Microsoft Has Found Apple's Achilles' Heel

It seems that Microsoft has found, and is exploiting Apple's weakness. It's long been argued that Apple computers are overpriced. I happen to disagree with that opinion, but that doesn't matter. What matters is the perceived imbalance in value and the Laptop Hunter ads exploit that perfectly.

In case you haven't seen the ads, they show someone looking for a new computer to fit a certain budget. The shopper glances at the Macs but deems them too expensive and settles on a PC. (View Ads) These ads seem to be quite effective. As a recent AdAge article points out, Apple's value perception has fallen while Microsoft's has risen.

The funny thing about all of this is that Apple seems to be afraid that the ads are working. Wired recently reported that Microsoft COO Kevin Turner recently said that he got a call from Apple telling them to stop running the ads. For now, Microsoft just seems to be emboldened by the response from Apple and doesn't plan to stop running the ads anytime soon. And whey should they? The ads seem to be working perfectly.