Katie Marsal
While it was Apple who for years targeted Windows switchers to the Mac platform, the tables have turned as now Microsoft is now the underdog, focusing its efforts on trying to win over MacBook users with its Surface Pro hybrid computers.
In its latest effort to attract potential switchers, Microsoft has debuted a new website called "Making the switch: MacBook to Surface Pro 3." The site aims to ease the transition from one platform to another, providing information on making the jump to the latest-generation Surface Pro 3.
The help guide is divided into four sections explaining the basics of Windows 8.1, what MacBook users need to know, how to move their content to the new hardware, and how to use the Surface Pro 3 with Apple products and services like the iPhone, iCloud and iTunes.
In particular, the "Surface Pro 3 for MacBook users" section of the site explains unique Windows features that could confuse users making the jump from a Mac, including right-click, keyboard shortcuts, searching, and installing applications. There's also a section devoted to viruses that notes "most computers, including Macs, can get malware," before detailing the protection tools included in Windows 8.1.
The new website is just the latest part of an ongoing campaign by Microsoft which has pitted the Surface Pro 3 directly against Apple's hot selling MacBook Air. The ads espouse the virtues of the Surface Pro 3 over the MacBook Air, including its tablet-style touchscreen capabilities, removable keyboard, integrated kickstand, and Bluetooth stylus.
The Surface-versus-MacBook Air campaign has been running for months, though it's unclear how well the company's efforts have been received. Microsoft's entire Surface strategy has appeared ineffective at times, with NFL announcers continuing to call the Surface an "iPad" — despite a sponsorship deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars — while news anchors on CNN continued to use their iPads even as Surface devices sat on the table in front of them.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
60 Comments
Careful. Win 8.1 is not a good time to introduce anyone to Surface Pro! Edit: and by not a good time I mean it's a horrible time! Win 8.1 with its "Modern" environment and traditional desktops is a astonishingly complicated. (source: my experience supporting Windows users.)
Just look at that photo of the Surface Pro! On the left, sitting quietly is the elegant MacBook. On the right, a garbled Heath Robinson monstrosity. Like Google and Blackberry, Microsoft need to get out of hardware.
Lol
Surface = there's nothing much underneath, just a superficial case of lipstick on a PIG. The underlying OS is world of hurt. For example: Just try to recall where a document gets saved, usually in the documents folder by default. The OS is so primitive if you are working in another folder say a finance folder , you would think that it would save it there, no it always takes you back to the default system directory "documents" . and then you have to manually move it over to where you want to store it for maintaining a well organized system. There are literally 100's of things like this in Windows which drive me completely nuts when using it at work. It tries to help you when intuitively I don't need help and I have to cancel out the dialog boxes to get back where I was, and at other times it doesn't do something which is intuitively obvious. This example it typical of Windows and even after 25 years they still haven't fixed it. The Mac OS is a polished OS with seamless interactions an highly productive ways of doing simple things. Windows is tangled mess of an OS and I look forward to the day I no longer am forced to use it when I retire. Typical Microsoft double speak : "Windows features that could confuse users making the jump from a Mac, including right-click, keyboard shortcuts, searching, and installing applications." yes they are correct Windows features are overly complicated and not obvious. There is no need to switch why would a sane person want to switch from the Mac OS that makes everything simple to one that makes the same features un-intuitive, slow and more complicated. Yes that's a jump! a dumb jump!
[quote name="Benjamin Frost" url="/t/184020/new-microsoft-site-targets-users-looking-to-switch-from-macbook-to-surface-pro#post_2654057"]Just look at that photo of the Surface Pro! On the left, sitting quietly is the elegant MacBook. On the right, a garbled Heath Robinson monstrosity. Like Google and Blackberry, Microsoft need to get out of hardware.[/quote] No idea why Microsoft is in hardware (besides Xbox) anyway. They should just focus on cross-platform software and services.