Techcrunch Features Bnet Reporter Lindsay Blakely On Apple’s Advertising Budget, 11/21/08

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

1 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

Tech Gadgets Mobile Enterprise CrunchBase More Beta Invites Elevator Pitches Gillmor Gang Podcasts TechCrunch50 TechCrunch UK TechCrunch France TechCrunch Japan The Crunchies

MashLogicNew Jobs Contact Company Index Archives Advertise About Next Post Previous Post Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s 106 Comments by Erick Schonfeld on November 21, 2008

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

2 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

When Apple started running the anti-Vista commercial (above) mocking Microsoft for spending $300 million on Vista’s own ad campaign instead of on fixing its problems, I called it hypocritical: Apple’s advertising budget is also pretty massive. I mean, I see more Apple commercials on TV than ads for Barack Obama. Apple is on track to spend more than $3.5 billion on SG&A (selling, general, and administrative expenses) for its fiscal year that ended September 30. How much of that was spent on advertising? I don’t know, but 10 percent doesn’t seem unreasonable. It turns out that I underestimated Apple’s advertising budget. Lindsay Blakely at Bnet (a former Business 2.0 reporter) found the actual numbers in a subsequent SEC filing. In its 2008 fiscal year that just ended last September, Apple spent a whopping $486 million on advertising. (In fiscal year 2007, it spent $467 million, and in fiscal year 2006 it spent $338 million). Half a billion dollars on marketing. No wonder I think Apple products are so great. Update: Microsoft spends more on advertising across all of its combined businesses than Apple does, but its Windows business is what competes most directly with Apple. Microsoft’s total advertising budget across all of its businesses, including Windows, Office, Xbox, and all the enterprise stuff, was the following (from the 10K ): “Advertising expense was $1.2 billion, $1.3 billion, and $1.2 billion in fiscal years 2008, 2007, and 2006, respectively.” Microsoft’s fiscal year ends in June, so these numbers do not reflect the $300 million Vista campaign. But that would have eaten up 25 percent of Microsoft’s entire ad budget for any of the previous three years.

ShareThis Next Post Previous Post

Responses

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

3 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

Apple’s Entire Ad Budget: $486M, Compared to Vista’s $300M | MacBlogz - One Stop Apple News November 22nd, 2008 at 9:18 pm That’s why they don’t call it NumberCrunch — R.R. Perry: The Blog November 23rd, 2008 at 10:23 am 300 Million - Air Mass Zero November 23rd, 2008 at 5:05 pm See! See! Apple is the Marketing Bully | Redfin Corporate Blog November 23rd, 2008 at 9:57 pm Advertising budget of Vista Alone is 62 percent of Entire Apple Budget : www.awesomeblogs.info November 23rd, 2008 at 11:35 pm Apple y su publicidad hipócrita November 24th, 2008 at 8:09 am Boycott Novell » Eye on Microsoft: Vista/7 Trouble and More Security Chaos November 24th, 2008 at 12:45 pm Apple y su publicidad hipócrita | Noticias, novedades, tecnología, programación - Bit & Bit November 25th, 2008 at 6:02 am Celestial Expanse » Blog Archive » Apple Bash’s Microsoft, Microsoft Gets Last Word November 28th, 2008 at 5:38 am Appleの広告費は5億ドル弱―MicrosoftのVistaの広告費どころじゃない December 2nd, 2008 at 4:53 am Trackback URL

Comments Comments Pages: [1] 2 » Show All wildcrft - November 21st, 2008 at 9:58 pm PST With such a huge budget for Ads, it os no wonder many think that Apple’s products are so great. Personally I have never been to impressed with Apple’s product. They seem to have more of eye candy value than any real practical use. reply Steve - November 21st, 2008 at 10:24 pm PST Apple product not only good in ads but also the best and sleekest laptop /iPhone in the world. No body can compete with Apple on usability reply Bashar

- November 24th, 2008 at 5:56 am PST

sleekest iPhone ofcourse. Only they manufacture it, it has to be the sleekest Not 100% PC

- November 27th, 2008 at 3:58 pm PST

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

4 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

Clearly Apple is not 100% PC. Just check out their executive page. http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/ Eric - November 21st, 2008 at 11:14 pm PST Microsoft spent $300 million on an ad campaign for Vista instead of fixing the flaws in Vista. Apple spent half a billion on an ad campaign….and they had no flaws to fix Where’s the hypocrisy? If Apple products also had flaws like Vista and they STILL chose to spend money on ad campaign instead of fixing those flaws (like microsoft), then yes, I can see the hypocrisy. reply jamboree - November 21st, 2008 at 11:28 pm PST Oh come on. The reason why people buy Apple computers is because they look so sleek AND it runs Windows. Very few people actually give a hoot about the Apple OS. Apple’s ads only try to paint a picture that isn’t true… no wonder Apple puts in SO much effort to convince people that their OS is actually so much cooler…. NOT!

Raul Riera - November 22nd, 2008 at 9:13 am PST Wow what are you saying jamboree? haha RickR - November 22nd, 2008 at 11:57 am PST Eric, looks like you drank a big ‘ol glass of the Jobs’ special blend KoolAid as well. You really know for a fact that M$ is not working to fix issues in Vista, or are you just puppeting the Apple line on the subject? I also enjoyed a hardy laugh at your comment that Apple’s OS has no flaws; you have revealed yourself as a true tard fanboy. fake_shel - November 22nd, 2008 at 2:50 pm PST $300 is 1/4th of the total ad spendings of Microsoft and considering they spend it on a single product, I guess Eric has a point. Not considering what Apple is doing, MS could have of course diverted some percentage of that $300 ad budget towards fixing flaws in vista, which would have been provided a better case in point for a better Marketing strategy. Eric - November 23rd, 2008 at 1:54 am PST @RickR Actually Rick, I am a PC guy myself. Never liked the Mac. I just wanted to point out a gap in the logic for

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

5 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

calling Apple’s ad ‘hypocritical’ calling someone a tard fanboy on the internet, lol. You must be one tough pimple faced scrawny nerd. Tell me, are you whacking it to ur PC right now?

jason@tinyComb

- November 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 am PST

“Microsoft’s total advertising budget across all of its businesses, including Windows, Office, Xbox, and all the enterprise stuff, was $1.2 billion, $1.3 billion, and $1.2 billion in fiscal years 2008, 2007, and 2006, respectively.” Well, Apple’s advertising across it’s iTV, iPod, iPhone, Laptops, Desktops, App Store, etc spends 1/3 of Microsoft’s total ad budget. How is it hypocritical? reply Yorkali

- November 22nd, 2008 at 4:14 pm PST

flat . baseless . empty. Apple has had to shout louder because it has a small market share. Not just lull people into thinking it’s product is better. If Apple’s offerings were not better why are they outselling the competition at such an incredible pace, quarter after quarter. And it’s not because they run Windows, I can tell yah that much. reply John

- November 21st, 2008 at 10:01 pm PST

Did you read the article in Fast Company a few months ago about Microsoft’s new ad firm Crispin Porter? I loved the line about how Microsoft has taken it for so long from Apple’s ads but if anyone tried doing that to Oracle they wouldn’t find the bodies. reply rafael jimenez

- November 21st, 2008 at 10:01 pm PST

You seem to be missing the point, Erick. No amount of marketing dollars will save a bad product, and that was what the Apple ad criticizing Vista was all about. It wasn’t about having a big advertising budget. reply travisvn1 - November 21st, 2008 at 11:12 pm PST Actually it shows that no matter how much money you throw at advertising. You will never come close to Microsoft in market share. reply Jack9 - November 22nd, 2008 at 10:25 pm PST

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

6 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

Tell that to Google

Tom von Schwerdtner

- November 21st, 2008 at 10:07 pm PST

The point isn’t “Microsoft spends more on advertising than Apple” the point is “Microsoft is spending a lot of money on advertising instead of fixing Vista”. Weather or not Vista needs fixing is up for debate, but all the same, you’re missing he point. Granted, if you missed the point of the Apple ad, then it apparently wasn’t an effective ad. reply

Tom von Schwerdtner

- November 21st, 2008 at 10:23 pm PST

By the way, the $300 million is a single Microsoft campaign for vista, versus an entire fiscal year for Apple. reply Sam - November 24th, 2008 at 4:36 pm PST You’re talking about a company 3 times bigger than Apple here… Carson - November 21st, 2008 at 10:47 pm PST I think the point of the commercial is to convince people that Microsoft makes a horrible product and doesn’t care for the customers, whether or not its true. Apple doesn’t really care how they do it, as long as the ends justify the means. reply Shannon Clark

- November 21st, 2008 at 10:08 pm PST

For a company with as much cash and revenues as Apple I’m actually surprised at how small that number is. More to the point Apple is one of the few companies who have built up and supported a strong and clear brand. Unlike most tech companies they advertise via very visual and seemingly simple images (shadows w/iPods, just the MacBook Air, the iPhone) in short apple ads are distinctive and Apple’s branding continues from their early days to now (a few months back photos of a mint Apple II were posted I was struck by how even then design of the packaging was part of Apple as was providing customers things like stickers to help build that brand) reply

Jon

- November 21st, 2008 at 10:18 pm PST

That is an astonishing amount of money for such a relatively “small” company! But they are growing mind and market share so I guess the investment is paying off. They have also generated pretty nice profits on top of that so I guess they know what they are doing.

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

7 of 28

Jon http://WoodMarvels.com

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

- Create Unique Memories

reply silicon valley dropout - November 21st, 2008 at 10:20 pm PST wow thats a lot of money but not surprising since i see way more apple commercials then microsoft pieces reply

AdvertisingLocator.com

- November 21st, 2008 at 10:27 pm PST

you would think they would own an advertising company by now. wheres there adnetwork? i-AD i-Engine i-FIND IdeasLocator.com - thought experts reply Will K - November 21st, 2008 at 10:29 pm PST Tom is bang-on with his assessment: it’s about how much Microsoft is spending on advertising Vista (or Mojave) rather than spending it on correcting the obvious flaws in Vista. Vista could be an excellent operating system — if (and this is a big if) they did it right. But they didn’t, and now they are trying, as we used to say when I worked for Gateway, “to sell the cow.” The problem is that Microsoft trying to sell Vista is like trying to sell a cow patty. Seriously. I’ve been involved with PCs since 1990. I switched to Macintosh three years ago because of the simple superiority of the OS X operating system — it simply blew my mind how it could work non-stop for months without rebooting and still produce some of the most complex, graphics-intensive creations you could imagine. And no spyware or viruses. Microsoft has done an incredible job putting people on a single platform, and they should be commended for their efforts here. But Vista belongs, like Windows ME, in the junk pile. It’s simply not ready for Prime Time. Never was. OS X, with its compatibility with the Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe Creative Suite, and its still marketdominating graphics applications like Final Cut Pro and Motion, is still a far more advanced and more secure operating system — and simpler for end users to manage. Simply put: I can get far more done in a day on a Mac than I ever could with a PC, with far less stress, regardless of which Windows version I was using, and with far less maintenance and sturm und drang. And THAT is the REAL point of this ad campaign. To me, it’s worth it. reply Brian

- November 22nd, 2008 at 4:37 am PST

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

8 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

To me, you’re an idiot. reply Chris - November 22nd, 2008 at 9:40 am PST I agree. More secure? Which planet are you living on? I distinctly remember a contest earlier this year in which the Mac was the first to fall. Apple knows nothing about security, because they’ve never had to. Wait till the market share increases a little more and the target becomes juicier — then you’ll see security problems, and you’ll see a company that doesn’t have the first clue about how to deal with it. Kraven - November 22nd, 2008 at 10:32 pm PST Ya you are Brian Markus - November 24th, 2008 at 12:42 pm PST @Chris We’re talking about right now. Today. OS/X simply has way less headaches. I’m not going to argue if that’s because of better design or simply because lower market share dictates that it’s less of a target. It doesn’t matter. When/if security issues become a problem on a Mac 3-5 years down the road then we can all re-evaluate whether it is still the right platform and buy our computers accordingly. Right now, today, I’m getting way more work done on my Mac with less headaches then I ever did on an MS OS. Dan - November 25th, 2008 at 11:52 am PST What exactly do you do on a mac that you can’t do on a PC? I’ve never really had “security” problems on a PC… how are you getting that much spyware?

Free Movies & TV Episodes Online

- November 21st, 2008 at 10:34 pm PST

Apple have more of a niche market and because of its smaller market share and select range of products it can focus more on a certain particular product. Its O/S. Apple users are very loyal. I know more about PC’s than macs. But you only have to use one to know its a much better product. Yet to see a Mac blue screen yet. reply Chris - November 22nd, 2008 at 9:41 am PST You haven’t seen as many Macs as you have PCs. I have many friends who use Macs and complain all the

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

9 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

time about crashes losing all their work. reply Brett - November 21st, 2008 at 10:39 pm PST Seinfeld and Gates probably spent twice that much on their dinner in the suburbs together. reply Erik Dungan - November 21st, 2008 at 10:45 pm PST Most of Apple’s ads are for the iPhone/iPod/iTunes music. When was the last time you saw an OS X ad? reply travisvn1 - November 21st, 2008 at 11:24 pm PST Have you been missing the entire Im a Mac Im a PC ads? Open your eyes reply Frank - November 21st, 2008 at 10:45 pm PST This is severely misleading. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence realizes that you are comparing apples and oranges. $300M for a single campain for a single product, versus $467M for an entire year for an entire range of products. Sure, the numbers are huge, but they can not be compared. Find the yearly budget for Microsofts advertising for the year, and I am sure that number will be… high. Dang, you made me defend Apple. That is pretty bad, considering I don’t even like them. :þ reply RR

- November 21st, 2008 at 11:26 pm PST

I came here to post almost this exact same comment. Thanks for saving me the trouble of typing it out reply thorp - November 21st, 2008 at 11:07 pm PST I hate Apple’s egregious, outsized banner ads on the NYT and WSJ. That’s some very expensive bad taste. reply Shaun

- November 21st, 2008 at 11:09 pm PST

disclosure: not a mac owner/fanboy. the point of the ad is not just about advertising budgets, but it questions the wisdom of spending money on advertising to gloss over the problems instead of addressing the problems reply

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

10 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

Sidharth - November 21st, 2008 at 11:14 pm PST Eric , You have angered the fanboys. I never thought that you will write this article. Comparing the full year budget for Apple ( macbook, imac, ipod, iphone , apple tv) to just the budget for 1 product (vista) is plain ridiculous. Hope you update the post. reply

Tom von Schwerdtner

- November 21st, 2008 at 11:23 pm PST

It’s not even the budget for Vista, it’s the budget for a single Vista campaign. Microsoft has many Vista campaigns running, only the “I’m a PC/Seinfeld” campaign was reported to cost $300 million. reply

Khong Co Ai

- November 21st, 2008 at 11:16 pm PST

Sorry but your article compares the budget for Vista only against the whole budget for the Apple products. it will be more serious to compare Vista et Leopard advertising budget. reply

Tom von Schwerdtner

- November 21st, 2008 at 11:21 pm PST

Apple generally doesn’t advertise Leopard, they advertise the hardware and tout Leopard as a major feature of the hardware. reply Louis-Eric - November 21st, 2008 at 11:21 pm PST This is a strange comparison. Microsoft’s ad is for a platform that carries a range of system manufacturers; when they remind people of contemporary OS choice at strategic moments (back-to-school, Christmas, etc.) they help sell the systems of everybody else (well, more so when the ads was for XP; not that Vista is necessarily bad, but they did lose control over that story). That requires a lot of money. Apple is a vertically integrated system manufacturer; they advertise devices running their own software. Their budget, all in all, for all that they do, is quite small actually; a testament to a great brand. How much is Dell spending, for example ? Two good strategies, and my point is that none of those compares with the other. They are designed to address different strategic targets.

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

11 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

reply Shannon Clark

- November 21st, 2008 at 11:25 pm PST

worth noting that Apple isn’t all that “small” of a company - they had nearly $40B in assets as of their last annual report (2008) and net profits of nearly $7B - $500M in advertising wouldn’t even be 10% of their profits and their gross sales last year were over $32B (so $500M in advertising is less than 2% of their gross sales - which is actually, I’d argue, a fairly low percentage - especially given the presence and impact their ads have. For comparison MSFT spent $1.2B in 2008 (1.3B in 2007 - I’m guess due to Halo, and 1.2B in 2006) on advertising and had gross revenues of $60B (so less than 2x Apple’s) and spent almost exactly 2% of gross revenues on advertising. reply Louis-Eric - November 21st, 2008 at 11:29 pm PST Shaun: Define the Vista problem for me ? There was the lack of drivers early on and that has mostly been resolved (unless you really care about antiquated hardware, although the Vista Experience program — without the 915 blunder — made it pretty clear that Vista was mostly designed for new hardware); people have disabled UAC; I personally hate the new Start menu system so I went back to the old one; same number of customizations I made on my iMac. The rest works pretty swimmingly. Disk management is a breeze, PAE takes all of that 4GB, the interface is nice, the task switcher is awesome. I like it, and I like my Mac too. reply Tim Abbott

- November 22nd, 2008 at 5:44 am PST

I like Microsoft a lot, my brother in law works there, I was on the team at VML that did tons of Microsoft stuff, and they haven’t had the “we’re the kings” attitude problems in years (except for Ballmer) but when I worked at Kozoru (failed natural language search engine start up - crash and burn type failure) I did learn one thing; OS X rocks. Seriously, I mean if you are a web dev and don’t do .NET, there’s nothing else to use other than a Macbook Pro. I don’t use an iPhone (Nokia e71), Macbook Air, or hardly anything else Apple other than my laptop, iMac, Macbook, and iPod. I also hate the crazy insane secrecy, however, although I can boot Windows, I only do some in extreme circumstances. I mean, you can hate the whole, “we are the greatest” Apple mantra (and I do), but dude, give me a terminal, beautiful graphics and productivity apps (keynote vs power point when looking to impress) and I’m not turning on Vista. reply Natasha - November 22nd, 2008 at 5:54 pm PST I have had Vista for 3 months, called tech support 4 times for the same driver error that cannot be fixed (see atikmdag.sys). In the last month, I have had 23 driver errors. 8 of them were today (all in a row). The reason that number isn’t higher is because I can’t afford to lose more work and time when my OS decides to go in BSoD mode and restart. (The errors happen when I am running an external monitor, which I bought 5 days after buying the laptop - see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....ture=email ) I love Vista for what it could be - for what Microsoft wanted it to be. But the fact is that Vista is not admitting the problem with their video drivers.

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

12 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

That being said, I cannot buy Apple either. reply Louis-Eric - November 22nd, 2008 at 6:17 pm PST Natasha: I had similar experiences with video drivers. While I sympathize (and remember the pain), this isn’t a Vista issue. It is a video-card-companies-making-crapware issues. ATI and Nvidia really need to get their act together on this.

Preshit

- November 21st, 2008 at 11:34 pm PST

Wow, Erick, Company One: Product Qty: 1 Product Quality: Debatable, but pretty much flawed. Product Campaign: 1 of the many. Amount: $300 million. Company Two: Product Qty: Atleast a Dozen Product Quality: Much Better than Company One’s. Product Campaign: Entire year for entire range of products. Amount: $486 million Wow, hypocritical indeed. Spending $300 million for a product that’s not too famous for its features and spending close $500 million over an entire year for over a dozen products that are actually great is now even fit to be compared with each other. You’re forgetting one fundamental fact that Microsoft’s campaign was for one single software product. Apple’s campaign budget was for its entire range of products. reply Riley - November 22nd, 2008 at 6:36 am PST I think TechCrunch only wants to post a headline that will grab more readers. It’s all about getting hits. The real article should be that techcrunch has to think up ways to bash apple to drum advertising in this crummy economy. reply Chris - November 22nd, 2008 at 9:43 am PST Much better than Company One’s? Hmm. I’d love to know what you’re basing that theoretical comparison on. It’s a lot simpler, with a heck of lot less features and usability, sure. But better? That’s a stretch.

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

13 of 28

Mike @ WannaDevelop.com

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

- November 22nd, 2008 at 12:03 am PST

MSFT should spend some more… Especially in this tough economic times, they can get 2x value Mike http://www.wannadevelop.com/ reply

Amit Bhawani

- November 22nd, 2008 at 1:14 am PST

Develop websites on comparision of Mac Vs PC and make tonnes of money reply zato - November 22nd, 2008 at 3:55 am PST “Update: Microsoft spends more on advertising across all of its combined businesses than Apple does, but its Windows business is what competes most directly with Apple. Microsoft’s total advertising budget across all of its businesses, including Windows, Office, Xbox, and all the enterprise stuff, was the following (from the 10K): “Advertising expense was $1.2 billion, $1.3 billion, and $1.2 billion in fiscal years 2008, 2007, and 2006, respectively.” But that doesn’t count all the paid shills, astroturfers, blogggers, and black PR writers Microsoft has all over the tech internet. Nor does it count the cost of all the Microsoft employees who post comments daily to Apple hating blogs and sites like this one. reply

Mark

- November 22nd, 2008 at 5:18 am PST

You can’t just compare advertising among the two companies in hard dollars. You have to take market cap and total revenues into consideration. AAPL is nipping at the heels compared to MSFT as a company. It’s a joke to compare the two when you look at MSFT’s global penatration and the amazingly high adoption of almost all its products. Vista was definitely a bad step, but it isn’t as though they won’t fix it - indeed, they’re already announcing MS 7 or whatever. AAPL is cool to some of you guys (and indeed their products are cool) but that doesn’t mean everyone will adopt them and it doesn’t mean the truly compete in terms of market cap and overall global penetration. They’re small compared to MSFT. That’s why the Apple ads haven’t scared off Microsoft - they can only do so much when they’re appealing to a very small market compared to Microsoft. Ballmer & Co have already written off many of the people that will spend the extra $1000 on AAPL products. They’ll instead focus on the rest of the 1 billion people out there who use some sort of MSFT product on a daily basis from New York to New Geunea reply Megan Trotsky - November 22nd, 2008 at 5:41 am PST “But that doesn’t count all the paid shills, astroturfers, blogggers, and black PR writers Microsoft has all over the tech internet. Nor does it count the cost of all the Microsoft employees who post comments daily to Apple

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

14 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

hating blogs and sites like this one” That’s just precious. Seeing collective iGasm the MSM and Blogflatusphere has with slightest update or bowel movement in Cupertino. Jobs’ dog and pony shows combined with a billion dollar ad campaigns still nets them 4% Worldwide marketshare and army of bi-coastal iBoi trolls. reply Megan Trotsky - November 22nd, 2008 at 5:47 am PST But, Apples OSX Kitty Leopard SP5.4 is just perfect and just works. reply

Neil Kelty

- November 22nd, 2008 at 6:24 am PST

It’s still funny as hell. reply Riley - November 22nd, 2008 at 6:33 am PST Try comparing apple’s ad budget for leopard to microsoft’s vista ad budget. Vista’s ad budget is comparable to Apple’s OX X development budget which is really embarrassing. Apple only competes with Microsoft on OS X and to a very insignificant factor Zune. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ad for mac OS Leopard on tv ever. I would take this article down it’s just embarrassingly naive to think that apple’s entire ad budget is spent trying to battle vista. Where does TechCrunch find it’s writer’s on Yahoo boards? reply

Joshua r

- November 22nd, 2008 at 6:35 am PST

300 million on vista. I would bet most of apples advertising is spent on the iphone. So in an area they don’t even technically compete. reply

Martin Ringlein

- November 22nd, 2008 at 6:43 am PST

Glad to see Schonfeld finally updated his post (Eric’s seem to be the most ridiculous and annoyingly irrelevant) … Microsoft spends so much more money on advertising than Apple. And the difference is that in those “Apple” commercials, they are talking about “Mac” the company vs. “Vista” the operating system.

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

15 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

They are not talking about “OS X” the operating system vs. “Vista” the operating system. Apple is advertising for the company and only competing against one part of Microsoft’s company. So yes, all of Apples advertising dollars for it’s company is probably slightly larger than the advertising dollars for one part of Microsoft’s products. reply TechNald

- November 22nd, 2008 at 6:46 am PST

that is true! reply Cadence

- November 22nd, 2008 at 6:56 am PST

Sorry but who actually gets affected by TV ads etc these days? Who actually lets these ads affect them enough to influence their product choices? “Half a billion dollars on marketing. No wonder I think Apple products are so great.” The main thing actually contributing to such a good perception of apple products are the fanboys that tout it at any given chance. That and OSX is actually a better OS than WIndows. reply Chris - November 22nd, 2008 at 9:51 am PST I haven’t seen a television commercial in years, and only a small handful in the movie theater. Oh, and the fanboys are beginning to cause a backlash. I’m seeing it more and more these days. Fewer and fewer people are reading their uninformed boilerplate opinions. reply Ron - November 22nd, 2008 at 7:34 am PST I just wonder what would happen if for some ‘business disagreement’ MS would not allow Windows and Office to run on Macintosh platforms. Just as a trial to see how it would affect Apple’s sales. reply Linus

- November 22nd, 2008 at 8:34 am PST

In its 2008 fiscal year that just ended last September, Apple spent a whopping $486 million on advertising. (In fiscal year 2007, it spent $467 million, and in fiscal year 2006 it spent $338 million). A question since I didn’t see this in the article: how much of that is *JUST* on OS X?? Since it’s not separated out, I would think this number includes advertising for iPhone, iPod, iTunes, hardware specific (laptops), etc. Both companies are in the business of making money and both produce a product that is obviously useful. Neither one actually advertises WHY or WHAT their product does that makes it so wonderful.

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

16 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

So honestly, don’t care how much they are spending on advertising. I do care, however, if they will listen to suggestion and actually fix issues when they crop up. reply Robert McLaws

- November 22nd, 2008 at 8:35 am PST

Erick, A Windows blogger buddy of mine broke down a more pertinent figure for Apple’s bean counting: R&D vs Advertising. As evidenced by the issues with the iPhone 2.2 release,Apple can’t ship ANYTHING without major buys in it, proving that they should spend less on smart-assed false advertising, and more on product testing. http://www.windows-now.com/blo.....first.aspx reply Chris - November 22nd, 2008 at 9:47 am PST Amen. I haven’t seen ONE product release in the past year that wasn’t accompanied by major bugs and issues (with the exception of the new iPods, and that’s because I don’t care/aren’t looking). The difference here is that most Apple users are either idiotic or willing to dismiss bugs because they’re blinded by the RDF. Windows users on the other hand have no issues complaining — and aren’t going to shut up and tow the company line just so they don’t look stupid for having spent (significantly less) money. reply Sean Seah

- November 22nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm PST

As a user for both OS, i would say that OS X is a more consumer oriented designed OS. Does it ever crash? Trust me it does, but definitely must lesser than Vista. As for Vista, I have no idea why do they bother to come out with Vista to replace win 98 in the first place. Why not save the marketing dollars to conduct a extensive consumer survey and deliver what consumer really wants? Chris - November 27th, 2008 at 8:30 am PST The problem is that Microsoft can’t win. One year, everyone complains about security — MS implements UAC, firewall, Defender, etc. Next year, everyone complains about the onerous and obnoxious security measures that were taken. They can’t win. As for Vista crashing — I run Vista on five machines here, four have never crashed even once, and one crashes because it’s got a faulty nVidia card that borks when it gets too hot. Our office has several Vista PC’s as well that have no problems. Neil_Polymathes - November 22nd, 2008 at 11:21 am PST The iPhone has proven to be the most reliable smart phone on the market. That is including all previous versions. iPod has also proven to be the most reliable MP3/AAC player on the market. As well as both having the highest rated user interface in their categories. Knock R&D budgets all you like. But if your product is

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

17 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

number one for user satisfaction; then spending less than the competition just means you’ve spent more wisely or done better work. Either way the article and title of the article are both wrong. Even with the “update” the author is comparing Apple’s whole advertising budget (for Mac PC, MacOS, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, AppleTV, etc etc) verses just the Windows OS budget. No matter how much you break it down, as an operating system, based on owner satisfaction Vista is less satisfying, and slower than Apple OS X. Here is a comparison http://pfeifferreport.com/trends /Vista_UIF_Rep.pdf This is despite Microsoft spending according to your bean counter friend nearly five times as much in R&D. Both Xbox360 and Vista (Ready/Capable/Base/Premium/Ultimate/Business) has been a huge Multi-Billion Dollar R&D blunders and marketing errors. Microsoft changed/lowered their approved hardware list, so Intel could move more of its existing inventory. An email between Microsoft’s Balmer and Intel’s CEO shows this. My Vista Premium Laptop had only 1GB of “Shared RAM”. Where Vista states minimums of 1GB of RAM and 128MB of Video RAM. In addition Vista is not laptop friendly. Vista “performance updates” often change your power setting to maximum performance whether plugged in, or on Battery. For the first year of Vista it kept changing shutdown to S3 standby. Which drained the battery while transporting until it was dead before you arrived and used it. I thought this was a problem might be with my Vendor’s OS image, so I did a clean install using just a Retail Vista Premium disk. No, these are the settings Microsoft’s R&D were forcing on users even after two years time in order to hide how slow the OS really is. Even Windows 7 isn’t faster. Benchmarks show it is the Vista engine with a snappier graphic user interface, replacing the Aero Interface. If I had the extra money I’d own a MAC PC. Visit any Apple store and try using a MAC for an extended period of time. Once you get used to the single mouse button + Ctrl you will be amazed by the comfort of the layout ans icons. reply Yorkali

- November 22nd, 2008 at 4:19 pm PST

Excellent excellent retort my friend. Very good! voip

- November 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 am PST

In my view it is also about spending the money on the right place, right people. Apple is more “web 2.0″ in marketing, I was really impressed with the huge buzz around iPhone’s launch last year, so many blogs, videos, reports, reviews etc. So many bloggers and techies are in it. But I have to say Apple’s product is well crafted too, they’ve also chosen the right battleground. People are on mobile, instead, nobody is demanding a upgrade of their Windows OS except Microsoft, that’s why it has been rough for Microsoft all the time. reply Chris - November 22nd, 2008 at 9:48 am PST Absolute nonsense. Most people can’t afford to be on mobile with the data rates the cell phone companies (in most countries) are charging. Not to mention, the experience is sooo much less compelling on a mobile device (due to speed or lack thereof).

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

18 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

reply

Christopher Higgins

- November 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 am PST

Your statements are a little misleading. Microsoft spent $300 million on Vista’s advertising and Apple spent $486 million, not on Leopard alone, but on all their products. iPhone, iPod, computers ect.. So a better comparison is Microsoft spent $1.2 billion to Apples $486 million. Microsoft spends way more! Still love your site. Please check mine out and feel free to critique me. keep on bloggin! reply Dave Larone - November 22nd, 2008 at 1:13 pm PST I just love to read all the Apple Apologists contort and squirm trying to deflect away from their precious Corporation that fuels their self worth with overpriced shiny plastic products. Definitely an American thing as well. Apples Ad campaign in the UK is laughed at and they’ve made little to no inroads here and in Europe and the rest of the world(you know we do exist, iBoi’s). But as long as preppy “bloggers’ like thumping away on their shiny macbooks we’ll always be subjugated with the tyranny of their stupidity. reply

Glo - November 22nd, 2008 at 2:54 pm PST Ummm, the entire premise here is a little ridiculous. Apple isn’t being a hypocrite here. Apple doesn’t have an operating system on life support. So spending a bunch of money promoting their products i’snt really a big deal. MS spending a bunch of money promoting a BAD products IS a big deal. That is what the commercials are making fun of. Sure they are a little smug, but they make a pretty compelling point when you take the situation at face value. reply al - November 23rd, 2008 at 7:59 pm PST You Apple dork. I bet you know little to nothing about Vista. Many users, including me, have been using Vista without flaw. reply

Phillip Molly Malone

- November 22nd, 2008 at 3:40 pm PST

Come on guys! I think your being unfair too Apple! Macs work great! I mean, my paper never flies away when I put those big paper weights on them! (That’s the intend use for a Mac, right? You can’t get real software for them!). Molly

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

19 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

reply Bob - November 22nd, 2008 at 5:57 pm PST Once again, Apple takes advantage of consumer ignorance. In addition to outrageous hypocrisy, any project manager knows that throwing developers at a project, in this case, increasing the budget for “fixing” Vista, does not increase the speed at which a project is completed. With too many developers on a project, things get chaotic, and everything slows down. Spending more money on Vista might actually impede progress. Also, Vista doesn’t need “fixing.” As many have said before, Vista is now a fairly mature product and does not have the rampant problems that Apple ads refer to. For Apple fanboys who disagree, please load up Vista and give it a try. It’ll shut you up. reply Olivier Lalonde

- November 22nd, 2008 at 6:57 pm PST

“Half a billion dollars on marketing. No wonder I think Apple products are so great.” I love this sentence reply superman3497 - November 22nd, 2008 at 8:15 pm PST “if they can mac it, we can win it” hehehehehe reply Len - November 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 pm PST Unfortunately so many of you are concerned with the $$ amount spent instead of a simple rule of thumb when it comes to creating and promoting your brand……. If you need to rely on bashing your competitors products instead of featuring the wonderful attributes of your own, then perhaps your product isn’t all that special to begin with. Do I give a crap about MS or Apple, not really….I’m not a fanboy of either. That being said, as a marketer I would sooner talk about my product then spend my time and money to bash another. Lets be real for a moment though, Apple may be the darling of the tech gadget world today, but when really was the last true innovation they created on their own. The gui perhaps, maybe the mouse…… The iphone was simply putting together existing a bunch of existing technology together into a phone. Sure they did it before everyone else did, but they didn’t create any of the technology. As for the ipod, portable music players have been around since Sony developed the walkman back when the gogo’s were popular. [perhaps none of you are old enough to know who they are - do a search if you need to]. Apple has been great at putting 2+2 together and designing amazing functionality into their products, however they haven’t created anything for years…..and years…..

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

20 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

Just a thought but perhaps they need to bash MS in their advertising to cover up some of their own inadequacies and keep their stock price higher than it should truly be. The bottom line is if you have to bash your competitors to make inroads for your products, you’re pretty pathetic. Why Apple is getting a free pass is only because they compete against MS. reply Wade - November 22nd, 2008 at 11:03 pm PST Apple ads are still awesome, so I say, money well spent and good job. Everyone else is just jealous : ) reply Dirk Diggler - November 23rd, 2008 at 12:17 am PST TechCrunch is a pro microsoft site. Does not take much to understand. reply Joe - November 23rd, 2008 at 9:02 am PST Apple has over 200 retail stores! Plus sells computers, iPods and iPhones. I’m sure the cost is for all of this. Microsoft has no stores and sells no computers. The cost for Vista is ONLY for Vista. Microsoft spent 10 million on just Seinfeld for a few weeks work and some really bad ads no one understood. When will TechCrunch give up on flamebait? reply Eric S. - November 23rd, 2008 at 3:10 pm PST The bias of the writer of this post shines though. You quote Microsoft’s Vista advertising budget and compare it to Apple’s ENTIRE advertising budget. Apples and oranges. Let’s see the Mac OS X advertising budget versus the Vista advertising budget. Not that it even matters. Apple makes great products that people WANT to use. Microsoft makes mediocre products that people HAVE to use. reply al - November 23rd, 2008 at 8:01 pm PST Another apple fanboy dork with limited skills that are perfectly matched for a MAC, reply anonymous - November 23rd, 2008 at 5:53 pm PST

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

21 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

“Apple spent a whopping $486 million on advertising. (In fiscal year 2007, it spent $467 million, and in fiscal year 2006 it spent $338 million).” I think this blog post is misleading. Advertising expenses have increased from $338 in 2006 to $486 million in fiscal 2008 because, guess what, Apple’s revenue is up to $32.4 billion from $19.3 billion in 2006. Half a billion dollars spent in advertising is not that much when you compare Apple’s advertising costs to its revenue. The percentage is actually *down* from fiscal 2004 when compared to revenue, cost of sales, SG&A, you name it… Year: Ad. Costs / Revenue = Prctage 2004: 206 / 8,279 = 2.49% 2005: 287 / 13,931 = 2.06% 2006: 338 / 19,315 = 1.75% 2007: 467 / 24,006 = 1.95% 2008: 486 / 32,479 = 1.50% Year: Ad. Costs / Cost of Sales = Prctage 2004: 206 / 6,022 = 3.42% 2005: 287 / 9,889 = 2.90% 2006: 338 / 13,717 = 2.46% 2007: 467 / 15,852 = 2.95% 2008: 486 / 21,334 = 2.28% Year: Ad. Costs / SG&A = Prctage 2004: 206 / 1,430 = 14.41% 2005: 287 / 1,864 = 15.40% 2006: 338 / 2,433 = 13.89% 2007: 467 / 2,963 = 15.76% 2008: 486 / 3,761 = 12.92% Source: go to apple.com/investor, click on “SEC Fillings” and download the forms 10-K for fiscal years 2008 and 2006. “Microsoft spends more on advertising across all of its combined businesses than Apple does, but its Windows business is what competes most directly with Apple.” The Zune and its marketplace are not competing with iPod + iTunes? Besides, Microsoft is spending $300 million on Vista’s ad campaign alone. With that kind of money, you can almost advertise all of Apple’s combined businesses (Mac, iPod, iPhone). reply Comments Pages: [1] 2 » Show All

Leave Comment Click here to cancel your reply. Name* Email*

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

22 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

Website

Or add a Video Comment with

Commenting Options Enter your personal information to the left, or sign in with your Facebook account by clicking the button below.

Alternatively, you can create an avatar enabled blog.

that will appear whenever you leave a comment on a Gravatar-

Subscribe: Email CrunchBar RSS Twitter

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

23 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

24 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

Recent Active Simply the Best: My Top Gadgets of 2008 29 minutes ago Two New Web-based Calling Services Promise - But Don't Quite Deliver - Free Calls to the US 31 minutes ago Gaming Site InstantAction On A Roll 1 hour, 41 minutes ago KillerStartups Launches Dataopedia, A One-Stop Shop For Information About Websites 3 hours, 51 minutes ago European Business Social Network XING Acquires socialmedian (Update: For $7.5 Million) 7 hours, 12 minutes ago Death To The Embargo 339 comments Meet Lois Whitman, The Poster Child For Everything Wrong With PR 191 comments Thank You Seesmic, For Sucking Less 106 comments "Screw You Yahoo" Says Former Consultant 95 comments LaLa, The Black Sheep Of Music Startups, Just May Have The Right Formula 84 comments

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

25 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

26 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

The CrunchBoard Jobs Services For Sale Web Designer – Ft. Lewis, WA Universal Consulting Services, Inc. Product Manager for FunSpace Slide Lead Warehouse Engineer TripAdvisor Technical Operations Engineer TripAdvisor Ruby Web Ninja BorderStylo See all jobs

Post a job

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

27 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

Powered by Personforce Latest Video Comments

splash video greeting card from skype fails to stop the environmental madness oh well it was worth a try

tinythoughts video greeting card from skype fails to stop the environmental madness oh well it was worth a try

togocats on the go watch your net worth plummet anywhere with mint for iphone

noahdavidsimon fr loren feldman bannit la france voici la vraie raison

daveschappell first round capital literally makes all their startups dance

12/19/2008 11:27 AM

Yup, Apple’s Advertising Budget Is Bigger Than Microsoft Vista’s

28 of 28

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is...

© 2008 TechCrunch

TechCrunch: About Advertise Archives Company Index Contact Jobs

12/19/2008 11:27 AM