TechCrunch features Bnet reporter Lindsay Blakely on Apple’s advertising budget, 11/21/08

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Previous PostYup, Apples Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vistas106 Commentsby Erick Schonfeld on November 21, 2008

Apples Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vistas http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-b

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When Apple started running the anti-Vista commercial (above) mocking Microsoft for spending $300 million

on Vistas own ad campaign instead of on fixing its problems, I called it hypocritical:

Apples advertising budget is also pretty massive. I mean, I see more Apple commercials on TV

than ads for Barack Obama. Apple is on track to spend more than $3.5 billion on SG&A

(selling, general, and administrative expenses) for its fiscal year that ended September 30. How

much of that was spent on advertising? I dont know, but 10 percent doesnt seem unreasonable.

It turns out that I underestimated Apples advertising budget. Lindsay Blakely at Bnet (a formerBusiness

2.0 reporter) found the actual numbers in a subsequent SEC filing. In its 2008 fiscal year that just ended last

September, Apple spent a whopping $486 million on advertising. (In fiscal year 2007, it spent $467 million,and in fiscal year 2006 it spent $338 million).

Half a billion dollars on marketing. No wonder I think Apple products are so great.

Update: Microsoft spends more on advertising across all of its combined businesses than Apple does, but itsWindows business is what competes most directly with Apple. Microsofts total advertising budget across allof its businesses, including Windows, Office, Xbox, and all the enterprise stuff, was the following (from the10K ): Advertising expense was $1.2 billion, $1.3 billion, and $1.2 billion in fiscal years 2008, 2007, and2006, respectively.

Microsofts fiscal year ends in June, so these numbers do not reflect the $300 million Vista campaign. But

that would have eaten up 25 percent of Microsofts entire ad budget for any of the previous three years.

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Apples Entire Ad Budget: $486M, Compared to Vistas $300M | MacBlogz - One Stop Apple

News

November 22nd, 2008 at 9:18 pm

Thats why they dont call it NumberCrunch R.R. Perry: The Blog

November 23rd, 2008 at 10:23 am

300 Million - Air Mass Zero

November 23rd, 2008 at 5:05 pm

See! See! Apple is the Marketing Bully | Redfin Corporate Blog

November 23rd, 2008 at 9:57 pmAdvertising budget of Vista Alone is 62 percent of Entire Apple Budget : www.awesomeblogs.info

November 23rd, 2008 at 11:35 pm

Apple y su publicidad hipcrita

November 24th, 2008 at 8:09 am

Boycott Novell Eye on Microsoft: Vista/7 Trouble and More Security Chaos

November 24th, 2008 at 12:45 pm

Apple y su publicidad hipcrita | Noticias, novedades, tecnologa, programacin - Bit & Bit


Celestial Expanse Blog Archive Apple Bashs Microsoft, Microsoft Gets Last Word


Apple5

MicrosoftVistaDecember 2nd, 2008 at 4:53 am

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Comments Pages: [1]2Show All

wildcrft -November 21st, 2008 at 9:58 pm PST

With such a huge budget for Ads, it os no wonder many think that Apples products are so great. Personally Ihave never been to impressed with Apples product. They seem to have more of eye candy value than any

real practical use.

reply

Steve -November 21st, 2008 at 10:24 pm PST

Apple product not only good in ads but also the best and sleekest laptop /iPhone in the world. No body cancompete with Apple on usability

reply

Bashar -November 24th, 2008 at 5:56 am PST

sleekest iPhone ofcourse. Only they manufacture it, it has to be the sleekest

Not 100% PC -November 27th, 2008 at 3:58 pm PST


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Clearly Apple is not 100% PC. Just check out their executive page.

http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/

Eric -November 21st, 2008 at 11:14 pm PST

Microsoft spent $300 million on an ad campaign for Vista instead of fixing the flaws in Vista. Apple spent half

a billion on an ad campaign.and they had no flaws to fix

Wheres the hypocrisy?

If Apple products also had flaws like Vista and they STILL chose to spend money on ad campaign instead offixing those flaws (like microsoft), then yes, I can see the hypocrisy.

reply

jamboree -November 21st, 2008 at 11:28 pm PST

Oh come on. The reason why people buy Apple computers is because they look so sleek AND it runsWindows. Very few people actually give a hoot about the Apple OS.

Apples ads only try to paint a picture that isnt true no wonder Apple puts in SO much effort to convince

people that their OS is actually so much cooler. NOT!

Raul Riera -November 22nd, 2008 at 9:13 am PST

Wow what are you saying jamboree? haha

RickR -November 22nd, 2008 at 11:57 am PST

Eric, looks like you drank a big ol glass of the Jobs special blend KoolAid as well. You really know for a

fact that M$ is not working to fix issues in Vista, or are you just puppeting the Apple line on the subject?

I also enjoyed a hardy laugh at your comment that Apples OS has no flaws; you have revealed yourself as atrue tard fanboy.

fake_shel -November 22nd, 2008 at 2:50 pm PST

$300 is 1/4th of the total ad spendings of Microsoft and considering they spend it on a single product, I guessEric has a point. Not considering what Apple is doing, MS could have of course diverted some percentage of

that $300 ad budget towards fixing flaws in vista, which would have been provided a better case in point for abetter Marketing strategy.

Eric -November 23rd, 2008 at 1:54 am PST

@RickRActually Rick, I am a PC guy myself. Never liked the Mac. I just wanted to point out a gap in the logic for


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calling Apples ad hypocritical

calling someone a tard fanboy on the internet, lol. You must be one tough pimple faced scrawny nerd. Tellme, are you whacking it to ur PC right now?

jason@tinyComb -November 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 am PST

Microsofts total advertising budget across all of its businesses, including Windows, Office, Xbox, and all theenterprise stuff, was $1.2 billion, $1.3 billion, and $1.2 billion in fiscal years 2008, 2007, and 2006,respectively.

Well, Apples advertising across its iTV, iPod, iPhone, Laptops, Desktops, App Store, etc spends 1/3 ofMicrosofts total ad budget.

How is it hypocritical?

reply

Yorkali -November 22nd, 2008 at 4:14 pm PST

flat . baseless . empty. Apple has had to shout louder because it has a small market share. Not just lull peopleinto thinking its product is better. If Apples offerings were not better why are they outselling thecompetition at such an incredible pace, quarter after quarter. And its not because they run Windows, I cantell yah that much.

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John -November 21st, 2008 at 10:01 pm PST

Did you read the article in Fast Company a few months ago about Microsofts new ad firm Crispin Porter? Iloved the line about how Microsoft has taken it for so long from Apples ads but if anyone tried doing that toOracle they wouldnt find the bodies.

reply

rafael jimenez -November 21st, 2008 at 10:01 pm PST

You seem to be missing the point, Erick. No amount of marketing dollars will save a bad product, and that

was what the Apple ad criticizing Vista was all about. It wasnt about having a big advertising budget.

reply

travisvn1 -November 21st, 2008 at 11:12 pm PST

Actually it shows that no matter how much money you throw at advertising. You will never come close toMicrosoft in market share.

reply

Jack9 -November 22nd, 2008 at 10:25 pm PST


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Tell that to Google

Tom von Schwerdtner -November 21st, 2008 at 10:07 pm PST

The point isnt Microsoft spends more on advertising than Apple the point is Microsoft is spending a lot ofmoney on advertising instead of fixing Vista. Weather or not Vista needs fixing is up for debate, but all the

same, youre missing he point.

Granted, if you missed the point of the Apple ad, then it apparently wasnt an effective ad.

reply


By the way, the $300 million is a single Microsoft campaign for vista, versus an entire fiscal year for Apple.

reply

Sam -November 24th, 2008 at 4:36 pm PST

Youre talking about a company 3 times bigger than Apple here

Carson -November 21st, 2008 at 10:47 pm PST

I think the point of the commercial is to convince people that Microsoft makes a horrible product and doesntcare for the customers, whether or not its true. Apple doesnt really care how they do it, as long as the ends

justify the means.

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Shannon Clark -November 21st, 2008 at 10:08 pm PST

For a company with as much cash and revenues as Apple Im actually surprised at how small that number is.More to the point Apple is one of the few companies who have built up and supported a strong and clear

brand. Unlike most tech companies they advertise via very visual and seemingly simple images (shadowsw/iPods, just the MacBook Air, the iPhone) in short apple ads are distinctive and Apples branding continuesfrom their early days to now (a few months back photos of a mint Apple II were posted I was struck by howeven then design of the packaging was part of Apple as was providing customers things like stickers to helpbuild that brand)

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Jon -November 21st, 2008 at 10:18 pm PST

That is an astonishing amount of money for such a relatively small company! But they are growing mindand market share so I guess the investment is paying off. They have also generated pretty nice profits on topof that so I guess they know what they are doing.


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Jonhttp://WoodMarvels.com - Create Unique Memories

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silicon valley dropout -November 21st, 2008 at 10:20 pm PST

wow thats a lot of money but not surprising since i see way more apple commercials then microsoft pieces

reply

AdvertisingLocator.com -November 21st, 2008 at 10:27 pm PST

you would think they would own an advertising company by now. wheres there adnetwork? i-AD i-Enginei-FIND

IdeasLocator.com - thought experts

reply

Will K -November 21st, 2008 at 10:29 pm PST

Tom is bang-on with his assessment: its about how much Microsoft is spending on advertising Vista (orMojave) rather than spending it on correcting the obvious flaws in Vista.

Vista could be an excellent operating system if (and this is a big if) they did it right. But they didnt, andnow they are trying, as we used to say when I worked for Gateway, to sell the cow. The problem is thatMicrosoft trying to sell Vista is like trying to sell a cow patty. Seriously.

Ive been involved with PCs since 1990. I switched to Macintosh three years ago because of the simple

superiority of the OS X operating system it simply blew my mind how it could work non-stop for monthswithout rebooting and still produce some of the most complex, graphics-intensive creations you couldimagine.

And no spyware or viruses.

Microsoft has done an incredible job putting people on a single platform, and they should be commended for

their efforts here. But Vista belongs, like Windows ME, in the junk pile. Its simply not ready for Prime Time.Never was.

OS X, with its compatibility with the Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe Creative Suite, and its still market-

dominating graphics applications like Final Cut Pro and Motion, is still a far more advanced and more secureoperating system and simpler for end users to manage.

Simply put: I can get far more done in a day on a Mac than I ever could with a PC, with far less stress,

regardless of which Windows version I was using, and with far less maintenance andsturm und drang.

And THAT is the REAL point of this ad campaign. To me, its worth it.

reply

Brian -November 22nd, 2008 at 4:37 am PST


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To me, youre an idiot.

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Chris -November 22nd, 2008 at 9:40 am PST

I agree. More secure? Which planet are you living on? I distinctly remember a contest earlier this year inwhich the Mac was the first to fall. Apple knows nothing about security, because theyve never had to. Wait

till the market share increases a little more and the target becomes juicier then youll see securityproblems, and youll see a company that doesnt have the first clue about how to deal with it.

Kraven -November 22nd, 2008 at 10:32 pm PST

Ya you are Brian

Markus -November 24th, 2008 at 12:42 pm PST

@Chris

Were talking about right now. Today.

OS/X simply has way less headaches. Im not going to argue if thats because of better design or simplybecause lower market share dictates that its less of a target. It doesnt matter.

When/if security issues become a problem on a Mac 3-5 years down the road then we can all re-evaluatewhether it is still the right platform and buy our computers accordingly.

Right now, today, Im getting way more work done on my Mac with less headaches then I ever did on an MSOS.

Dan -November 25th, 2008 at 11:52 am PST

What exactly do you do on a mac that you cant do on a PC? Ive never really had security problems on a

PC how are you getting that much spyware?

Free Movies & TV Episodes Online -November 21st, 2008 at 10:34 pm PST

Apple have more of a niche market and because of its smaller market share and select range of products itcan focus more on a certain particular product. Its O/S.

Apple users are very loyal. I know more about PCs than macs. But you only have to use one to know its amuch better product. Yet to see a Mac blue screen yet.

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You havent seen as many Macs as you have PCs. I have many friends who use Macs and complain all the


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time about crashes losing all their work.

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Brett -November 21st, 2008 at 10:39 pm PST

Seinfeld and Gates probably spent twice that much on their dinner in the suburbs together.

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Erik Dungan -November 21st, 2008 at 10:45 pm PST

Most of Apples ads are for the iPhone/iPod/iTunes music. When was the last time you saw an OS X ad?

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travisvn1 -November 21st, 2008 at 11:24 pm PST

Have you been missing the entire Im a Mac Im a PC ads? Open your eyes

reply

Frank -November 21st, 2008 at 10:45 pm PST

This is severely misleading. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence realizes that you are comparing applesand oranges. $300M for a single campain for a single product, versus $467M for an entire year for an entire

range of products. Sure, the numbers are huge, but they can not be compared. Find the yearly budget forMicrosofts advertising for the year, and I am sure that number will be high.

Dang, you made me defend Apple. That is pretty bad, considering I dont even like them. :

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RR -November 21st, 2008 at 11:26 pm PST

I came here to post almost this exact same comment. Thanks for saving me the trouble of typing it out

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thorp -November 21st, 2008 at 11:07 pm PST

I hate Apples egregious, outsized banner ads on the NYT and WSJ. Thats some very expensive bad taste.

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Shaun -November 21st, 2008 at 11:09 pm PST

disclosure: not a mac owner/fanboy.the point of the ad is not just about advertising budgets, but it questions the wisdom of spending money on

advertising to gloss over the problems instead of addressing the problems

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Sidharth -November 21st, 2008 at 11:14 pm PST

Eric ,

You have angered the fanboys. I never thought that you will write this article.

Comparing the full year budget for Apple ( macbook, imac, ipod, iphone , apple tv) to just the budget for 1product (vista) is plain ridiculous.

Hope you update the post.

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Its not even the budget for Vista, its the budget for a single Vista campaign. Microsoft has many Vista

campaigns running, only the Im a PC/Seinfeld campaign was reported to cost $300 million.

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Khong Co Ai -November 21st, 2008 at 11:16 pm PST

Sorry but your article compares the budget for Vista only against the whole budget for the Apple products. itwill be more serious to compare Vista et Leopard advertising budget.

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Apple generally doesnt advertise Leopard, they advertise the hardware and tout Leopard as a major featureof the hardware.

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Louis-Eric -November 21st, 2008 at 11:21 pm PST

This is a strange comparison. Microsofts ad is for a platform that carries a range of system manufacturers;

when they remind people of contemporary OS choice at strategic moments (back-to-school, Christmas, etc.)they help sell the systems of everybody else (well, more so when the ads was for XP; not that Vista is

necessarily bad, but they did lose control over that story). That requires a lot of money.

Apple is a vertically integrated system manufacturer; they advertise devices running their own software. Theirbudget, all in all, for all that they do, is quite small actually; a testament to a great brand. How much is Dellspending, for example ?

Two good strategies, and my point is that none of those compares with the other. They are designed toaddress different strategic targets.


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Shannon Clark -November 21st, 2008 at 11:25 pm PST

worth noting that Apple isnt all that small of a company - they had nearly $40B in assets as of their lastannual report (2008) and net profits of nearly $7B - $500M in advertising wouldnt even be 10% of theirprofits and their gross sales last year were over $32B (so $500M in advertising is less than 2% of their gross

sales - which is actually, Id argue, a fairly low percentage - especially given the presence and impact their

ads have.

For comparison MSFT spent $1.2B in 2008 (1.3B in 2007 - Im guess due to Halo, and 1.2B in 2006) on

advertising and had gross revenues of $60B (so less than 2x Apples) and spent almost exactly 2% of grossrevenues on advertising.

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Louis-Eric -November 21st, 2008 at 11:29 pm PST

Shaun: Define the Vista problem for me ? There was the lack of drivers early on and that has mostly been

resolved (unless you really care about antiquated hardware, although the Vista Experience program without the 915 blunder made it pretty clear that Vista was mostly designed for new hardware); peoplehave disabled UAC; I personally hate the new Start menu system so I went back to the old one; same numberof customizations I made on my iMac. The rest works pretty swimmingly. Disk management is a breeze, PAEtakes all of that 4GB, the interface is nice, the task switcher is awesome. I like it, and I like my Mac too.

reply

Tim Abbott -November 22nd, 2008 at 5:44 am PST

I like Microsoft a lot, my brother in law works there, I was on the team at VML that did tons of Microsoft

stuff, and they havent had the were the kings attitude problems in years (except for Ballmer) but when Iworked at Kozoru (failed natural language search engine start up - crash and burn type failure) I did learn one

thing; OS X rocks. Seriously, I mean if you are a web dev and dont do .NET, theres nothing else to use otherthan a Macbook Pro. I dont use an iPhone (Nokia e71), Macbook Air, or hardly anything else Apple otherthan my laptop, iMac, Macbook, and iPod. I also hate the crazy insane secrecy, however, although I can bootWindows, I only do some in extreme circumstances. I mean, you can hate the whole, we are the greatestApple mantra (and I do), but dude, give me a terminal, beautiful graphics and productivity apps (keynote vspower point when looking to impress) and Im not turning on Vista.

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Natasha -November 22nd, 2008 at 5:54 pm PST

I have had Vista for 3 months, called tech support 4 times for the same driver error that cannot be fixed (see

atikmdag.sys). In the last month, I have had 23 driver errors. 8 of them were today (all in a row). The reasonthat number isnt higher is because I cant afford to lose more work and time when my OS decides to go inBSoD mode and restart. (The errors happen when I am running an external monitor, which I bought 5 daysafter buying the laptop - see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....ture=email )

I love Vista for what it could be - for what Microsoft wanted it to be. But the fact is that Vista is not admittingthe problem with their video drivers.


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That being said, I cannot buy Apple either.

reply

Louis-Eric -November 22nd, 2008 at 6:17 pm PST

Natasha: I had similar experiences with video drivers. While I sympathize (and remember the pain), this isnta Vista issue. It is a video-card-companies-making-crapware issues. ATI and Nvidia really need to get their

act together on this.

Preshit -November 21st, 2008 at 11:34 pm PST

Wow, Erick,

Company One:

Product Qty: 1Product Quality: Debatable, but pretty much flawed.

Product Campaign: 1 of the many.Amount: $300 million.

Company Two:

Product Qty: Atleast a DozenProduct Quality: Much Better than Company Ones.Product Campaign: Entire year for entire range of products.Amount: $486 million

Wow, hypocritical indeed. Spending $300 million for a product thats not too famous for its features andspending close $500 million over an entire year for over a dozen products that are actually great is now even

fit to be compared with each other.

Youre forgetting one fundamental fact that Microsofts campaign was for one single software product.Apples campaign budget was for its entire range of products.

reply

Riley -November 22nd, 2008 at 6:36 am PST

I think TechCrunch only wants to post a headline that will grab more readers. Its all about getting hits.

The real article should be that techcrunch has to think up ways to bash apple to drum advertising in this

crummy economy.

reply


Much better than Company Ones? Hmm. Id love to know what youre basing that theoretical comparisonon.

Its a lot simpler, with a heck of lot less features and usability, sure. But better? Thats a stretch.


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Mike @ WannaDevelop.com -November 22nd, 2008 at 12:03 am PST

MSFT should spend some more Especially in this tough economic times, they can get 2x value

Mike

http://www.wannadevelop.com/

reply

Amit Bhawani -November 22nd, 2008 at 1:14 am PST

Develop websites on comparision of Mac Vs PC and make tonnes of money

reply

zato -November 22nd, 2008 at 3:55 am PST

Update: Microsoft spends more on advertising across all of its combined businesses than Apple does, but itsWindows business is what competes most directly with Apple. Microsofts total advertising budget across allof its businesses, including Windows, Office, Xbox, and all the enterprise stuff, was the following (from the10K): Advertising expense was $1.2 billion, $1.3 billion, and $1.2 billion in fiscal years 2008, 2007, and2006, respectively.

But that doesnt count all the paid shills, astroturfers, blogggers, and black PR writers Microsoft has all overthe tech internet. Nor does it count the cost of all the Microsoft employees who post comments daily to Applehating blogs and sites like this one.

reply

Mark -November 22nd, 2008 at 5:18 am PST

You cant just compare advertising among the two companies in hard dollars. You have to take market capand total revenues into consideration. AAPL is nipping at the heels compared to MSFT as a company. Its ajoke to compare the two when you look at MSFTs global penatration and the amazingly high adoption ofalmost all its products. Vista was definitely a bad step, but it isnt as though they wont fix it - indeed, theyrealready announcing MS 7 or whatever. AAPL is cool to some of you guys (and indeed their products arecool) but that doesnt mean everyone will adopt them and it doesnt mean the truly compete in terms of

market cap and overall global penetration. Theyre small compared to MSFT. Thats why the Apple ads

havent scared off Microsoft - they can only do so much when theyre appealing to a very small marketcompared to Microsoft. Ballmer & Co have already written off many of the people that will spend the extra$1000 on AAPL products. Theyll instead focus on the rest of the 1 billion people out there who use somesort of MSFT product on a daily basis from New York to New Geunea

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Megan Trotsky -November 22nd, 2008 at 5:41 am PST

But that doesnt count all the paid shills, astroturfers, blogggers, and black PR writers Microsoft has all overthe tech internet. Nor does it count the cost of all the Microsoft employees who post comments daily to Apple


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hating blogs and sites like this one

Thats just precious. Seeing collective iGasm the MSM and Blogflatusphere has with slightest update or bowelmovement in Cupertino.

Jobs dog and pony shows combined with a billion dollar ad campaigns still nets them 4% Worldwidemarketshare and army of bi-coastal iBoi trolls.

reply

Megan Trotsky -November 22nd, 2008 at 5:47 am PST

But, Apples OSX Kitty Leopard SP5.4 is just perfect and just works.

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Neil Kelty -November 22nd, 2008 at 6:24 am PST

Its still funny as hell.

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Riley -November 22nd, 2008 at 6:33 am PST

Try comparing apples ad budget for leopard to microsofts vista ad budget. Vistas ad budget is comparable

to Apples OX X development budget which is really embarrassing.

Apple only competes with Microsoft on OS X and to a very insignificant factor Zune. I dont think Ive everseen an ad for mac OS Leopard on tv ever.

I would take this article down its just embarrassingly naive to think that apples entire ad budget is spenttrying to battle vista. Where does TechCrunch find its writers on Yahoo boards?

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Joshua r -November 22nd, 2008 at 6:35 am PST

300 million on vista.

I would bet most of apples advertising is spent on the iphone.

So in an area they dont even technically compete.

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Martin Ringlein -November 22nd, 2008 at 6:43 am PST

Glad to see Schonfeld finally updated his post (Erics seem to be the most ridiculous and annoyinglyirrelevant) Microsoft spends so much more money on advertising than Apple. And the difference is that in

those Apple commercials, they are talking about Mac the company vs. Vista the operating system.


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They are not talking about OS X the operating system vs. Vista the operating system.

Apple is advertising for the company and only competing against one part of Microsofts company.

So yes, all of Apples advertising dollars for its company is probably slightly larger than the advertising dollarsfor one part of Microsofts products.

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TechNald -November 22nd, 2008 at 6:46 am PST

that is true!

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Cadence -November 22nd, 2008 at 6:56 am PST

Sorry but who actually gets affected by TV ads etc these days? Who actually lets these ads affect themenough to influence their product choices?


The main thing actually contributing to such a good perception of apple products are the fanboys that tout it

at any given chance. That and OSX is actually a better OS than WIndows.

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I havent seen a television commercial in years, and only a small handful in the movie theater.

Oh, and the fanboys are beginning to cause a backlash. Im seeing it more and more these days. Fewer andfewer people are reading their uninformed boilerplate opinions.

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Ron -November 22nd, 2008 at 7:34 am PST

I just wonder what would happen if for some business disagreement MS would not allow Windows and

Office to run on Macintosh platforms. Just as a trial to see how it would affect Apples sales.

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Linus -November 22nd, 2008 at 8:34 am PST

In its 2008 fiscal year that just ended last September, Apple spent a whopping $486 million on advertising.

(In fiscal year 2007, it spent $467 million, and in fiscal year 2006 it spent $338 million).

A question since I didnt see this in the article: how much of that is *JUST* on OS X?? Since its not

separated out, I would think this number includes advertising for iPhone, iPod, iTunes, hardware specific(laptops), etc. Both companies are in the business of making money and both produce a product that isobviously useful. Neither one actually advertises WHY or WHAT their product does that makes it sowonderful.


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So honestly, dont care how much they are spending on advertising. I do care, however, if they will listen tosuggestion and actually fix issues when they crop up.

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Robert McLaws -November 22nd, 2008 at 8:35 am PST

Erick,

A Windows blogger buddy of mine broke down a more pertinent figure for Apples bean counting: R&D vsAdvertising. As evidenced by the issues with the iPhone 2.2 release,Apple cant ship ANYTHING withoutmajor buys in it, proving that they should spend less on smart-assed false advertising, and more on producttesting.

http://www.windows-now.com/blo.....first.aspx

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Amen. I havent seen ONE product release in the past year that wasnt accompanied by major bugs andissues (with the exception of the new iPods, and thats because I dont care/arent looking).

The difference here is that most Apple users are either idiotic or willing to dismiss bugs because theyreblinded by the RDF. Windows users on the other hand have no issues complaining and arent going to shutup and tow the company line just so they dont look stupid for having spent (significantly less) money.

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Sean Seah -November 22nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm PST

As a user for both OS, i would say that OS X is a more consumer oriented designed OS. Does it ever crash?Trust me it does, but definitely must lesser than Vista. As for Vista, I have no idea why do they bother tocome out with Vista to replace win 98 in the first place. Why not save the marketing dollars to conduct aextensive consumer survey and deliver what consumer really wants?

Chris -November 27th, 2008 at 8:30 am PST

The problem is that Microsoft cant win. One year, everyone complains about security MS implementsUAC, firewall, Defender, etc. Next year, everyone complains about the onerous and obnoxious securitymeasures that were taken. They cant win.

As for Vista crashing I run Vista on five machines here, four have never crashed even once, and onecrashes because its got a faulty nVidia card that borks when it gets too hot. Our office has several Vista PCsas well that have no problems.

Neil_Polymathes -November 22nd, 2008 at 11:21 am PST

The iPhone has proven to be the most reliable smart phone on the market. That is including all previousversions. iPod has also proven to be the most reliable MP3/AAC player on the market. As well as both havingthe highest rated user interface in their categories. Knock R&D budgets all you like. But if your product is


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number one for user satisfaction; then spending less than the competition just means youve spent morewisely or done better work. Either way the article and title of the article are both wrong. Even with the

update the author is comparing Apples whole advertising budget (for Mac PC, MacOS, iPhone, iPod,iTunes, AppleTV, etc etc) verses just the Windows OS budget.

No matter how much you break it down, as an operating system, based on owner satisfaction Vista is less

satisfying, and slower than Apple OS X. Here is a comparison http://pfeifferreport.com/trends/Vista_UIF_Rep.pdf This is despite Microsoft spending according to your bean counter friend nearly five

times as much in R&D. Both Xbox360 and Vista (Ready/Capable/Base/Premium/Ultimate/Business) has beena huge Multi-Billion Dollar R&D blunders and marketing errors. Microsoft changed/lowered their approvedhardware list, so Intel could move more of its existing inventory. An email between Microsofts Balmer andIntels CEO shows this.

My Vista Premium Laptop had only 1GB of Shared RAM. Where Vista states minimums of 1GB of RAMand 128MB of Video RAM. In addition Vista is not laptop friendly. Vista performance updates oftenchange your power setting to maximum performance whether plugged in, or on Battery. For the first year of

Vista it kept changing shutdown to S3 standby. Which drained the battery while transporting until it was deadbefore you arrived and used it. I thought this was a problem might be with my Vendors OS image, so I did aclean install using just a Retail Vista Premium disk. No, these are the settings Microsofts R&D were forcing

on users even after two years time in order to hide how slow the OS really is.

Even Windows 7 isnt faster. Benchmarks show it is the Vista engine with a snappier graphic user interface,replacing the Aero Interface.

If I had the extra money Id own a MAC PC. Visit any Apple store and try using a MAC for an extendedperiod of time. Once you get used to the single mouse button + Ctrl you will be amazed by the comfort of thelayout ans icons.

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Yorkali -November 22nd, 2008 at 4:19 pm PST

Excellent excellent retort my friend. Very good!

voip -November 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 am PST

In my view it is also about spending the money on the right place, right people. Apple is more web 2.0 in

marketing, I was really impressed with the huge buzz around iPhones launch last year, so many blogs, videos,reports, reviews etc. So many bloggers and techies are in it.

But I have to say Apples product is well crafted too, theyve also chosen the right battleground. People are

on mobile, instead, nobody is demanding a upgrade of their Windows OS except Microsoft, thats why it hasbeen rough for Microsoft all the time.

reply


Absolute nonsense. Most people cant afford to be on mobile with the data rates the cell phone companies (in

most countries) are charging. Not to mention, the experience is sooo much less compelling on a mobile device(due to speed or lack thereof).


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Christopher Higgins -November 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 am PST

Your statements are a little misleading. Microsoft spent $300 million on Vistas advertising and Apple spent$486 million, not on Leopard alone, but on all their products. iPhone, iPod, computers ect..So a better comparison is Microsoft spent $1.2 billion to Apples $486 million.

Microsoft spends way more!Still love your site.Please check mine out and feel free to critique me.keep on bloggin!

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Dave Larone -November 22nd, 2008 at 1:13 pm PST

I just love to read all the Apple Apologists contort and squirm trying to deflect away from their preciousCorporation that fuels their self worth with overpriced shiny plastic products.

Definitely an American thing as well. Apples Ad campaign in the UK is laughed at and theyve made little tono inroads here and in Europe and the rest of the world(you know we do exist, iBois). But as long as preppybloggers like thumping away on their shiny macbooks well always be subjugated with the tyranny of theirstupidity.

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Glo -November 22nd, 2008 at 2:54 pm PST

Ummm, the entire premise here is a little ridiculous. Apple isnt being a hypocrite here. Apple doesnt have anoperating system on life support. So spending a bunch of money promoting their products isnt really a big

deal. MS spending a bunch of money promoting a BAD products IS a big deal. That is what the commercialsare making fun of. Sure they are a little smug, but they make a pretty compelling point when you take thesituation at face value.

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al -November 23rd, 2008 at 7:59 pm PST

You Apple dork. I bet you know little to nothing about Vista. Many users, including me, have been using

Vista without flaw.

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Phillip Molly Malone -November 22nd, 2008 at 3:40 pm PST

Come on guys! I think your being unfair too Apple! Macs work great! I mean, my paper never flies awaywhen I put those big paper weights on them! (Thats the intend use for a Mac, right? You cant get real

software for them!).Molly


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Bob -November 22nd, 2008 at 5:57 pm PST

Once again, Apple takes advantage of consumer ignorance. In addition to outrageous hypocrisy, any projectmanager knows that throwing developers at a project, in this case, increasing the budget for fixing Vista,does not increase the speed at which a project is completed. With too many developers on a project, things

get chaotic, and everything slows down. Spending more money on Vista might actually impede progress.

Also, Vista doesnt need fixing. As many have said before, Vista is now a fairly mature product and doesnot have the rampant problems that Apple ads refer to. For Apple fanboys who disagree, please load up Vista

and give it a try. Itll shut you up.

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Olivier Lalonde -November 22nd, 2008 at 6:57 pm PST


I love this sentence

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superman3497 -November 22nd, 2008 at 8:15 pm PST

if they can mac it, we can win it hehehehehe

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Len -November 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 pm PST

Unfortunately so many of you are concerned with the $$ amount spent instead of a simple rule of thumbwhen it comes to creating and promoting your brand.

If you need to rely on bashing your competitors products instead of featuring the wonderful attributes of yourown, then perhaps your product isnt all that special to begin with.

Do I give a crap about MS or Apple, not really.Im not a fanboy of either.

That being said, as a marketer I would sooner talk about my product then spend my time and money to bashanother.

Lets be real for a moment though, Apple may be the darling of the tech gadget world today, but when reallywas the last true innovation they created on their own. The gui perhaps, maybe the mouse

The iphone was simply putting together existing a bunch of existing technology together into a phone. Surethey did it before everyone else did, but they didnt create any of the technology.

As for the ipod, portable music players have been around since Sony developed the walkman back when the

gogos were popular. [perhaps none of you are old enough to know who they are - do a search if you need to].

Apple has been great at putting 2+2 together and designing amazing functionality into their products, howeverthey havent created anything for years..and years..


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Just a thought but perhaps they need to bash MS in their advertising to cover up some of their owninadequacies and keep their stock price higher than it should truly be.

The bottom line is if you have to bash your competitors to make inroads for your products, youre prettypathetic. Why Apple is getting a free pass is only because they compete against MS.

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Wade -November 22nd, 2008 at 11:03 pm PST

Apple ads are still awesome, so I say, money well spent and good job. Everyone else is just jealous : )

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Dirk Diggler -November 23rd, 2008 at 12:17 am PST

TechCrunch is a pro microsoft site. Does not take much to understand.

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Joe -November 23rd, 2008 at 9:02 am PST

Apple has over 200 retail stores! Plus sells computers, iPods and iPhones. Im sure the cost is for all of this.Microsoft has no stores and sells no computers. The cost for Vista is ONLY for Vista.

Microsoft spent 10 million on just Seinfeld for a few weeks work and some really bad ads no one understood.

When will TechCrunch give up on flamebait?

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Eric S. -November 23rd, 2008 at 3:10 pm PST

The bias of the writer of this post shines though.

You quote Microsofts Vista advertising budget and compare it to Apples ENTIRE advertising budget.

Apples and oranges. Lets see the Mac OS X advertising budget versus the Vista advertising budget.

Not that it even matters.

Apple makes great products that people WANT to use. Microsoft makes mediocre products that peopleHAVE to use.

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al -November 23rd, 2008 at 8:01 pm PST

Another apple fanboy dork with limited skills that are perfectly matched for a MAC,

reply

anonymous -November 23rd, 2008 at 5:53 pm PST


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Apple spent a whopping $486 million on advertising. (In fiscal year 2007, it spent $467 million, and in fiscalyear 2006 it spent $338 million).

I think this blog post is misleading. Advertising expenses have increased from $338 in 2006 to $486 million infiscal 2008 because, guess what, Apples revenue is up to $32.4 billion from $19.3 billion in 2006.

Half a billion dollars spent in advertising is not that much when you compare Apples advertising costs to itsrevenue. The percentage is actually *down* from fiscal 2004 when compared to revenue, cost of sales,

SG&A, you name it

Year: Ad. Costs / Revenue = Prctage2004: 206 / 8,279 = 2.49%2005: 287 / 13,931 = 2.06%2006: 338 / 19,315 = 1.75%

2007: 467 / 24,006 = 1.95%2008: 486 / 32,479 = 1.50%

Year: Ad. Costs / Cost of Sales = Prctage

2004: 206 / 6,022 = 3.42%

2005: 287 / 9,889 = 2.90%2006: 338 / 13,717 = 2.46%2007: 467 / 15,852 = 2.95%2008: 486 / 21,334 = 2.28%

Year: Ad. Costs / SG&A = Prctage2004: 206 / 1,430 = 14.41%2005: 287 / 1,864 = 15.40%2006: 338 / 2,433 = 13.89%

2007: 467 / 2,963 = 15.76%2008: 486 / 3,761 = 12.92%

Source: go to apple.com/investor, click on SEC Fillings and download the forms 10-K for fiscal years 2008

and 2006.

Microsoft spends more on advertising across all of its combined businesses than Apple does, but itsWindows business is what competes most directly with Apple.

The Zune and its marketplace are not competing with iPod + iTunes? Besides, Microsoft is spending $300million on Vistas ad campaign alone. With that kind of money, you can almost advertise all of Applescombined businesses (Mac, iPod, iPhone).

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