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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cogito who wrote (58413)	11/9/2006 9:54:00 PM
From: KeepItSimple	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213182

Apple fires 'smug little twit' (No, the other one) theinquirer.net By Nick Farrell: Thursday 09 November 2006, 08:51 MAKER OF entertainment gear, Apple has decided to dump its 'Mac Guy' advertisements because the character is a 'smug little twit'. According to Radar Online, the advertising campaign was designed to show a PC guy and a Mac Guy talking about the advantages of their different systems. Of course the Mac Guy was supposed to win the argument. Alas while viewing audiences felt that while the Mac Guy may have proved his case, most of them wanted to pummel the smug little twit into a coma and jump on his bleeding body until the cops arrived. In fact most of them liked the PC guy, John Hodgman, better, which was not really the point. The Mac Guy was Justin Long, whose agent has confirmed that he is no longer hawking Macs for Apple and was getting on with his memorable film career. When the ads came out, Seth Stevenson, ad critic for Slate, complained that Long was just the sort of unshaven, hoodie-wearing, hands-in-pockets hipster we've always imagined when picturing a Mac enthusiast. He said Apple was parodying its own image while also cementing it. This is of course a bad thing when most people perceive Apple's main weakness is its brainwashed, smug fanboy base who send abuse to journalists who write stories they don't like through anonymous accounts in case their mummies find out.

To: Cogito who wrote (58413)	11/9/2006 10:31:16 PM
From: aaplfan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213182

The mere fact that Microsoft had to agree to that kind of concession to get Universal on board demonstrates their lack of real power. I mean, Zune launches next week, and Universal only just now signed up. I'm sure Microsoft resisted the hardware fees as long as they could, but Universal forced their hand. Exactly, it gave MSFT the leverage they needed to get a deal done. There's only so long that they can subsidize everyone and everything. It will be interesting to see how much, if any traction they will get this quarter. As long as Apple stays on their game, I still see nothing to worry about. I keep saying this because this is how every significant competitor I can think of has lost against MSFT: MSFT fumbles its way to a somewhat functional product while the market leader gets complacent or otherwise blows itself up.