Microsoft and Apple are two companies who have a long checkered past together. While the companies do occasionally come together on issues or agendas, they are quite different in approach to typical business practices.
Over the last decade, Microsoft and Apple have both introduced many new products that overlap including the Windows Phone/iPhone, Surface/iPad, Zune/iPod, and Windows 8/OS X 10.8. With most of these products, Microsoft and Apple have released advertisements to engage the consumer and raise awareness about their new goods.
The intention of this article is not to state which is better (and we know the comments will likely include many for and against anyway) but to take a closer look at how each company chooses to announce significant new products for their respective consumers. The products in each category are listed by their announcement date with no other reasoning behind their order.
Smartphones:
The first iPhone commercial debuted during the Oscars back in 2007 and was rather simple in delivery, with actors from several famous movies answering phones and saying, “Hello”. That’s it, a very simple montage of “hello” scenes from movies and it ends with the iPhone ringing, waiting for it to be answered.
Microsoft’s first Windows 8 commercial was all about high energy and Windows 8 touch friendliness. As you can see in the video above, Microsoft highlighted touch input as well as the new Modern UI and some of the higher quality apps like Fresh Paint.
The commercial was designed to highlight the features at a glance for Windows 8 without bogging the consumer down with overzealous details. In short, show the features quickly, generate interest, and then follow-up later with more in-depth informative advertisements once consumers are aware of the new platform.
Wrap-Up:
You can certainly see the parallels and differences between Microsoft’s and Apple’s advertising styles over the many devices each company has introduced. There are some similarities between the first advertisements for each company’s smartphone platform but the music player introduction advertisements were opposites in their approach.
Who had the better advertisements? That’s for you to decide but we hope that this article gave you better insight how each company approaches introducing new products to the consumer.