The ad fills the screen with error boxes, loading cursors, and Apple’s dreaded spinning beach ball. It goes through the different versions of Windows, highlighting update prompts, viruses, bluescreens and more. Naturally, it promotes Chromebook as an alternative to all these issues, as its all-day battery, fast loading, and app library. As you would expect, the app is quite disingenuous, but it still has some relevance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xryaZF1Z4w
Windows 10 Improvements
It’s rare, for example, to see the cascading errors of XP in Windows 10. In fact, beyond the occasional app not responding, it’s rare to see errors at all. Virus protection is also much better now, with Windows Defender acting a great barrier against most attacks. Still, it’s clear that Google is pushing the stability and no-nuisance angle. Its software is very refined and stable, it just comes at the cost of limited app support and many OS restrictions. Of course, this type of competitor-based advertising is common, though it’s starting to feel a bit dated. Apple’s notorious What’s a computer is one example from last year, as is Microsoft’s Edge battery benchmarks. However, Google’s ad seems particularly misleading and inflammatory. It’ll be interesting to see if Microsoft responds to this with its own Windows 10 S mode ad, or simply lets it be.
