been brainwashed to believe that the total cost of ownership between an Apple machine and a Microsoft robot saves you so much money. Get over it. Macs last for years; Windows boxes break down a few minutes after you spend hours trying figure out how to set it up.
Facts are facts. If you don’t like the taste of the medicine, that’s your problem, not mine.
I don’t care that you ignore the fact that Microsoft’s management is, at best, in disarray and, at worst, inconceivably incompetent.
I don’t care about your ludicrous disbelief that Macs don’t suffer from bugs, germs, worms, trojan horses or trojan condems just because there are fewer Macs around than there are Windows robots.
You can be as stupid as you want to be, and you can be in as much denial as you want to be. That’s none of my business.
I also don’t care that you believe that having a moron as your CEO is the best way to go. Great job on the Seinfeld ad campaign, and on the “I’m a PC” campaign. More money well lost. “We’ve got millions, why not just throw it away?” Who cares about stock-holders? (Great trading price for the past five years or so, by the way. Sorry you lost your house because of Microsoft. Even sorrier that you could have retired early in Costa Rica had you had any faith in a company that delivers what it promises. Your stupidity and stubbornness is not my problem.)
If I’m attempting to make any point at all, then it’s this: The stupidity and abject stubbornness of Microsoft investors and consumers has only served to place Microsoft in the position in which they now find themselves. They are left with nothing else but to attack competitors in ways that only make them look foolish. desperate, and weak. They and you did it to yourselves. Arrogance kills, and it’s killing Microsoft and their millions of apologists.
People don’t pay a premium for Apple products because they hate Microsoft; they open their wallets because they get what they want and need without any excuses, alibis, or rationalizations.
As an Apple user and investor, all I can say is, “Thank you very much to all the Microsoft apologists and investors. Due in no small part to your thinking and behavior, I no longer need to work for a living at a relatively young age, my children will be well taken care of, and I can live the rest of my years knowing that I chose the right side of the ledger.”
Here we go:
This 33-year-old company dominates the consumer market spaces it competes in… has no debt… and is sitting on a cash pile of over $25 billion. In the face of the current recession it continues to do well – unlike many of its competitors.
Back in 1982, you could have purchased 100 shares of this company’s stock for $160. Those same 100 shares would be worth roughly $92,000 dollars at today’s split-adjusted share prices.
That’s a 57,400% return, something most people won’t ever see in a lifetime of investing.
Fortunately for us, this company’s prospects are only looking brighter. In fact, it has plenty of space to grow and do it all over again. And it won’t matter whether you’ve been there from the beginning or jumping into the bandwagon today – the ride looks to be profitable nonetheless.
Let me show you a few reasons why this stock belongs in everyone’s portfolio…
Ignoring Competitors and Analysts
Today, its bewildered competitors plod along, introducing ho-hum, cheap, “me-too” products in a vain attempt to undercut its expensive prices and its ever-increasing market share.
Most of these attempts are pitifully ineffective. Regardless, this company just ignores them. Always executing from a tower of strength, it defines and controls the markets it operates in, rewriting the rules for the other players.
In addition, it creates new markets where none existed before… paradigm-shifting consumers’ lives and thought processes.
The company’s uniquely distinctive advertising and its incredibly thoughtful, aesthetic product designs give it a unique position in the consumer electronics industry. One that it’s not likely to give up anytime soon, if ever.
Numerous analysts have predicted the company’s demise over the years, saying its products are too expensive and won’t sell well in recessionary environments, that it’s a “one man show.”
The company’s response? It ignores the analysts, too. Because they just don’t get it.
You see, it has something that most analysts don’t possess and never seem to be able to put a proper value on:
Long-term creative vision
The will and confidence to ignore all the pundits and nay-sayers
A first-class management team to drive the execution of its secretive plans
Apple: The Foremost Consumer Electronics Leader
If you haven’t already guessed, I’m talking about Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), the foremost consumer electronics company in the world. And its stock belongs in everyone’s portfolio.
Granted, I’m a little biased. I’ve owned its products since the 1980s and just can’t imagine living without them.
Its customer base is made up of students, educators, businesses, government agencies and consumers of every sort. The company’s business strategy centers on its ability to design and develop not only its products, but the software operating systems they run on.
Its Mac computers are first class, easy to use and run all the popular software found on Windows machines. And they run those programs better and without all the viruses, spyware, malware and hacker attacks that constantly plague Windows users.
I’ve converted several long-time Windows users to Macs, and once they saw how easy they were to use – and how few problems they had. Afterwards, they wondered why they hadn’t switched over long before.
The company single-handedly redefined the entire music business with its iPod and its iTunes music store. And it did it in a relatively short span of four to five years, generating billions in annual revenues in the process. Its share of the mp3-player market remains well above 75%.
Now it’s doing it again with the iPhone, the slickest smartphone on the market. Sales of the device grew 245% in 2008, according to a Gartner research report. That compares to 96% for Research in Motion and a paltry 0.8% for Nokia.
While the iPhone is number three in terms of overall marketshare (8.2%), it’s clearly growing the fastest, and could easily overtake Nokia and RIM in a couple of years.
In the simplest of terms, Apple has figured out how to create products that most people would design if they could give their two cents to the Apple product development teams. They’re simple and easy to use, just like everyone wants them to be.
Apple’s Cash Cow Just Keeps Getting Bigger…
Apple’s second-quarter financials will be released April 22, in what is always a highly anticipated conference call. The company constantly downplays future expectations when talking to analysts, and then routinely beats them by a wide margin.
This quarter’s results will be particularly interesting, as it will give investors a better idea as to the effect the recession is having on the company. So far, Apple has appeared to be somewhat resistant to its effects, helped in no small way by a constant stream of new product innovations and introductions.
However, one of the major sources of future revenue is constantly overlooked by analysts. Whenever the company sells an iPhone, it only books about 10% of the money it receives as revenue, and defers the rest.
It then books this annually over a period of 10 years. This is a constantly increasing future revenue stream that’s like cash in the bank. Great for when times get a little tough.
And then there’s the “Apple effect.” This is logic that goes along the lines of: “If Apple’s (iPhone or iPod) is this good, its computers must be great, too.”
That phenomenon has analysts betting the company will sell 2 to 2.2 million Mac computers for the January-March time period. The company has plenty of room to grow here, too, as it currently has under 10% of the overall PC market.
Given how well the company has been performing so far during this recession, it appears that shares are still cheap. Investors interested in owning a few shares might want to wait until after this quarter’s results are announced on April 22, as there is generally a pullback in the stock after earnings results.
Apple is certainly on top of its game, and I believe it will continue to stay there as long as it continues to make the rules that all its competitors have to follow.
Good investing,
David Fessler
http://www.investmentu.com/
April 11th, 2009
@SkateNY:
Get a life dude
April 11th, 2009
all of this is about Microsoft running scared.
Yes, they know that apple is about to change the game again in June, just 2 short months from now.
Consumers are going to flock to the Apple store for the best and latest from Apple and are going to look over the Macs while they’re there.
Microsofts share in going to decline again.
And they cant afford to ignore Apple anymore.
Google and Linux are nipping at its heals.
April 11th, 2009
Well, until Jobs isn’t there. How ’bout running those financial from when he left until he came back?
April 12th, 2009
??????????????? copy? and paste
????????????????? if you are
????????????????? tired of morons
????????????????? writing stupid
articles.
April 12th, 2009
Well…Microsoft makes a excellent mouse.
April 12th, 2009
Always favored logitech myself.
April 13th, 2009
So MS admit they’re getting hammered in the Education market.
Actually these ads are true to form. People get easily distracted by specs they think are important and end up buying the product MS wanted them to buy. When he battles with Vista’s inept design and looks at his school friend’s Mac he’s going to be so disappointed.
McD
April 13th, 2009
“Apple Macs are for kids”
So the soulless ***** got her son a PC.
April 14th, 2009
Every single Mac user is certainly in disarray.
“I don’t care about your ludicrous disbelief that Macs don’t suffer from bugs, germs, worms, trojan horses or trojan condems just because there are fewer Macs around than there are Windows robots.”, hmmm, is that so? Is it really a ludicrous disbelief? So, you say you’ve been using computers, and in the “industry” for years and years? I guess even with all your experience, you still lack something fundamental. I think it’s called inteligence. Check your facts, they did a hacker/cracker forum with a huge competition, and the guy that won was a a guy that hacked a mac in I think it was 1 or maybe 3 seconds. He was quoted as saying that in theory, a Windows PC actually has far more security measures in place deep inside the OS, but, because of the sheer amount of users of it, it is much more of a insecure machine, because all the hackers are targeting it. Microsoft has to constantly deal with this preasure, while Apple does not, so because of it, in actuallity, mac’s are not really that secure, it’s just that no massive squad of hackers are really focusing on attacking it. Google it, and be surprised, it might just bring tears to your crabapple eyes. Don’t even try and act like such an intelligent hacker as that man has no credibility or say on these matters, because you’re obviously lieing to yourself.
You people make me feel disgusted. Maybe your Windows machines keep on failing because you don’t know how to use a computer properly. I do, I bought my vista laptop almost 2 years ago, and it’s working great. In fact, my brother has a computer with XP that he has had for the last 5 years, and it’s working just as good as ever.
And, pffft. Aesthetics? I would say Sony has pretty good aesthetics, and even Dell too, especially Dell’s unique images that you can have on the back of your laptop giving it that real individual feel. The OS? I personally don’t like the colourey feel of XP, I like the dark glassy look of Vista, and like the new things that 7 has offered by my beta testing, and, I still don’t have a multi-touch compatible screen. Oh yeah, I forgot, that crabapple company doesn’t even have that, I guess when 7 does come out, they’ll have there own mac and pc guy, but the pc guy will be an old crack head, and the pc guy will be superman, and he’ll say “well, I’m a pc, and I can do multi touch, can you do that Mac?” “no, actually I can’t, what is that?” “oh it’s only a revolutionary new way to navigate your computer, I guess your too old to do that” (meaning that old school mac is so mundane, and still living in pre-2005, where the concept of multi touch on a desktop OS was just a dream)
April 14th, 2009
And, I forgot to say, when it comes to “look”, I personally love the look of windows compared to the mess of a look that is the mac os. It feels like some ridiculous toy, rather than some kind of proffessional OS. A toy, but a toy that was made for retarded children. It’s whole navigation method is so retarded, I would rather drink my own vomit than use a mac for more than a half an hour.
April 14th, 2009
Ooops….. big spelling error, I meant “but the mac guy will be an old crack head, and the pc guy will be superman”, instead of “but the pc guy will be an old crack head, and the pc guy will be superman”
May 8th, 2009
dude!
your a fucker ok,someone get him a mac so he can stfu!
u have no life…