While Apple’s Switch ad campaign is trying to draw more Windows users to the Mac, Gateway is doing the exact opposite. And it’s one of the first times in recent memory that a Windows PC maker has taken such clear aim at Apple in its marketing.
The new Profile 4 is an all-in-one system that features an integrated LCD screen and other amenities evocative of Apple’s own flat-panel iMac. What’s more, a downloadable comparison report created by Ziff Davis Media’s eTesting Labs Inc. shows that the Profile 4 outperformed the iMac in a variety of tests.
eTesting Labs tested two Profile 4 systems — the 4 SE configuration, equipped with a 15-inch flat panel display, a 1.7GHz Celeron processor and 256MB RAM. The 4 XL comes with a 2.66GHz Pentium 4 processor and 512MB RAM. The systems were pitted against a 15-inch iMac with a 700MHz G4 and 256MB RAM, as well as a 17-inch iMac equipped with a G4/800 and 256MB RAM.
The test itself determined that the Gateway Profile systems outperformed Apple’s iMacs for 3D performance when used with the popular 3D action game Quake 3 Arena; Web browsing through a JavaScript-based performance test; bootup times; and the time to load a file in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).
While Gateway calls the report “independent,” eTesting Labs made it clear that the report itself was commissioned by the PC maker. Neither eTesting Labs nor Gateway noted how the performance criteria were decided upon, either. eTesting Labs did note, however, that neither Mac was equipped with Mac OS X 10.2, “Jaguar,” which may effect overall performance.
The downloadable PDF file is only the start of Gateway’s attack on the Mac, as well. Cnet.com today noted that the company is set to unveil a television advertising campaign that takes direct aim at the Mac, even mocking Apple’s earlier “Window” ad featuring an iMac and a pedestrian who make faces at each other.