New Get a Mac Ads are More Obnoxious Than Ever

They should get Ellen Feiss to do one.

hey chip chick???

just what are your qualifications to comment on mac and pc hardware and software??? have you ever installed and used avid on a pc??? for how long??? could you please post as a reply how much it costs for an Avid system on a pc and what are the hardware requirements???

Did you miss the part about them being HOME movies? I work in the industry where Avid is used, but definitely not for home movies. Are you aware of the price of an Avid system?

Incidentally, Avid has, for a number of reasons, been losing ground to Final Cut Pro at a pretty rapid pace.

I would rant about your problems with commercials but in the end who cares. You’re too far gone if a commercial makes you think a product is “pompous jerk” or any one who uses one is a pompous jerk.

Is thing really Apple’s problem “but did they forget about Avid on the PC which has been an industry standard for years?” Most PC users don’t know how to use Word let alone Avid.

Commercials are spot on.

Nice moderated comments don’t post what you don’t like. How obnoxious. Whatever I’m bored anyway.

Ummm, these are commercials directed at consumers. Consumers for the most part don’t use pro video editing software like FCP or $20,000 Avid suites.

And in your sputtering at the commercials, you must have missed the Mac guy saying, “iMovie.” Now that’s a piece of software that really doesn’t have an equivalent. When was the last time Microsoft released an update to Movie Maker, pray tell? And would you like to compare the cost of Adobe Premiere to the cost of the iLife suite, of which iMovie is a part?

Avid is available for the PC, yes, but I think the ads are meant to emphasize the ease of use for consumer oriented editing apps like iMovie (the mac guy even mentions iMovie by name) compared to what’s available for the PC. Basically, it’s about what you get out of the box.

Still though, you can make a nice movie with the out of the box PC stuff, just not as easily as with iMovie (in my opinion anyway).

I think you’ve missed the point of the ad. The Mac is making gorgeous videos from the software that comes standard on all Macs — iMovie. If you use the software that comes standard with PCs (and none really does, does it), your movie will suck by comparison.
Seems totally valid to me.

True, you could edit your family movies in Avid although the Avid you’re thinking of would be far too pricey and out of the reach of like 99% of Windows users. One would be better served using Avid Xpress DV 4.6 on Windows $395 (DL price), though it’s two revs behind the Mac version of Avid Xpress DV 4.8 $395 (DL price). However, the TV ad only mentions iMovie (current version) which is really very hard to beat on the PC side with Windows Movie Maker. Having used WMM just this past weekend at a friends house north of Sonoma, CA I can say without a doubt that it’s a poor imitation of the _first_ version of iMovie and has a far way to go. (the titling is just utterly lame, my 1994 Videonics hardware based titlemaker has more options and more chroma control for heaven’s sake! Grab a copy of Videomaker from Dec 1994 for info. Heck, check out FlyingFonts from the same era. A shame they’re gone today, it worked very well.)

“[...] but did they forget about Avid on the PC which has been an industry standard for years?”

Or did you forget about Avid on the Mac, which has been an industry standard for years?

Oh, and if you listen to what is being said in the ad, you’d see that she represents the movie made with iMovie–not Final Cut Pro or Avid.

Nice try, though.

Err, the commercials are intended for a consumer audience and as such are promoting iMovie and the iLife suite which (not to get too territorial)many serious, thoughtful consumer journalists consider to be an unmatched suite on PC–especially since it comes free on all Macs.

Of course PCs have Avid available. Can you imagine Aunt Edna trying to slam together a movie using her favorite music, pictures and home movies using it??

You had me until the very last sentence. Then my head ‘asploded. Seriously.

Do you even understand the concept of “Target Audience”?

These commercials are aimed at users who, for the most part, will never use Final Cut Pro, nor ever use Avid’s software – even Free DV…

They’re aimed at the user who is frustrated with Microsoft Movie Maker, and wants to try out that program they keep hearing about…iMovie.

Must say the Ads had the opposite effect on me. For too many years I thought Apple’s slogan:

“computer for the rest of us”

meant anyone willing to spend alot more for the same performance on proprietary hardware.

I thought the new ads was an attempt by Apple to reach the masses… the everyday joes.

The language indicated to me that software technology is being taken seriously (security, system integration and alot of the “cool” factor missing from today’s PCs).

I welcome the ads, if only to spur improvements and innovation in the Operating System industry that has remained stagnant for too many years (save for the efforts of the Linux/BSD/… camps).

Apple! Keep pushing. Even if, at best, this is a mild example…

In the end, everyone will be better off because of it.

Not to be a Apple apologist but first the commericial wasn’t touting Final Cut Pro but iMovie which comes with every mac. So comparing a commerical grade suite like Avid with iMovie is hardly a worthwile comparison. With regards to Avid on the PC being an industry standard, Avid itself is a standard but it is fairly undisputed that the Mac which Avid supports has a large market share in the video production/post-production field.

Since when are home movies edited in FCP or Avid? I think what they mean here is that the built-in software like iMovie makes even home movies look professionnal. On Windows, even with Movie Maker, it is difficult to make anything which looks as good or professionnal.

Of course, Avid users (on Mac or PC) and FCP users can do pro stuff on any platform. iMivie just makes it easier for the rest of us. Its just marketing dude.

Avid started on the Mac. As did most creative apps. The commercial is talking about iLife for consumers. MS offers nothing close. It’s just advertising why are you so touchy. In fact why do you even give a shit?
I remember MS saying Windows 95 was revolutionary. Ah, yeah 11 years after the real revolution happened.

I guess those ads are beginning to bite…

The comparison was not between professional products like Avid and Final Cut Pro.

These ads are targeted at *consumers*, and the comparison was between iMovie and Movie Maker.

And yes, the analogy was quite good. Movie Maker is a cheap knock-off of iMovie. Quite comparable to the way that “PC Home Movie” was a poor attempt at copying Gisele’s style.

“did they forget about Avid on the PC which has been an industry standard for years”

Avid started out as a Mac-only solution, in case you didn’t know. Just like Excel, Photoshop, PowerPoint, PageMaker…