So people my age remember those Pepsi vs Coke challenge commercials. Furthermore, what’s this I hear about Burger King offering one cent whoppers to one up rival McDonald’s? I bring this up because there’s nothing new in throwing shade at your rival. But now, IT service is doing it. Microsoft vs Apple: Battle for the commercial.
So let’s look at Microsoft’s Surface Go commercial. It’s set to the tune of Christmas classic, “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”.? A 10-year-old girl sings about wanting a Surface Go, urging her grandmother not to buy an iPad. The iPad was good when she was 6, but now she needs a ‘real computer’. The girl wants a real computer to do coding and save the manatees, and only Surface Go can help her. Dang, iPad!
However, the iPad Pro threw a little shade of it’s own. Their commercial also features a kid, somewhere between 10-13 years old. He’s doing everything on this iPad all day long: studying, talking with friends, buying food, and researching. An adult neighbor sees him on his iPad in the backyard. Then she asks, “What are you doing on your computer?”. The kid replies, “What’s a computer?”. This hints that the PC, which Microsoft helped start, is becoming so obsolete that today’s kids don’t even know what a computer is.
Between these two commercials, I think Microsoft Surface Go wins this one. I give it to them because trust me, as someone who works in computer repair, the PC ‘computer’ era isn’t dead. Obviously, more people are on mobile devices. But most people will tell you their desktop is equally as important. Will it be by 2025? That I don’t know. Also, Microsoft’s commercial had a little subtle social commentary. The girl talked about wanting to do coding. Keep in mind there’s a push to get girls and young women interested into coding and bridge the gap between men and women in IT. And Microsoft Surface can do that better than iPad, or so the commercial says. Who do you think wins Microsoft vs Apple: Battle for the commercial?