[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9PSnkVZ8So]
It’ll come as no surprise that Nokia and its friends at Microsoft love to take cheap shots at the iPad and Apple products in general. This time around, a gentleman who just picked up a new tablet for working on the go visits friends at the coffee shop and shows off his new purchase…
As is the usual case with a group of friends, there’s that one detractor, and this time its the perky blonde who gets all “negative nancy” on her friend. OF COURSE by the time the ad gets into its groove, the “cheeky bloke” finds that he needs both a keyboard and a longer battery. Enter the Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet with all of those goodies and “more.” At this point, our young storyteller questions if he bought the wrong tablet?
Okay, so maybe there’s something to be said for Microsoft Office availability on the Windows 8 tablets, but the rest of this commercial totally ignores why people love the iPad. Do I even need to discuss apps, the ridiculous selection of keyboard options available for the iPad Air/mini and the 10 hour battery life?
I get that Nokia and Microsoft want to try different approaches to marketing, but they still “don’t get it” when it comes to tablets. The 16:9 display just doesn’t work for me in portrait mode but that’s okay, the lack of apps means I really don’t want to turn my Lumia 2520 tablet into portrait mode anyway.
Can we all just agree that Nokia has their own message here, but not the right one to move people away from their iPads. Can someone point me to the numbers that show iPad buyers are dismayed by the lack of included keyboard options?
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Everything else aside, this is just a horrible advertisement. I’d be embarrassed if I were Nokia.
So true. Exactly what i thought. Very embarrassing!!!
Didn’t he pull out a MBP Retina?
Looks a lot like one.
Sounds like a non-story?
If you keep comparing your tablet to ONLY an iPad it shows who really is the leader and this hurts them in the long run.
To be fair, it never directly mentions the ipad and the device he has isn’t one as far as I can tell. And the focus seems to be on the keyboard, not the Nokia device itself
But I think they mentioned the “iPad” products was really thin and light just one too many times… Aren’t they trying to steer people away from it?
they do say that it is thinner than a pencil, which relates a lot to the ipad air comercial. I don’t recall many tablets that even say anything about a pencil, so I guess just with that that it is talking about the iPad air :D
They also say that it has been to space which Apple mentioned in their “Life on iPad” video.
Clearly the marketing team behind this ad has no clue how to promote a product.
By mentioning the “pencil” thinness and that it’s “been to space” they’re acknowledging that the latest iPad commercial is not only effective but memorable. How else can you comprehend everything the narrator is saying unless you’re intimately familiar with Apple’s last iPad ad? It’s like an invitation to watch Apple’s ad so you have context to the supposed slam.
Secondly, why does seemingly EVERY tablet ad have to cite the iPad as something you don’t want?! Do these marketers have no better message than “don’t buy that, buy this”?! Is that the most effective tool they can devise?! And why spend 90% of the ad focusing on the iPad and a paltry 15 seconds (I counted) on the Nokia tablet?! The ad is a 1:18 but they spend only 15 seconds showing the Nokia tablet with the first few seconds of it closed, the next few with her pinching to zoom in Word, then the last few seconds of copy all over the screen putting your focus more on the copy than the cute blonde and the thing she’s typing on.
Seriously, the marketing firm responsible for this ad should be ashamed first and get out of the ad business second.
Pathetic.
People no longer want netbooks, they want simple. That’s what Microsoft doesn’t get.
I love how “Isn’t that the new Nokia Lumia 2520” just rolls off the tongue…
I thought the same thing. Haha
Great marketing on Nokia’s part. As they say, all news is good news. Note, here is an Apple blogger, enumerating the merits of the Nokia 2520 and assisting Nokia in advertising the product:
1. By posting the advertisement for Nokia’s first Tablet, this blog has successfully helped to disseminate the information Nokia intended to communicate to the masses. I’m not sure how many hits this site gets but all of those individuals just got access to this ad. (I for one had never seen this ad, this is the first I’m hearing of it.)
2. The blogger reiterated one of the strongest messages Microsoft/Nokia want the masses to be aware of, that being the default bundling of the worlds most popular productivity suite within this device.
3. In disparaging the inclusion of a custom keyboard, the blogger helps to reiterate Nokia’s/Microsoft’s message regarding the keyboards inclusion(in conjunction with office) make this device a productivity tool as well as a consumption device, which is Microsofts/Nokias message to differentiate Windows 8.1 tablets from iPads.
People are talking about it. People are blogging about it. Nokia/Microsoft succeeded. As long as it’s part of the discussion, and people are aware of the product, it’s an option. When there is absolutely no mind share, then there’s a problem. Again the Apple blog brought this Nokia/Microsoft ad to my attention. Good marketing Nokia.
That’s an incredibly insightful argument and I don’t disagree one bit. The problem is that actual sales numbers don’t support Nokia’s argument. I have yet to meet anyone who has unapologetically said to me “I’m giving up my iPad because a keyboard isn’t an included option.” In fact, the numbers simply don’t support this as part of the sales for the iPad or the lack thereof. People are still looking at tablets as a whole as support elements for a computer and given that, they want simplicity. That’s where the iPad reigns supreme, even if it does so at the lack of multi-tasking and all the jazz that some people wish the iPad were capable of. More importantly, as for the notion that by pushing this out I presented it to people who may never have seen that…that’s very true. However, I think it will have little impact on overall sales and that’s supported by Apple’s sweeping iPad sales over the last few years and the fact that Microsoft’s Surface still lingers in the single digits, if that.
The iPad is a great device. Simple. Light. Great app ecosystem. Microsoft’s surface was introduced into a market category that Microsoft failed to take advantage of years ago when they had a chance. (Something they sadly have done more than once- smartphones being another example.) They beat Apple to both the tablet and smartphone arenas but didn’t push it and refine it when they were pretty much the only true contender at the time. Face forward several years, the Ipad became the well refined device that mass consumers and enterprise found useful as a form factor, coupled with a wide array of apps, it has become the WELL entrenched. Join that reality with the multitude of Android tablets from Samsung, amazon and all the other r players at RIDICULOUSLY accessible prices, you’ve got a VERY well entrenched tablet market with a lot of mind share between Apple and Android. The ipads success in the consumer space is sp great that the proprietary name iPad is almost sysnomous with tablet.Almost.
This is the environment Microsoft has finally decided to enter its product into. The Surface faced LOT’s of challenges that go beyond whether or not a keyboard is or isn’t important or relevant to consumers. To rest the lack of blockbuster success of the tablet on that doesn’t take into account some other really powerful prevailing factors.
1. Timing: As noted above, by the time Microsoft got serious with tablets Apple had already defined and ruled the space. Android tablets later deluged the market with tablets that could be bought for as low as $200 dollars or even LESS. Apple and Android had an almost complete lockdown on mindshare. If someone was going to the store for a tablet, what they had seen for the past years in hands, in stores, with friends, on TV was Apple and Android…the commercials that and ads and videos about the tablet had to billdoze past all of that just to get noticed. Not to mention to get considered considering to powerful positions Apple and Android had already established in the market.
2. Message: Wimdows 8 or Windows RT. Surface RT or Surface Pro. I’m a techie and when the devices and OS’s were first introduced I had to do some reading to figure out what was what and I was interested and inclined to do so. The average consumer would not have been. Microsofts clumsy introduction of the product to the market could have been far more clearly articulated and simplified.(They’ve down much better this year). The naming convention of Surface 2 and Surface Pro are much better with the dropping of the RT in the title of lesser of the two.
3.New OS- The new OS Windows 8 present on the Surface , one optimized for mobile was just introduced, had some refinements and improvements to endure in the year since it debuted(while established iPad and android sales continued to grow). This also goes into timing.Comsumers were Leary of the new OS, uncertain.There was a lot of negative press. The 8.1 upgrade answered a lot of those problems, and reviews of both the second generation surface and Windows 8 have faired better than last years.
Price: By the time Microsoft got serious about tablets, .consumers were accustomed to being able to by a tablet for as low as 200 bucks. When Microsoft introduced tablets for as much as 1000 people couldedn’t reconcile tablet and 800-1000 dollars. Not realizing that the surface was more of a PC in tablet form, thus justifying the price to Microsoft.
So I think it has more to do with the late genuine entry into tablet market, a young OS, a clumsy presentation with naming and communication of the product, a relatively high price compared to other tablets(though it can be said that not necessarily the competition since it was a ta let form factor reaching conceivably for a different space with he pro version at least), rahteher than being an issue about a keyboard or lack thereof, that has affected its sales.
“I have yet to meet anyone who has unapologetically said to me “I’m giving up my iPad…”
You could have stopped right there my good man.
This is as effective marketing as the Taco Bell Chihuahua. Everyone knew the damn dog but it did not help them sell any tacos. So, there, I said it. The Lumia 2520 is the Chihuahua of tablets.
Hi, the Taco Bell Chihuahua was actually a mascot for the PRODUCT Taco Bell was promoting, the dog was not the product being sold. So the analogy isn’t consistent. The Lumia 2520 IS the product in the commercial being promoted, and sold it is not a mascot for the product.
So if the general population population walks away from this commercial knowing the Nokia Lumia 2520 then, they Nokia will have succeeded in establishing the foundation for selling thier product, establishing mindshare about the product and the merit of the product. And being that it is the actual product being sold, consumers who now know will then KNOW about the product can go purchase the product. People knew about Taco Bells Chihuahua but they wernt selling Chihuahuas.
I can tell you are someone who loves to hear himself speak (hence the overly long explanations on trivial subjects). So I will not get into a debate on what is a PRODUCT (don’t understand the use of the caps, guess it’s your way of imposing your superior marketing knowledge on us lesser minds) and what isn’t. So short and simple, good marketing or not, the Lumia 2025 is what a Chihuahua literally is: a dog.
“I can tell you are someone who loves to hear himself speak.”
I almost fell out of my chair!! Awesome!!!
Your delusion is palpable.
Somehow I don’t think not having a keyboard has bothered the more than 170 million people that bought an iPad over the past 3 ½ years. I’m pretty sure they knew before they bought it — you know, ’cause most of them tried it out at the Apple Store — that the keyboard wasn’t part of the package. But unlike the Windows and OEM world Apple are the benefactors of an incredibly dense and varied accessory market that they helped birth.
I think it’s also safe to assume that someone slamming the iPad is actually reading an Apple blog. That says more about your fragile and vapid state of mind than you know.
As for the MS Office inclusion, you need to read more Apple blogs. Apple is now including the iWork and iLife suites for all Apple products.
I won’t pretend that Pages is as good as Word but let’s also not pretend that everyone that needs to create a word processing document needs every bell and whistle of Word. There’ve been Office alternatives for years so it’s incredibly desperate for Microsoft to spin that yarn at this point because they realize it’s about all they have to offer.
But if you feel that the Nokia tablet is a better product then more power to you. It’s safe to say that it’s not but whatever helps you sleep at night.
I love technology. And have since childhood. I’m a huge sci-fi fan and have and do enjoy seeing products come to market that were once only “realities” in realm of science fiction. Im sure that most people here not only enjoy Apple products, but technology as a whole. Being able to respectfully share differing opinions about common interests about common interests is one of the benefits modern technology has allowed us.
“As for the MS Office inclusion, you need to read more Apple blogs. Apple is now including the iWork and iLife suites for all Apple products “. Seeing that this is an Apple blog, with a primary Apple audience, I thought it redundant to state what is assumed knowledge here that iWork which once had to be purchased was announced as a free item at Apples last big “We Got a Lot to Cover” announcement. As I mentioned I like technology. I am aware of Apples free productivity package as well as other free software they provide since most of there revenue comes from their hardware sales, whereas Microsoft’s primary revenue flows from their software sales. The point I was stressing was that the most widely used productivity suite around the world, and the one considered by most(not all) as the best standard and most desired productivity suite, Office is included on the Nokia Lumia 2520.
One of the reasons, likely made iWork free is because Microsoft released Office for iOS(iPhone) and Android over summer ($9.99 365 subscription). Which was the same price I believe for iWork. Apple knows that Office is the preferred Suite among most users. So what’s the smart thing to do? Make your less popular suite free(within a walled garden, increase features, maybe even compatibility). You can’t beat free to get people interested. But the fact remains, with all of their success elsewhere, as you concede iWork really isn’t as feature rich, as versatile and certainly not as accessible as Office.
Microsoft knows that of the nearly billion PCs in homes and enterprise (look at how many jobs from secretarial to managerial require knowledge of Microsoft Office) Office is the primary productivity tool in use. Their subscription model is also bringing in a lot of revenue. So yes, as they transition from a software to a device and services company we will likely continue to see, as all companies do, play off thier strengths. Apple focuses on great manufacturing and design, Samsung, versatility, various device categories and form factors. As Nokia is pulled into Microsoft, if the deal goals through, they may begin to play more on hardware strengths. Time will tell.
One final point, Microsoft’s/Nokia’s target market isn’t only the 170 million people who bought the keyboard-less ipad. Most individuals don’t own multiple tablets. There are hundreds of millions that don’t even own one. Microsoft/Nokia is targeting that space as well, and differentiating its product from a market leader(ipad, which is used by most as a consumption device)by communicating that a Windows tablet strength is a productivity tool (with a keyboard and Office) and its ability as a consumption device like other tablets on the market.
So thier attempts are not only trying to get people to switch from an ecosystem thier entrenched in, but to communicate to those who have yet to purchase a tablet, thier alternative by comparing to an already known product, focusing on some of its limits and promoting the strengths of the Microsoft/Nokia product. Also Microsoft wants to remain strong in enterprise which has historically been its domain. Offering a mobile product that ties seamlessly into the established IT infrastructure without the need of Citrix and a virtual desktop, no required backend overhaul, and could conceivably replace a PC/laptop and be taken on the field works in Microsoft’s favor. So no, we may not see people unapologetically giving up thier iPad’s but with a more refined OS in Windows 8.1, an improved product in the Surface 2 and Surface Pro, the introduction of the Nokia Lumia 2520, and the myriad offerings of tablets, and convertibles and hybrid Windows 8.1 devices from Dell, Lenovo, Acer, HP and others, at price points as low as around $200 we are almost certain to see an increase in market share of tablets bearing the Microsoft’s Mobile OS as people choose one of these products over an iPad.
I like the huge sweeping hand gesture she makes across the Lumia display. Yes, I can see that being a lot of fun to do all day long–not. I’d be begging for the battery to die, so I could stop being so “productive.”
Hilarious post
total garbage… sweet job Nokia.. lol
So everyone at Nokia is totally unaware that there are probably hundreds of tactile keyboard/covers available for the iPad? They also don’t seem to be aware that most laptops don’t have a battery life exceeding 10 hours, like the iPad. So, yeah, not a very convincing ad.
“Did I buyt the wrong tablet?”. No, you didn’t. Next question, please.
Yeah, Netbooks have been doing great. Trying to be more Netbook than iPad is a death sentence for any ‘tablet’.
oh you iSheep are just so butthurt because you know this ad is true. the iPad is just a big iPod touch. apple hasn’t even programed ios for ipad, everything in the ui is small and separated look at the homescreen its stupid. And the battery life and way of charging is ridiculous my surface 2 charges in less than 2 hours and lasts 2 days at least.
lololol I haven’t heard the “big iPod touch” line in a while.
On what planet is that a bad thing?
How old are you? Learn how to put a sentence together before you type such nonsense.
Your Surface only lasts 2 days?! I charge my iPad twice a week and use it heavily on a daily basis.
As for the “iSheep” and “big iPod touch” slams, you need updated material. I’d like to think that you’re old enough to remember a time when those monikers actually meant something, which is pretty pathetic if you think they still work today.
At least get some original material if you’re going to be a troll.
-“Ugh, not the battery.” Are they trying to insinuate that the iPad has a substandard battery? I’ve literally NEVER read any complaints about iPad battery life – to my knowledge there are zero competitors with better life. I also liked the scenario of a user carrying both a tablet and a laptop into a coffee shop to watch a movie. Nothing like going out in public to watch a movie by yourself.
-I wish Apple would launch an iPad campaign that points to the huge advantage of the 4:3 aspect ratio vs Android and Windows devices. The 10″+ screens are actually smaller than iPad’s 9.7 inches, and are absolutely lousy in portrait mode. For anything but typing and gaming, portrait is the natural and more comfortable orientation.
OMG this is one of the worst ads ever created
The best I can tell, the keyboard is an optional accessory. There is a plethora of optional keyboards for iPads too, so it’s like trying to pummel someone with a balloon.
This ad exactly shows why the physical keyboards don’t work with a touch-screen. To point somewhere, your hands hanging in the air and get tired very soon in this. And yeah, advertise the non touch-optimised Office on a 10″ touch screen. Great job Nokia!
In January 2007 Steve Ballmer said this about the iPhone, “…it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard!”.
This and the MS keyboard ads are right up there with Samsung’s latest ad showing how great using a stylus with their latest “smart” phone is.
Both companies will continue to make buggy whips for the foreseeable future.
The Galaxy Note isn’t stupid for having a stylus though. It’s a Wacom digitizer and it’s pretty nice for those that want to do drawings and sketches. I don’t think it’s designed to be for everyone.
It’s a funny Ad I must say, but unsure why they even bother when their tablets are absolutely terrible.
That ad made no sense to me at all, other than show lots of very attractive people who are not the types to own gadgets anyway and more likely to be into expensive watches and hipster clothing. At no time did the tablet the guy(s) were using appear to cramp their style. If they had showed someone sitting in a meeting attempting to take notes on a touch screen keyboard whilst their colleagues typed away on laptops or Microsoft keyboard equipped tablets, yet unable to keep up, then it would make sense.
Even then, there are as the article makes clear, plenty of decent iPad keyboards – I have one, the excellent (but pricey), Logitech K811. Probably the best bluetooth keyboard ever made for any device. (Try it and you’ll see.) I use it on my phone, tablet and macbook, so I have a consistent typing experience.
Nokia would be amused to know I watched their ad on my new iPad Air.
Then, you’re madly angry :D
Do these Windows tablets come bundled with a keyboard? Last time I checked, the Microsoft Surface didn’t. Do any others come with them?
Oh. Yeah. Umg, I will put to trash any Apple device to get one of this leading edge NOKIA technologies. Microsoft inclusive.
Wait, may be NOKIA fails completley. May be Miccrosoft fired his CEO because …
No, I stay at Apple.
:-)
What they fail to mention in the commercial is that the Nokia Lumia 2520 keyboard is an optional accessory that does not come with the main unit and costs $149 as a separate purchase. The bluetooth iPad keyboard I purchased cost only $8 (converting from GBP to USD here).
I don’t think I made it through to the 30 second mark. #boring. Really, really boring.
Sure, you can get a keyboard for your iPad. Can you get a trackpad too? Oh that’s right, iOS doesn’t support that kind of thing. My use of Excel is too complex for me to settle for the chintzy touchscreen interface of the iWork apps. There will never be no need whatsoever for the precision of the mouse pointer.
And the Apple fanboys will react ferociously. Such a dumb review of this commercial. Of course If you’re a fan, you’ll never see that bad side of such device.