Did someone say snow cones?

Wow, I came across an interview with Brad Brooks, VP for Windows Consumer Product Marketing, over at CNET. This is the usual interview in which a Microsoft VP tries to regurgitate marketing material as responses to an interview. However, this interview has 2 things going for it:

1. The interviewer, Ina Fried, keeps asking real questions, and not letting Brad get away with just marketing speak.
   
2. Brad referred the idea of Apple lowering it’s laptop prices as “taking shavings off the iceberg to create a snow cone.”
   

What? Wait… let me catch… my breath… hold on… ow, my side hurts from laughing so much!

I have to say, Ina did a bang-up job of following up, and holding Brad to his statements, which caused them to fall apart.

The Virus argument that wasn’t
While Brad was carrying on about how much people have to spend to put Windows on the Mac, and failing to mention the situations where people just don’t. This extra cost to have Windows on the Mac, is what he was referring to as an Apple Tax. Ina then asks “when you buy a Windows PC, you have to get antivirus software” and that most Mac users don’t. Brad’s response was to compare how Vista users are 60% less likely to get a virus than Windows P SP2 users. Instead of just leaving it there, Ina follows up with the real question of “how does that compare with viruses on the Mac?”

Brad nearly stumbles over himself trying to pull an answer out of his ass^H^H^H^H hind-end. Basically, he has to admit that they don’t have any hard data on that, and therefore there are no actual direct comparisons.

Crippled Office?
Ina later asks about a reference by Steve Ballmer saying that Office for the Mac was stripped-down. Ina then asks Brad what that means, since Microsoft has always touted Office for the Mac as a full Office. Brad is left trying to talk about how there are more features and new enhancements in Office 2007 that Office 2008 does not have.

This does leave me with one question, is Microsoft intentionally stripping down Office for the Mac?

Users are stupid
After mentioning multiple times that users don’t know what they are getting themselves into when they choose Apple over Microsoft, Ina asks “is there risk in the way you guys are doing this that some of the messaging sounds like ‘you, the consumer, just don’t get it?'” Brad then back pedals about it, making it into a ‘Windows gives you more choices and Apple locks you down’ argument.

So, I guess you can add “Windows is Choice” to “War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength.”

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