Sometimes I think we forget that people can "get by" with underpowered equipment. The fact is if you've only used older and slower computers, you do not appreciate the significant difference between a base laptop and a high-end one.
Case in point, last Christmas I waited in line and was able to purchase a door buster Compaq laptop at Walmart for $298. It has a 2.1gb AMD single core processor, 2gb ram, 160gb hard drive, 802.11b/g, 15.4" screen, Vista Home and dual layer DVD drive.
It's not my primary device in my home, but I am happliy running Vista on it. I use the laptop to check the web throughout the house and the kid's use it for checking facts when doing their homework in the kitchen. It was never intended for high-end gaming or ripping video.
The point is the laptop I purchased has met my needs. I've seen my friend's Macs and I agree they are beautiful machines, but I personnaly could never justify such a cost.
The best part was when I was considering adding more ram, a technician I spoke to told me to not upgrade to 3gb because the added memory would reduce my battery life without any noticeable improvement. He told me to wait and install Windows 7 and see the improvement from the software instead.
I think the Microsoft ads fail in general because its too short in time to convey an honest explanation as to why the Windows laptops were chosen over the Macs. (It's not always just the money;okay, maybe it is all about the money!)
I would rather have the ad company find out the needs of the customer, lay out comparable equipmet sided by side and them have the customer make the pick, explainning their choice. Then the high-end versus entry level could be avoided.
Steve
