Apple fanboys are foaming at the mouth over the latest wave of Microsoft adverts which happen to point out that their over priced toys are more expensive than ordinary PCs.

Furious letters are flying everywhere on the net about the adverts which point out that when the economy is in tatters the last thing you want to do is spend more than $1000 on a computer which does less than those that are cheaper. The television ad shows a young woman who's confused by the lack of sub-$1000 computers on offer at her local Apple Store, but who finds shedloads of cheaper Windows-based PC options at her local retailer. The advert has clearly got under the skin of Apple which has ordered its tame lackeys in the trade press to gun for the campaign.

Serious tech magazines have been ringing up Apple resellers to ask what they think. Not surprisingly they think the campaign is pants.  However none of the people we have seen interview deny that the adverts are true. One Apple reseller said that “lots of PC users have fallen for the 'big spec sheet, low price' trap”... this would be the trap of buying a computer that actually did something for less cash. 

Using even more dodgy logic he said that Apple should not be making such an advert because it does not make computers. Some said that if Microsoft wanted to talk about price it should compare the price of Microsoft Office to Apple's iWork, or the “complete version of Windows” versus OS X?.  Last we looked OS X was more expensive than Windows Home which is its comparable product. Iwork is cheaper than Office but has less functionality. OpenOffice is free and works nicely on Windows.

Another reseller claimed that it was like taking someone to a BMW dealer and asking them to find a car for under $20,000. Er not really, the build quality of Apple has gone down the toilet recently and anyway you can get a really good quality PC for $1000, and you cannot get a good Mac for that amount of cash.

Our favourite attempt to defend Apple's outrageous pricing came from Cnet  which pointed out that the adverts were bogus because Microsoft didn't use a 'real person' and that the young woman was 'just an actress'. Sheesh and we thought the 'I am a PC' and 'I am a Mac' blokes were real hardware.

Strange that none of the Apple koolaid drinking press thought that it would be a good idea to compare prices and specs.  If Apple is more expensive for the same spec then why aren't they helping their readers make sensible buying decisions rather than helping a proprietary company screw more cash from punters who do not know any better.

We think it funny that when Apple scores a hit, like it did with the I am a Mac adverts, the fanboys and their tame press dance joy jigs in print. However when Microsoft scores, they pull out all stops to shout down a valid message.