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Microsoft & Google go in for the kill on Apple with new ads

Apple is clearly doing something right

Microsoft & Google go in for the kill on Apple with new ads
18 August 2016

All is fair in love and marketing wars.

Apple, creator of the iPhone, iPad, MacBook and basically every gadget you've seen flashed about in Starbucks, is having something of a lean year; following falling sales of their key gadgets, particularly in Asian markets, its rivals are smelling blood and moving in for the kill.

With adverts. Sharp, cutting adverts.

Microsoft's stab at the iPad Pro

The iPad Pro is an incredible gadget. Both its large and small versions are impressively powerful, wonderfully designed and have some of the best screens you've ever poked. 

But since Apple described the device as a "computer", Microsoft has come out swinging. 

Google pokes fun at small iPhone storage

Google's snigger at Apple is an altogether more subtle one. 

The Google Photo app has a very useful feature of backing up photos in the cloud the moment they've been taken (depending on your wi-fi and data settings). The 'Free Up Space' feature allows you to hit a button and do just that - free up space by deleting photos that are safely in the cloud.

It's a life saver for anyone rocking a 16GB iPhone: many owners will know the pains of having to delete apps, photos and songs just to squeeze a few extra images in.

Now, Apple's cloud storage service also offers this feature, but caps free online storage at 5GB. Google's service is unlimited and totally free. The ad could twist the knife even more by mentioning this lack of charge - but Google apparently isn't feeling that cruel. 

It's all revenge

Both ads are echoes of a battle that Apple started back in 2006 with the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" series. 

The ads were superb: an effortlessly accessible way of presenting the dull, dry features of computers without having to throw geeky terminology around.

While Apple may have won the battle of the 2000s, re-establishing itself as the 'cool' tech brand, its opponents are now using the very same marketing weapon it devised to poke it from its lofty perch. 

Just keep it clean chaps.