Microsoft’s been doing a stellar job promoting Apple lately, securing placement of its “iPad-like tablets” on CNN and the NFL. But it looks like Redmond has decided to give up and start pushing Apple products.
Microsoft published an ad on Facebook today that highlighted Skype’s ability to keep people in sync, but the real headliner is a huge orchestra of MacBooks — and there’s not a PC in sight.
The ad features a photo of a conductor in New York City’s Bryant Park, surrounded by an array of 11 MacBooks connected to the city’s celebrated subway musicians. Microsoft’s ad comes with the tagline, “The world’s first digital orchestra stays in sync with Skype,” but it looks like the MacBooks and iPhones (as well as the musicians using them) steal the show.
Watch the MacBook orchestra’s performance below.
Thanks: Fred!
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
19 responses to “MacBook orchestra steals the spotlight in Microsoft’s latest ad”
Anybody have any Idea why Microsoft would be using Macs and iPhones for this?
Because they wanted the whole thing to work, obviously.
because Microsoft is primarily still a software company. If you were already using Windows chances are probably that you would already have been using Skype. (if you were using Hangouts, it wouldn’t matter to Microsoft anyway because you are still using Windows)
Now, if you were on OSX however, chances are that you would be split between Facetime and probably Skype, so the focus is there, to get you to use their software.
You should get an award for this reasoning!
Oh stop it, you!
That does seem to make entirely too much sense for a blog comment. WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM???
Times are changing and with a new head at the helm of Microsoft, so is the company culture. Just yesterday Microsoft announced that they’ll be open sourcing .NET, the CLR and GC on the MIT license (some would say, the crown jewels). Also, they’ll be supporting OS X and Linux. Microsoft realizes that they can’t survive as a Windows company and they need to be a software company that embraces every platform.
Microsoft’s new strategy is cloud-first, mobile-first. They don’t care if you’re running Windows, Linux, OS X, iOS or Android as long as you’re connecting to their cloud and using their services.
As a software developer, I like the direction Microsoft is taking. Now I can develop my web services with .NET and my iOS apps on my MacBook without skipping a beat. I do think that we need to begin looking at this company in a new light.
I don’t think this was originally conceived as an ad. It looks like some guys made a short film then Microsoft co-opted it for their ad by saying “look they used Skype” if it was an ad there is no way microsoft would have used MacBooks, and iPhones. plus there is no branding
Because even they won’t use Windows 8
Is it me or was there practically zero Skype branding in this ad?! For all I know these iPhone wielding, MacBook Pro lovers (and likely edited using Final Cut Pro) were all using FaceTime.
Do we know for sure this was a commercial funded by Microsoft or just someone’s gnarly idea to get a bunch of talented street musicians together for this experiment?
Impressive to be certain but this commercial has NOTHING to do with Microsoft or Skype. Even if that was the software they used to connect it was still all about the Apple hardware.
FaceTime…. I was thinking the same thing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it really was. Everything Microsoft touches turns to crap. Anyone remember VirtualPC?
skype is dead for me. once they started to push crappy expensive subscriptions for screen sharing and video calls then make them free. They killed the look and feel and usability. Hopefully new version and original designers should get back to work.
They should’ve replaced all the Bose headphones with Beats for the Apple trifecta! But seriously this was pretty cool.
Most people don’t even know (or care) that Skype is owned by Microsoft. To the average joe its just a really cool commercial showing off some computer magic that Apple is already known for.
I didn’t see anything that said that was a Microsoft ad. Looked like an indie movie. If it is indeed from Microsoft, it was very nice of them to demonstrate the effectiveness of Apple technology. Keep up the great business decisions.
Were it not for this article, there is absolutely nothing in this ad that would ever have me know this was to promote Skype OR Microsoft. I would have definitely looked at this as an ad for Apple’s devices only.
They didn’t use facetime because facetime is LITELERALLY HITLER!
You should see what i commented down there…
Ain’t Apple awesome?