CF Apple Computer

We’ve got a month to go until the first primary votes are cast for the 2008 presidential election, and most of the country is gearing up for what will surely be a long, bitter campaign between the eventual Democratic and Republican nominees. Some of us, though, have been following a different campaign — one which has already been going on for some time, and which is, if possible, even more bitter than the presidential race.

I’m speaking, of course, about the intense, ongoing campaign between Apple and Microsoft. At first glance, this rivalry is just the competition between two leading computer companies. But there are big differences between the Apple-Microsoft blood feud than, say, the Coke-Pepsi standoff. Coke competes with Pepsi by engaging in a sort of flavor arms race, in which “Lime Cherry Vanilla Coke Zero” comes out within a week of “Diet Che-nill-ime Pepsi.” Apple fights against Microsoft in two ways.

The first is a continuous war-by-proxy taking place in blogs and forums across the Internet, in which fanatical Macintosh users “discuss” computers with equally rabid Windows PC users, in much the same way Ann Coulter “discusses” politics with Michael Moore. I could address the merits of PCs and Macs too, but it would become clear very rapidly that I have no idea what I was talking about.

I’d much rather tackle the other competitive tactic Apple uses: an ad campaign called “Get a Mac.” If you watch TV at all, you’ve probably seen the commercials.