Marketing

New Microsoft ad says iPhone 6 Plus only makes Siri bigger, not smarter

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 6, 2017

Friday, Windows giant Microsoft published a new Apple-bashing ad on its YouTube channel.

The 30-second television commercial shows off the latest version of Cortana, Microsoft's Siri-like personal assistant, running on the Lumia 830 and interacting with a bunch of built-in applications.

Cortana amusingly brags to Siri about being able to perform functions Apple's personal assistant can't, like alert users to leave early for an appointment using traffic alerts, remind them of things based on who calls or texts and more.

Microsoft disses Apple in Christmas Surface ad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

Software giant Microsoft is no stranger to Apple bashing. Every once in a while, the Redmond giant take aim at Apple's iPad tablets and MacBook Air ultra-thin notebooks by putting out aggressively conceived television commercials for its Surface tablets.

Just in time for the looming holiday shopping season, Microsoft started airing a brand new Surface Pro ad that argues that its tablet convertible with a kickstand, keyboard cover and desktop apps is a better deal than the MacBook Air.

Microsoft’s latest Skype ad promotes Apple gear

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 14, 2014

Microsoft Canada on Friday published an interesting commercial on its Facebook Page depicting “the world's first wireless orchestra” comprised of New York City's celebrated subway musicians kept in sync with a remote conductor thanks to Skype.

The video features a bunch of Apple's MacBook Pro notebooks that run the Skype software, while iPhones make a few notable appearances as well.

Someone in Cupertino should send marketing wizards in Redmond a thank you note for advertising for Apple.

Details of Telltale’s upcoming game based on HBO’s Game of Thrones series leak

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 14, 2014

Before revealing the first story details and premier trailer of “Tales from the Borderlands”, its upcoming adventure game based on on Gearbox and 2K’s Borderlands 2, Telltale yesterday offered a glimpse into an upcoming “Game of Thrones” game based on HBO’s award-winning fantasy drama television series, itself adapted from of “A Song of Ice and Fire”, George R. R. Martin's series of fantasy novels.

Filing as another episodic adventure game, the game follows the storyline of House Forrester detailed in the book “A Dance with Dragons,” the fifth book of the series, with an interesting twist: players will be permitted to assume the role of any of the five members of House Forrester in various locations around Westeros and Essos.

Needless to say, your actions affect the rest of House Forrester. “Multiply the actions of one character by five, and you’re truly playing the Game of Thrones … where you win, or you die,” notes the blurb.

New Microsoft ad pits Lenovo’s Yoga 3 Pro convertible to MacBook Air

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

Microsoft's Windows channel on YouTube yesterday released a new commercial painting Lenovo's Yoga Pro 3 convertible laptop as a better portable computer overall than Apple's ultra-thin MacBook Air.

Titled 'Let's Dance', the 30-second commercial is critical of the Apple machine's lack of a touchscreen while praising multi-mode flexibility of the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, concluding that once you add the touchscreen to the mix, “it’s game over” because the Yoga 3 Pro proves there’s “more than one way to do what you want”.

iPad Air 2 costs roughly the same to build as its predecessor

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 28, 2014

Apple's latest iPad Air 2 costs roughly the same as its predecessor, an analysis from the research firm IHS quoted Tuesday by Re/Code has determined. An entry-level Wi-Fi-only model with sixteen gigabytes of storage costs an estimated $275 in parts, excluding costs associated with sales, marketing, advertising, packaging, software licensees, research and development and so forth.

It's interesting that Apple pays about $60 for NAND flash chips in the high-end 128GB model and only $9.20 on memory for the low-end 16 GB devices. At retail, the difference between the 128 and 16GB model is $300. “Apple reaps a pretty good profit for all that memory,” IHS analyst Andrew Rassweiler observed.

MasterCard promotes Apple Pay in TV commercials

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

MasterCard, one of Apple's launch partners for Apple Pay, has begun airing new television commercials during last night's Game 1 highlighting Apple's mobile payments service, which became available at more than 220,000 locations in the United States with the release of iOS 8.1 this Monday.

“Fans who use their MasterCard with Apple Pay are enjoying priceless surprises, even at the World Series,” the voiceover can be heard saying. And what exactly might those “priceless surprises” be?

How about tickets to the games and even “meeting a baseball legend” such as George Brett and other “once in a lifetime experiences”?

Jump past the fold to watch the ads now.

New Samsung ad calls iPhone 6 Plus a Galaxy Note imitation

Cody Lee ∙ September 14, 2014

Samsung began airing a new TV spot this weekend for the Galaxy Note 4—its new flagship handset that begins shipping next month. Like most of the company's recent ads, this one goes after Apple, with a specific focus on its just-announced iPhone 6 Plus.

Titled "Then and Now," the commercial points out that while Apple prepares to begin selling its first handset with a display over 5 inches, Samsung has been doing it for years with its Galaxy Note line. It essentially calls the iPhone 6 Plus a Note imitation.

Apple dispatching Greg Joswiak to speak at inaugural Code/Mobile conference next month

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 22, 2017

Greg Joswiak, Apple's Vice President of iPod, iPhone and iOS Product Marketing, will be speaking at the inaugural Code/Mobile conference next month, Re/code confirmed today.

“Joz,” as he is called by friends and colleagues, will be sharing details on Apple's latest product announcements, the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Pay and Apple Watch.

He's also expected to talk about iOS 8 and more.

Samsung ads lampoon iPhone 6 screen, battery, multitasking, Apple Watch and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 11, 2014

Galaxy maker Samsung on Thursday published a series of advertisements on its YouTube channel. The commercials have been designed to ridicule Apple's latest announcements.

The six-installment series, which Samsung is running under the 'Note The Difference' tagline, targets pretty much everything, from Apple's botched live stream to the iPhone 6's screen size, multitasking and battery life to — funny you should ask — the star of the show: the Apple Watch.

I've included the videos for your viewing pleasure right after the break so watch them now and join us in comments.

Samsung uses Steve Jobs quote against Apple: ‘no one is going to buy a big phone’

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 10, 2017

Always eager to respond to Apple's latest moves swiftly and boldly, Samsung of South Korea took to Twitter following yesterday's iPhone 6/Apple Watch/Apple Pay press conference to share an interesting banner which uses Steve Jobs's own words as a weapon against Apple to dismiss its decision to make bigger iPhones as long overdue.

“No one is going to buy a big phone,” reads the quote on Samsung's snarky anti-iPhone Galaxy Note 4 banner. “Guess who surprised themselves and changed their mind,” another line reads.

The attached image is accompanied by the following message on Twitter: “Big improvements and innovation come with change - even they thought so”.

Poll: what should Apple name the new iPhone?

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 9, 2014

As we count down the remaining hours before Apple kicks off its exciting media event at 10am PT / 1pm ET, a lot of confusion has risen as to what kind of moniker the company might adopt for its next iPhone model which the press dubbed the iPhone 6.

Now, rumors have pointed to a bunch of different names for the handset, ranging from a clean “iPhone” and ”iPhone 6” to the highly dubious branding schemes such as “iPhone L”, “iPhone Air”, “iPhone Pro” and even ”iPhone+”.

This is your chance to voice your opinion. You'll find a non-scientific poll after the break asking you what you think Apple should call its next iPhone so cast your vote and join us in comments.