Microsoft Woos users MacBook Air with a guide to switch to Surface

Basically, this is also a sign of the times that have changed profoundly. Until a few years ago, the advertising campaign ” Switch to Mac ” with the two protagonists, the clunky PC and the “cool” Mac, was one of the main methods of Apple to attract Windows users eager for change, pointing out the main points in those commercial’s strengths of OS X compared to the great rival Microsoft signed. To this was accompanied by the guides that still exist today and kept up to date.

Now the opposite is quite different, with the Redmond company went to the counter to get to the switch reverse, from Mac to PC. A response that passes both targeted advertising is a real guide to the passage.

The concept remains the one that has marked the Surface Pro 3 since its debut: ask not simply as a tablet, but as an alternative to the ultra-thin laptops in general but especially the MacBook Air. The guide is addressed to those who have decided to make the leap and those who are considering the idea, shows a mixed style, recalling at least initially a graphic style more typical of Apple and then move gradually to that instead modern characterizing Microsoft for some time now.

4 main sections, each dealing with a specific part of the passage of the platform: the main features of Windows 8.1 with the similarities and differences compared to OS X, a roundup dedicated to how to replicate the Surface commands most frequently used on Air, the displacement of their content from the old to the new device and finally the use of iCloud and iDevices in conjunction with the PC.

Beyond the orientation of each towards this new business initiative, from an objective point of view, the construction is good, being able to explain simply the experience of using the Surface, clarifying what can be done in the same way and what instead requires a change of approach; Another positive point is that it does not push to force the full bore of the platform, not promoting or Windows Phone Lumia neither services nor as OneDrive, indeed proposes to continue using iCloud and iTunes in peace.

The procedures for data transfer is complete and is expected to be made a part of OS X is to be made on a Windows, a hand held so much to those who return as especially to those who could be on the surface having never really used the Microsoft operating system outside the work context. As these cases are relatively rare, do exist and should be taken into account.

There also points less successful, where a specific scope is bypassed or dodged almost in toto. An example of the former is in the section with questions and answers, where the question of how we can continue to talk to their contacts who have FaceTime and iMessage Skype is proposed as a solution. No doubt it is a viable proposition given its multiplatform nature, but does not answer the question really basic.

A user is not very informed might think they’re just promoting Skype as an alternative, when it would be rather an actual replacement as neither FaceTime or iMessage have the client for Windows. The second case concerns the iLife and iWork, which for many Mac users are an important added value: not offered counterparts, merely stating that the proprietary formats generated by the applications of these packages cannot be viewed on PC and advising the conversion in other formats readable by both platforms. If for iWork there are doubts about the other party, for iLife speech is not as immediate, involving third parties as well.

The final question remains the same: to be able to convince the goodness of Surface against the MacBook Air? In itself, the task given to him to retain potential switcher to the Air is difficult; Here you switch to different level yet seen that provides precisely the switch from Mac to PC, an event which we know has not certainly the same frequency as the opposite.

In general, the situation that the more we see looming is the rekindling of the historic dispute between the two opposite sides, with practical effects in favor of Microsoft still limited and soundly at that Cupertino. Remains a judgment more on this interim final transfer market, waiting for the new hardware and software from both sides that are precursors to a 2015 very interesting.