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Attack marketing from Microsoft

Microsoft has released a 30 second ad to promote the Surface 4 computer and denigrate the iPad.

The video makes some good points about Surface’s ability to run full Office for Windows and the important external ports for USB and video.

It boasts that the Surface has a keyboard just as the iPad Pro now does.  Microsoft doesn’t point out that the Surface keyboard, which is always seen in their ads, is an add-on.  Just like the iPad Pro, you have to pay extra for a Surface keyboard.

Hard to believe?  Go to the typical Microsoft Store page for the Surface Pro 4 128GB.  Many of the photos on the page include a keyboard but you don’t get one for the high $899 sticker price.  You have to pay another $130 to get a keyboard.   Microsoft have been getting away with this trick since the Surface machines were first released and seem to get away with it.

Surface computers are nice pieces of hardware but are very expensive (with or without a keyboard).

So why is Microsoft stooping to lame attempts at comedy against a competitor?  They’d be better off boasting about the Surface’s benefits and being more competitive (and honest) with pricing.

Microsoft has tried this before.  The inept and factually incorrect ‘Scroogled‘ campaign against Gmail which tried to imply that Google ‘reads’ your email while Microsoft does not.  In fact, both companies ‘read’ incoming and outgoing messages for various reasons (as do most other mail hosts).

When will Microsoft figure out that these attacks on rivals make Redmond look petty, childish and mean spirited?  The ads are probably intended to go viral, and they do, but the ‘virus’ doesn’t necessarily carry the message that Microsoft wants.

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