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Microsoft doesn’t think the iPad is a real computer

Microsoft doesn’t think the iPad is a real computer

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Microsoft returns to iPad comparisons for its latest Surface ad

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Microsoft loves bashing the iPad for its Surface commercials. It first started back in 2013 in the days of Windows 8 tablets, and revived its efforts a couple of years ago to focus on the iPad Pro. Even Macs haven’t escaped the attention of Microsoft’s quirky ads. While Apple is spreading heartwarming holiday charm this year and Microsoft’s official holiday ad focuses on inclusivity, a new Surface holiday ad allows Microsoft to more subtly bash the iPad.

Microsoft’s new Surface commercial is a musical adaption of “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”:

“Grandma, don’t run out and buy an iPad. It was fine when I was six, but now I’m 10. My dreams are a big so I need a real computer.”

Microsoft, or well, a 10-year-old girl in the commercial, is obviously referring to Apple’s ongoing ads to position the iPad Pro as a computer and competitor to a laptop. Apple first started this by asking “what’s a computer?” for an iPad ad, and more recently tried to convince us that tablets are the future of computing. Defenders of laptops and advocates of tablets have been debating computers vs. tablets for eight years, during which time Apple has slowly evolved its iPad to include a keyboard (like a laptop) and a stylus (like a Surface).

These additions have blurred the lines and created even more debate over which direction computing will head in the future. While Apple can try and convince you an iPad is a computer, Microsoft will try its best to convince you it’s not. The rest of us will simply use whatever works best for us, happy in the knowledge that pretty much all electronic devices are computers these days. Happy holidays.