In what’s becoming more and more like attack ads rather than traditional ones, Microsoft’s latest video ad claims that it costs $30,000 to fill a 120GB iPod classic while their own iPod competitor, the Zune, is a much better value for your money. How did they come up with that $30,000 claim you ask?
They based that on the assumption that someone who just bought an iPod owns absolutely no audio content of their own, be it on CD or in any form of downloaded songs and it would cost $30,000 to completely fill up the entire 120GB iPod. That dollar amount is true if that scenario would actually happen, but let’s face it; who honestly doesn’t have any audio of any kind? And if they didn’t, who’s to say they would fill it up entirely with music? The iPod classic also plays video, which takes up far more space than your typical music album. Once you factor those things into the equation, that $30,000 figure becomes even more unlikely.
Microsoft has really been going after Apple recently with ads on TV trying to show why buying a laptop loaded with Windows is a better value than a Mac. Now they’re going after iTunes and iPods. I think the attack ads will end there however because if they think that they’re in any position to compare any Windows Mobile based smartphone to an iPhone or iPod touch, they’re dead wrong.
That’s a really dirty technique Microsoft is using at this campaign. The core difference between Apple’s “Mac vs PC” ads and this “Price wars” is that Apple’s got humor, and Microsoft pretends to go serious, which makes its ads mean & unfair by definition. Nobody likes bullies.
I just have one question, what’s a zune. =)
The “Mac vs. PC” ads are just as bad. They too pander to the lowest common denominator customer and worst-case scenarios.
Fortunately for Microsoft, this add will appeal to the huge mass of idiots who believe everything they see on TV. They’ll think, “Gee, I don’t want to pay $30K to fill up my iPod, I better get a Zune.” Unfortunately for Microsoft though, they’re so far behind Apple in the portable music player market, they’ll never catch up… iPods are to portable players what Kleenex are to facial tissue… the standard…
I wonder what it will cost to fill an 120 GB Zune? According to their website it can contain 30.000 songs, funnily the same number an iPod can. Oh, and they introduced a service where you can download as much music as you want for $14,95 each month. The downside is that you can keep only 10 songs. Which results in a price of $1,50 for each song and a grand total of $45.000 to fill your Zune player, using the same reasoning Microsoft used for their add. Who is stupid now?