14 DAY TRIAL // Just feast your eyes on one of a kind sight. A Microsoft ad for Windows Vista containing what it appears to be an Apple computer. Currently, an entire dispute rages on over the ad that you can see in the image on the left. The focus of the ad is of course the white laptop featured in the background. While there is no actual way of telling the developer it does suggest an Apple computer.
Now, with the marketing campaign for Windows Vista, Microsoft has been anything but subtle. In fact, Microsoft bought as much space as possible with a budget of $500 million and used it to advertise Windows Vista. The real question is why in the world would an Apple computer be featured in a Microsoft ad? And there is no reason for that.
The argument so far has been over the brand of the laptop. There are some that say it's an iBook. And then there are others that swear that the computer is in fact a MacBook. The author of the image claims to have shot the picture at Microcenter. But no matter how hard I tried I failed to find another example. For me, this is reason enough to raise an eyebrow and to judge this with suspicion. I know my way around Photoshop, and this would be a child's play. So if you find any other examples of this ad, please let us know, just to dispute the fact that it is a fake.
And then there is the fact that Apple does not have monopoly over white laptops. This could simply be a portable computer that features ports similar to Apple. Although, by the looks of it, Sony VAIO and Averated are out of the question.
The bottom line is that Microsoft has no interest in advertising the fact that Windows Vista can run on Intel based Macs. The fact that it does run on them is not disputed by Microsoft, but then the commercial should only feature Windows Vista Business and Ultimate. Windows Vista Home Basic and Home Premium do not belong in an advertisement also featuring an Apple computer as virtualization is permitted through the Vista EULA and supported only for the Business, Enterprise and Ultimate editions of the operating system. And a last argument is the fact that every Apple computer comes with Mac OS X. Do you think Microsoft want Apple to increase its share of the OS market?