New Apple Campaign

I love that Apple is "taking it up a notch" with this new campaign. However, I wish they had a more diverse group of spokes people. I think that the Macintosh platform has always been an easy sell for creative types like desingers, writers, illustrators, web geeks, etc. I want to hear from the hardcore Windows develpers and IT people who say .. "WOW OS X Rocks!" Or PC Ops teams who say "We ran our office on a Windows file sever and it was aweful ... now we use a Mac server and we have so much more up time and hassle free maintenance." Or a big coup would be a major e commerce site saying we switched from Microsoft servers to the new Mac OS X Xserve servers!"

Also, why not feature more "switchers" of color ... I assume these people are out there. That would be great to see ... a representative world wide group of "switchers" -- not just caucasians like myself who look pale from spending too much time inside in front of a computer screen.

Well Jon, from what I could tell while viewing a few of those videos is that these are IT people and former hardcore windows users. In fact the very first one was an IT guy who still uses windows at work.

But, I will agree that I was very surprised that all of these people were white. But I will give Apple the benefit of the doubt that in their next round they will have a more diverse grouping.

apparently mark @ http://www.boingboing.net/ is one of those people.

Steven, you are correct in that 25% (2 of 8) identify themselves as former(current) hardcore IT programers/developers who love their new Macs. That still left the rest of the "swtichers" (6 of the 8) identifying themselves in the spots as a writer, illustrator/writer, DJ, inerative producer, freelance PR guy and business writer. Where are the teachers, the kids, the CEOs, the farmers, the waitresses, the clergy ... you kow ... the NEW buyers or potential switchers. My point being that those creative types switching to a Mac seems a bit like "preaching to the choir" or at the very least, a real easy sell . The real question is how they contined to work on a PC for as long as they did wihtout switching till now. Apple has certainly been conspicuously targeting those with creative leanings since the first blue iMac.

Well overdue. I hope it sparks a flood of interest in the platform.

I'm surprised at the feedback (both here and on other major sites) about the apparent non-diversity of the first batch of ads (you can be sure there will be more) -- but how about this:

Liza Richardson - English extraction
Mark Frauenfelder - German / Jewish?
Dianne Druyff - Dutch extraction

Europe, all by itself, is a pretty diverse place, and while here in the Colonies we may see White Europeans and their descendants as one big undifferentiated mass, they have radically different languages, cultures, religious traditions....

Take Quebec and Ontario. Quebec is mainly French and Catholic, Ontario is mainly English/Scots/German and Protestant. Two provinces, two *very* different cultures, even down to the codes of law inherited from the parent countries.

That being said, can it be "proved" that Apple has a bias against/towards certain ethnicities? Do they only advertise during the (notoriously very white) Frasier or Friends?

I don't see these ads as being to truthful. I love OSX. But I don't find it a magnitude easier to use than XP. Some of these people tout that OSX is just so simple to use, when, in reality, it's not.

In reality, the big payoff isn't that it's just easier to use...which is what Apple is claiming in these ads.

Plus, it's a case of too-little-too-late. Why bring yourself to competition bashing at this point?

I am someone who switched platforms. I LOVE OSX but lets face it OSX is not ready for primetime. Once it is though IT WILL KICK ASS. With that said I think Apple is a bit late with the commericials. First, the "You can't do that on WINTEL machines" or "OH MY GOD my Mac is so much nicer" or "Dude, get a Mac is so much easier" is so retro. The idea for the commercials is boring, tired, and generic. The Macintosh should stand on its own. IT IS wonderful but IT IS not crash proof - actually far from it and real far from being perfect. The comparison bit is tired. It is like comparing Apples to Oranges. An Ad telling me the Mac is the platform of the heavens is like telling me Apple invented the Graphical User Interface or that those dog treats are really bacon.

Lastly, they are obviously not marketing to hispanics or anyone of color.

I would switch. Really. I'd buy a mac today, if I had the cash. Unfortunately, I don't. Last night, as an exercise, I put together a system in my shopping cart at www.newegg.com. Athlon XP 1500+, 512megs ram, 120gig drive. Case, power supply, the works. Including shipping from California to Ohio, it came to $501.

If I want a G4, I'm out three times that. OSX is beautiful, sexy, and has all the Unixy goodness that a long time Unix geek like myself craves. But until it either A) runs on PC or B) I find a spare $1400. It's going to be just something I hear about on the news.

A pile of PC parts does not make a PC. Sure, you could spend $500 on a do-it-yourself PC and consider it a huge savings, only *if* you don't put a dollar value on the time and expertise needed to put it together correctly. You neglected to specify what brand and model of memory, motherboard, power supply etc. you included; did you use the cheapest ones available? Remember, you get what you pay for, and when that power supply futzes out or something fries on the mobo, it's not such a great value anymore. I'm not saying Macs never have problems, but in the nearly 20 years that I've owned them, I've NEVER had a hardware-related problem more serious than a stuck floppy disk. When you pay that extra money for a Mac - or for a comparable high-end PC like a Voodoo (www.voodoopc.com) - you're getting superior hardware, ready to go, without the need to tweak or spend hours switching installer CDs. With a Mac, you're also buying the OS as an integrated part of the package; part of that money pays for OS development, and developing the iApps that you get for "free" as well. You didn't mention the cost of Windows and all its components...given that you can use OS X as a per-user-license-free server OS, the cost difference becomes quickly apparent - you'd have to shell out loadsamoney to get an appropriate Windows 2000 Advanced Server license and/or other things like MS-SQL....For my money, an iBook becomes a *stunning* value for what you can do with it.