Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

The new Windows 7 ads have kicked off today, and I suspect we'll be seeing them on TV starting today. What do you think of them? I think they're great - they're fun, light, and highlight features of Windows 7. Windows 7 is a great OS that stands on it's own, and I'm happy to see Microsoft not crawling into the gutter with that other company and their ads. A good product succeeds on its own, not because it trashes another product. Two more ads after the break. Read more...

I really like the direction that these ads are going - I'd had cautious optimism about the Gates & Seinfeld ads, but they never evolved into anything resembling actual communication to customers, so in my mind they were a waste of money in the end. These new ads, however, are emotional, pleasant, and impactful. I really like this "laptop hunter" ad because it illustrates the key weakness in the Apple ecosystem (lack of choice), and the key strength in the Windows ecosystem (lots of choice). If your needs happen to fit into one of the slots that Apple has, you'll probably be pleased with your purchase. If your needs fall outside Apple's carefully defined boxes, such as "sub $1000 notebook = small screen", you're completely out of luck. On the PC side of things, there are near-endless options, and odds are good that you'll find someone making a product that does exactly what you need for the price you wanted to pay. I value choice very highly - yeah, I'm a PC. :-)