UPDATED 9/21/2008, approx. 9:30 p.m.: Microsoft is finally taking on Apple with its new “I’m a PC” commercial. First time I saw it the other day, I was pleasantly surprised. Sends a good message of what you can do with a PC, though it doesn’t directly address any issues Apple’s Mac raises. Still, great message.
Let me give Dell, Gateway, HP/Compaq, IBM, Sony and even Microsoft some free advice: Team up, co-op and go after Apple. (While there’s still enough of you left.)
It’s eating your lunch and it’ll be the worm that eats into a sizeable amount of your profits, unless you do something about it.
International Herald Tribune, Oct. 22, 2007:
Driven in part by what analysts call a halo effect from the iPod and the iPhone, the market share of the company’s personal computers is surging.
Two research firms that track the computer market said last week that Apple would move into third place in the United States behind Hewlett-Packard and Dell on Monday, when it reports product shipments in the fiscal fourth quarter as part of its earnings announcement.
Apple has jumped to 6.81 percent market share of the OS market, according to the latest research from Net Applications.
The figures confirm a slowdown in market share in October, which quickly became an increase once Leopard reached retail, driving Apple’s slice of the online client market up 3.34 percent.
Industry watchers may note that 6.81 percent is Apple’s largest slice of the market for a decade, putting the company in second place behind systems from Microsoft.
Though, to the credit of the gang noted above, Apple is not playing fair. In its Apple vs. PC ads, it’s going after an industry, not a specific corporation (for the most part). It’s playing the David to the collective Goliaths.
Really, as I’m sure others have noted, it’s a smart move. Do you really expect the others to take time away from marketing against each other to go after Apple — a move that, if successful, would help their competitors. Can’t have that!
Since Apple, the Mac and even Steve Jobs seem to have a bit of a cult following, guess it’s Apple vs. PC ads is more of cause marketing, than out-right, profit-motivated marketing.
So, whenever you can, don’t market against a competitor; go after a faceless, substance-lacking industy. Like the PC industry.
– Mike (who typed this post on his Dell Dimension E510 desktop)
P.S.
It’d be a good reference piece to name similar corporation vs. a collective marketing efforts. Can you name some?
