Apple Rolls Out New Ad Campaign

Apple Computer Inc. on Monday launched an advertising campaign targeting Microsoft Corp. Windows users with testimonials from “switchers” who abandoned Windows-powered PCs for Macintoshes.

The campaign is Apple’s largest since its “Think Different” series launched in 1998, the firm said.

The move also was an aggressive bid to win over what Apple--with about 5% of the U.S. market--calls “the other 95%” of personal computer owners who use competing systems, almost exclusively Windows.

Apple did not detail how much it would spend on its “Real People” campaign.

“More people are interested in switching from PCs to Macs than ever before, and we hope that hearing these successful switchers tell their story will help others make the jump,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive.

In one of the ads, writer Sarah Whistler tells the camera: “I get it. And I don’t get the PC. I never did.” She calls the PC a “horrid little machine.”

Apple’s market share has shown signs of stabilizing in the last year and a half as it rolled out a series of well-received, sharply designed computers, revamped its operating system and opened a national chain of stores.

That has restored some of the reputation it built in 1984 with the original, easy-to-use Macintosh that introduced the mouse.

Apple also has increasingly turned its focus toward winning over PC users in addition to persuading fans to buy a new Mac.

“Apple has had very limited success persuading Windows users to move to the Apple platform,” said analyst Charles Smulders of technology researcher Gartner Inc.

Apple’s U.S. market share was steady at 3.8% in 2001 and 2000, and down from 4.4% in 1999.

Globally, Apple’s share dropped to 2.5% in 2001 from 2.8% in 2000.

Smulders attributed that contraction to relatively slow sales of its desktop computers.