Switch & Bait : The Ultimate “Get A Mac” Strategy?
11:21 pm, April 20th, 2009, Nicole Martinelli
Thinking further about the new Mac ads — and how if I were considering buying a Mac over a PC they wouldn’t sway me — I came across this post about an accidental switch & bait that turned one PC person, political-science professor Harry Farrell, into a Mac user:
“I was working in my office, when a work-study knocked on my door with a brand new MacBook Pro, which he told me had been sent over from my school’s technology program. I was nonplussed, and told him that he must be wrong, that I hadn’t ordered one etc…
So I finally acquiesced, on the grounds of gift-horses, and the wisdom of not inquiring too closely into the dental conditions thereof, and unpacked it. Two hours later, I was completely hooked – more rational and altogether nicer than my Windows box, while much smoother than my Ubuntu installation. I would have wanted to take it home and marry it, if I wasn’t married already. Three hours later, I discovered it had been a mistake, and that it was in fact intended for a colleague with a vaguely similar name… And I had to give it back.”
Needless to say, the prof in question went out and got a Mac. I had the same experience, in reverse. The IT department where I had just begun working went into econ-o-mode and decided that some of us had to have PCs. It didn’t really hit home until what was immediately christened the “craptop” was in my hands: it was apparent to me that I was never going to use it. I took it home, turned it on. Shook my head. Gave it back. Used my own old MacBook. Made enemies of the IT crowd.
Farrell says he tried proposing the scheme to Apple, to no avail. Kind of a shame, my guess is that if you had a loaner (“mistake”) computer, you’d have hard time giving it up.
Via Crooked Timber
Image used with a CC license, thanks to speedesign
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in News | Comment on this article
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As a Mac person I found this ad entertaining. BUT to be fair, I found it rather a case of “people in glass houses…”.
I recently saved the iTunes Terms and Conditions as PDF.
It was 21 pages. Who can read that much legalese.
So its rather hypocritical IMO.
Paul, on April 21st, 2009 at 3:01 am
Lawyers read it dude. Lawyers.
the Dude, on April 21st, 2009 at 6:05 am
Many years ago, Apple did this very thing: the promotion was called “Test Drive a Mac.” Customers were given a Mac (I think it was a Plus?) to take home and use for a period of time. Don’t know how well it worked; but this was the late 80s and the market wasn’t anything like it is now — back then, no one could imagine that we’d ALL have computers, much less thin portable ones or wireless telephones the size of a deck of cards.
ItsGene, on April 21st, 2009 at 8:53 am
If you read the copy on the ad (which I am slightly ashamed to say that I did) you will notice that this is not the legal copy for owning a PC or PC software (aka: Microsoft software) and your rights to that hardware or software (as is most of the copy for iTunes Terms and Conditions). The copy on the ad is how to operate that PC and subsequent software and is in response to what the “PC” is saying that is not accurate. Legal disclaimers are expected to be long (because lawyers must justify their existence) but how to operate your computer should be easy and when you say something is simple you shouldn’t have to disclaim it. The point is NOT that PC companies have lawyers and Apple doesn’t.
kRock, on April 21st, 2009 at 10:00 am
@theDude – No, not even Lawyers read it. Take it from me, I know.
Tom R., on April 23rd, 2009 at 3:47 pm