Apple might sue over “Laptop Hunters” advert

I can see the ad: "Apple has even reduced their prices on the laptops a whole $100 on their weakest model, and it is STILL overpriced compared to <x brand PC."

I'm also sure they can just modify the ad and put an asterix notice at the bottom with the date of that pricing, especially when they photograph the ad itself.

This is good evidence that competition drives down prices.

I really hope that the fruit-themed toy maker sues M$, it will be interesting

When I first seen the I'm a Mac ads, I was at University and worked as a Technican in PCWorld for my sins. I gotta say that we stocked maybe 3 products that were Mac Compatiable and at least one of those things was printable paper.

I liked the ads because it was a good concept, but I always thought MS should have released an ad with your wheezle Mac guy being crunched by a load of NFL players and it saying something to the effect of 'Gaming, another thing Mac can't do'

Pity MS is too big a company to get into that type of warfare...

p.s. my comment code includes the word 'Tit' whoop.

...$999 exactly?

I guess the Mac sells for $999.99?

MS should just say can you buy a laptop or Mac for $900?

Would annoy Apple even further if they had to drop the price again.

MS could do that all the way down to $500.

"There's nothing nice about Steve Jobs and nothing evil about Bill Gates."

I see Apple really has no defense against these ads, if they did they would use it. But as it stands I can buy any comparable laptop for about 600.00 And I wouldn't have to worry about it over heating or changing color. I could play games, write novels, and anything else I would like to do. Now if I buy an Apple my world suddenly shrinks as its compatibility lists does, so I have to install XP or Vista on it. As a Solaris admi I have yet to see a Mac running just OSX, but I have seen lots of bots in OSX, which means MAC users tend towards illegal software as their software costs so much and does so little. And most MACS are running admin rights for the local users so I am sure their security is tops

Technically speaking, MS couldn't turn against Apple for the "I'm a mac/I'm a PC" ads because Apple are technically correct, and all of the "features" of the mac would be provided by OEMs for laptops and desktops. However a simple cure for the current lawsuit would be a little subtitle saying "Filmed April 2009". The $1000 cap was set by the person, not by Microsoft, and also it had no where near the features the woman wanted, so it was unsuitible for her at it's price, which is now $999. I'm sorry but $999 to a HUMAN is still $1000 it just doesn't look like it.
I personally think Apple are just trying to score some free advertising off the back of it by trying to sue Microsoft. They're going to be in the spotlight as a result so both companies will shift units. I do however think that Apple need to re think it's pricing structure, most tradespeople these days don't use a "Think of a number and double it" approach to pricing stuff up, I'm surprised Apple can continue to get away with it.

It's quite simple really, generally Apple products cost a lot of money to invent, develop and make, it's a "premium product."

The criteria was a 17" LCD AND under $1000. Reality check, folks.

The only "premium" part of a Macbook is the casing and maybe the keyboard. A $30 premium tops I reckon.

The rest is bogo standard laptop parts.

Maybe a few custom fittings to get them inside the case but with computer modelling/prototyping, I'm sure thats not too time consuming or difficult.

Esentially they are just charging what they feel folks will pay plus X%. That ploy worked fine 18 months ago but now its starting to bite.

You'd have to be a bit of a loser to buy a 'laptop' with a 17" screen.

That was the lamest thing about the ads, losers buying rubbish.

Common, you couldn't be such a fool. You got to be just trolling around. Right?

Damn Apple reminds me soo much of my ex. Hypocrisy and lunacy.

what you mean like "supercomputer on your desktop"
or any other apple advertisement, in fact any advertisement at all. if they got rid of the false advertising there would be pretty much no advertising at all.

To add to what Dan was saying. Every one of the adds the user lists what they want, be it memory, hard drive size, screen size etc. They want this functionality for "under 1000 dollars"

What the Laptop hunter adds illustrate is that for the same money you can get better features from a PC. Apple has nice designs and they certainly have the "brand" recognition, but in the end when you subtract brand from the equation you get less laptop for your dollar.

You can argue as long as you want about quality (real vs perceived quality) but at the end of the day, if the person gets a laptop that works for them then they are winning. You can argue that the Mac "would have lasted longer" but then you can also say that with the PC they can replace more often since it costs less and they get the benefit of having better features both in the initial PC and because the costs allow them to upgrade more often (new tech means faster, larger each new generation).

Well M$ has been taking it on the chin for years over "Hi I'm a Mac / I'm a PC" commercials and not being a cry baby. Seems that poor spoiled little Steve'y can't take a spoon full of his own medicine.

'[Apple's lawyer] said that legally Apple "would have a leg to stand on."'

Just the one, then? *snork*

Hopping mad, so they were!

Yeah yeah... Apple products seemed so damn good for many many years... It had exclusive design, and was dependable... BUT... as many people may have NOT noticed, Apple now is selling it's product in larger scales, like the other retailers, and the larger de scale the BIGGER the problems that would happen become.

Back in the beginning of the 90's, Apple was so niche that a problem on it's laptops wouldn't be BIG NEWs... It's support would take care of it and there were nothing else to see, move away...

NOW Apple want to flog it's premium priced hardware to everyone crazy enought to buy it, but Apple managed to forget one simple rule of market share dominance: to have better products.

End of history.

ROTFLMAO too short a reply to be a true die hard steve jobs fan boi. Lesson 1. long replys and many replys make you out to not be a troll but a fan boi ;) FAIL

"Supercomputing on your desktop" is not innacurate these days.... folding@home with a high end gpu... this was the realm of supercomputers only a few years ago.

Isn't this just the pot (apple) calling the kettle (microsoft) black. For years apple has lied about microsoft and finally microsoft stands up for its self and apple cries about it. Boo Hoo big bad microsoft is bullying me..Give me a break

I still think this is a vicious rumour. But if it is true, shame on you Apple. If anything Apple should just release new adverts countering these and explain their hardware. Look at a Dell Adamo that competes with the Air. It starts at $2000 and goes up to over $3000, not cheap.
I heard a rumour that Apple is bringing back matte finish to it's products again as an option. I hope it is true and you can chalk me down for a new 13" Macbook Pro this fall after Snow Leopard releases. Sure it costs more but sometimes it's worth it.

I like Macs and I use both but Apple is really starting to annoy me. Also, my new Intel i7 computer running WIndows 7 has really impressed me.
I think Apple can hand it out but can not take it.

Why do Mac zealots always mention Dell when comparing PCs to Macs. Dell is overpriced chunk as well. You can get a budget laptop/desktop with almost exactly the same insides half the price of a Mac. It's all made in the same Chinese factories anyway.

Probably why the new ads say "Under $700." Suck it Apple!

Honestly? Apple is going to sue over a lousy buck? All MS has to do is change the number quoted by the narrator down a bit and just run the same commercial, end of story. And what about all the other price points that PCs compete at... like all of them? There's so much competition among laptop PCs that someone is always running some sort of deal or sale or whatever. It's cake to find a laptop PC for under $900, heck, even $600. And you can get netbooks for less than $400, which are fine for surfing and basic docs.

And I challenge the fanbois to somehow spin that in their favor.

Oh go on buy that Angelina Jolie motherbrood!

Using guns was sarxy and glamorous, you knowed that.

'Saw johnny scarecrow make his rounds
In his jet-black mac (which he won't give back) --
Stole it from a snow man...

Too late the last if these adds I saw was a family looking for a laptop for about $700 so they can do photo shearing. So what is going to be the excuse for a ridiculous law suit? The mention of Apple on the M$ add?

If the laptop is $999, and they only get $1000, it wouldn't work out. The sales tax would put them over.

The marked price for the newer laptops may be $999, but microsoft has smartly shown the laptop hunters paying for their computers at the cash register (which includes TAX). Thus the $999 apple laptop cannot be had for under $1000 out the door.

umm... $999.00 add the tax, Steve. It ain't less than a grand. ROFL - MS has not even advertised a system close to the 1k cut off.

yes the wrong spelling is stressed. It's still to funny! wekekekekekek!

M$ can still advertise laptop under $500.

truth hurts.

This the most funniest and most embarrassing apple has done.
"because we now have laptops under $1000 - now only $999"

wahahahahahahah! kekkekekek

Yeah, Macs cost a lot of money to invent, sure. Most of all the CPU (oops, Motorola and now Intel did that) and graphics hardware (my apologies, if a Mac even has useable graphics hardware, it's from ATI or NVIDIA). Apple hardly invents any new tech, they may just use it ahead of other people.

An argument that makes more sense maybe that there is such a little margin of profit in computer hardware, and Apple may (quite rightfully, I think) that it should make a bit more money on a piece of its hardware than just 5%. On the other side it certainly does that with its vastly successful lifestyle gadgets, like the iPhone or iPod. Doesn't justify their apparent overpricing their computer hardware though.

You just have to laugh. Apple has been pulling this garbage for years and as soon as they become the target of ridicule they go crying to their lawyers.

I have four machines running in my house and all of them have some incarnation of MS Windows on them. All work fine, I haven't seen a BSOD for years, and they aren't teeming with viruses. So if you want to talk about advertising inaccuracies...

On the flip side i have to admit being a little negative towards Apple. I had a Mac for music production around 2003, but something on the motherboard burned out in 14 months of use. Then Apple tried to pull the "It must have been something you did" to worm out of the warranty so I got the machine fixed, sold it, and never looked back.

Incidentally, I now have a Windows based PC running as the brain of my home studio, it has never let me down. Macs being a necessary item for artistic computer endeavors also seems to be an outdated idea.

Steve Jobs, go back to your Ipod.

Of course Macs use Intel processors, NVidia graphics, Apple doesn't make their own screens or hard drives, etc.

But Macs do have fancy polycarbonate or Al cases vs. cheap plastic, and they use shaped Li-poly batteries vs. regular Li-ion cells, which allow them to be flat and thinner than PC laptops. And it lets the vents be at the back of the laptop, blowing onto the screen, so you don't have to worry about covering up the vents when using the laptop on your lap, a pillow, etc. The fan in my MacBook is basically inaudible at 1800 RPM (typical) and Apple tends to use lower voltage parts from Intel when possible so you get more battery life for the same performance as a typical PC laptop. The touchpads are typically quite large and are now made of glass which provides a nice feel. The innards have good insulation and ducting and layout so the hard drive rarely gets above 30C and the keyboard and wrist rests never get very warm (unlike my PC laptops where the hard drives will slowly get to 50C and above and the wrist rests get painfully hot).

So, the BMW vs. Chevy (or whatever) analogy is not very good because Macs DO share quite a few parts with PC laptops, but I would say MacBooks are clearly better than most PC laptops in subtle ways. You may argue that these subtleties don't matter, just as many people argue that there's no practical difference between a BMW and Chevy because they will both get you from point A to point B, but they do matter to some people.

Yes and as I responded to Eddie, the fancy casings etc. should be no more than a $30 difference in manufacturing cost over any other reasonable PC laptop.

It doesnt warrant the high mark-up.

What about the large custom li-po battery? I imagine that adds at least another $50 to the cost.

But that's beside the point. The idea that the MacBook's arguably superior design and in some cases superior components don't warrant a particular markup is your *opinion*.

If Apple was selling a product that was *in no way* better than an average PC laptop and charging a $400 markup for it, then I would be right on board with you saying that the markup is for literally nothing and is therefore unwarranted.

But all you're saying is that you don't value the advantages that a MacBook offers as much as the increase in price--not stating a fact that applies to everyone.

@ Erik, dude, quick History lesson for you;

Apple had 14% Market share in 1993, so in the early 90s they were nowhere near as niche as they are now and a problem with their 'laptops' would be news since they didn't have that many it was so new to them a failure would've been big news, like the Newton, and it's problems were BIG news and left a legacy that Ate Up Martha!

Which would be a great new ad campaign for M$, just for those saavy enough to know the reference.

In the end the commercials don't need to be pulled just re-edited.... "Because Apple was so offended by this ad we have changed the name of the participants to protect the fearful...." and then put black cutouts on the apple laptop and a *BEEP* when the name is mentioned. Cla$$ic skirting the law while not changing the message.

X~P

Nick Farrell has no idea how the law works, and put his ignorance on display. Courts aren't an extension of marketing depts, and if Apple comes out looking like hypocrites, it wouldn't matter so much if they were several $million richer. And a smart person would know that whatever Apple puts in their ads would have no bearing whatsoever on a lawsuit about these ads. Did Nick Farrell have a giant superior morality enema today or what?

Nick Farrell has no idea how the law works, and put his ignorance on display. Courts aren't an extension of marketing depts, and if Apple comes out looking like hypocrites, it wouldn't matter so much if they were several $million richer. And a smart person would know that whatever Apple puts in their ads would have no bearing whatsoever on a lawsuit about these ads. Did Nick Farrell have a giant superior morality enema today or what?

This threat just makes Apple look petty and pathetic.

Apple should just put out their own ads and draw consumers attention to quality and whatever the Apple's do well, if anything.

You state that Macbooks run cooler due to the construction of the case, etc.

I find it quite funny then that *4* of the 10 Macbooks my department purchased last year died in under 12 months literally due to overheating.

Apple said to us like they do to so many others that we must have been mis-using them... well if using them in a general office setting from 9-5 1 or 2 days a week is mis-using them then we're all in serious trouble.

Meanwhile, the 46 Lenovo laptops we bought at the same time... yup! All are still working and not 1 has had to go in for warranty repair.

Hey 999 that's actualy 666 flipd...
What demonic mind thought of this price! A deal with the Devil!
just kidding around... ")
Anyways this "cases" never cease to amuse me. ")