In the latest Microsoft ad, the issue of Apple vs. Samsung has been highlighted to make the Lumia 920 stand out. Does it work though?
The advertisement, now on the Windows Phone Channel, begins with an innocuous enough wedding when all the attendees take out their phones, and we clearly see that one side of the aisle are Samsung aficionados while the other side is Apple. One guest gets up with his ‘Galaxy Note II’ phablet which draws the remark from the Apple side “Would you mind moving your enormous phone? ’A few more snide remarks later a Samsung guest calls them ‘i-sheep’ and another lady gets up and says ‘Autocorrect this!’ and lands a punch on an Apple guest’s face.
Chaos ensues with exaggerated punches and kicks sending people flying all around the wedding aisle, a noteworthy one being when one guest is smashed on the face by a Galaxy Note sending him flying across the hall. Amidst all this violence are two calm and collected waiters on their colourful Nokia Lumia 920’s (in contrast to the black and grey Apple and Samsung devices) who ask each other ‘Do you think if they knew about the Nokia Lumia they would stop fighting all the time?’ to which the reply is “I think they like fighting”.
The slogan of the new ad
Now the Nokia Lumia gets very little screen time here, and the focus is on the ridiculous Apple-Samsung rivalry. By showing that only two waiters have this phone, Microsoft is trying to stand out by distancing itself from the other phones instead of directly competing with them. Alas, jokes will still be made at Microsoft’s expense.
For example, one online comment says “The Microsoft ad for Windows Phone is highly accurate. In a room full of people, there are only two Lumia owners.” This remark is not too far from the truth as Apple and Samsung right now are capturing 103 percent of market profits, a percentage which is possible because of losses incurred by rival companies, one of which is Nokia. Nokia suffered a $3 billion loss in 2012, and the Lumia 920 will be seen as its saviour.
This is not the first time Microsoft has released an ad like this. In November 2012, they had attacked Google with the hope of elevating its Search engine Bing, which we now know delivers five times more malware than Google.