VIDEO: Apple fans heckle Windows-powered Twitter stream in Saks' Christmas window

Multiple "Get a Mac" tweets hit department store display

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25 November 2009 13:05 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Microsoft has teamed up with New York department megastore Saks for a big Christmas promotion, that, as well as a special sales area inside, includes Windows 7 powering the store's infamous Christmas windows displays.

As part of the window displays, Microsoft has set up a screen displaying a live Twitter stream, with posts hashtagged HolidayWindows automatically showing up on the display.

What Microsoft perhaps didn't account for though, is Apple-loving Twitter users taking advantage of the stream to promote their own pro-Apple and/or anti-Microsoft messages.

A quick glance at the #HolidayWindows stream sees it chock-full of such pro-Apple pithy missives as the brief "Get a Mac" that appears multiple times.

There's also the likes of "Get a Mac! Just follow the masses down to the Apple store. The one that looks like the Windows store... only way cooler", "Avoid viruses - get a Mac", and "Ignore Microsoft, you're not a PC, you are a human being. Get a Mac and feel human again".

As @mooseblaster says, this cannot end well.

UPDATE: It seems the whole stunt was masterminded by Mac fan site MacDailyNews, but appears to have taken on a life on its own now with pro-Mac tweets coming thick and fast, way outnumbering any Windows fans who have attempted to mobilise with a counter-tweet attack.

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Comments

It was MacDailyNews' idea.

They posted it yesterday and then the tweets started:

Saks and Microsoft team up on Windows 7-powered holiday windows displays, in-store PC lounges - Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 04:00 PM EST

MacDailyNews’ idea worked like a charm: Microsoft pays for free Saks shop window ads - for Apple - Wednesday, November 25, 2009 - 09:43 AM EST Posted by James Thomas, USA
Does anyone even care about this nonsense? A few anti-Microsoft, pro-Mac tweets amount to nothing. As Steve Ballmer would say "a rounding error" in market share. Microsoft desktop market share will never fall below 90% no matter how many "Buy a Mac" tweets are made. I think a large percentage of NYC consumers are pro-Apple but that's due to a relatively high proportion of Apple Stores. The rest of the country and the world at large are made up of low-income Windows sheeple drones who don't have a clue. Just passing a lit Apple store in NYC would pull in more customers than a million tweets in a Saks window. Posted by iphonerulez, United States
I'll believe it when I see it What a waste of time. Do you think Saks would let content into its window displays unfiltered?

This is just lazy reporting. And then using a video from Microsoft's own YouTube accout to try to prove a point that isn't in the video borders on unethical. Posted by Gerald, USA