Microsoft Songsmith

As a lifelong Apple user, I am not in anyway swayed or manipulated by the "It's cool to own Mac" ads that have been around the last several years. I was using a Mac before the appearence of Justin Long; when the only games for Mac were point and click adventure games and there was no itunes or ipods to speak of. To me Apple will always be a solid operating system with exceptionally stable hardware that suites my needs as a creative professional. With that said, I will mention that it is important for a computer company to know what the majority of people want and not just need. While I am not swayed by the hip Mac guy, dressed in an American Apperal hoodie and blue jeans who plays devils advocate to the stiff and rigid PC guy, I do see the need for a company to reach a broader audience if it wishes to succeed. I feel that Apple has done a good job of this, despite the fact that their ads are obnoxious and pretensious at times. On the flip side, Microsoft has done a poor job at managing to stay connected to what the public wants and needs. While windows XP was a pleasant computing experiance for most, Vista brought nothing but trouble for a bulk of its users. In an attempt to neutralize the bad press that Vista had caused, they launched an advertising campaign starring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, that showed how out of touch the company really was in terms of their "hip" factor. Luckily these ads were replaced by the "I'm a PC" ads, that in my opinion, are the best ads Microsoft has ever made. However, right when it would appear that they were heading in the right direction with better advertising and the new Windows 7 that should work all the problems out that they had with Vista, Microsoft releases what I can only assume is supposed to be a mock up of Apple's Garageband. Microsoft Songsmith is a new, user friendly recording software that can be easily used by the masses. Now I have not tried Songsmith first hand, but this advertisment really show that Microsoft is still far from understanding the public. Check out the ad.

*warning*

ONCE THE SONG GOES IN, IT CAN NEVER COME OUT!