The creators of “iDon’t Care,” a video spoofing Motorola (MOT) and Verizon Wireless’s (VZ) “iDon’t” ad, said some of their detractors are missing the point.

Three Boston-area ad-agency staffers developed “iDon’t Care.” They said they aren’t affiliated with Apple (AAPL) or any of the other companies involved in the original campaigns–they are, however, iPhone and Mac loyalists, said Jon, one of the video’s editors (they declined to give their last names, citing fears of legal action from any of the companies woven into their spoof). They decided shortly after the Droid campaign broke that they could easily replicate it.

“It was inescapable,” said Shawn, a creative director. “It became something we all were immediately speaking about.”

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Hey, I love a blue screen of death as much as anyone, but I wouldn’t drive to the mall just to see one.
I have a Mac. My husband has a PC. This makes for hours of hilarious fun.

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Apple’s (AAPL) control issues have been a key ingredient in its success. CEO Steve Jobs is fond of pointing out that Apple’s hands-on approach to crafting both hardware and software has led to such breakthrough products as the Mac, the iPod and the iPhone–and it’s fair to say the attention to detail hasn’t hurt Apple’s marketing, either.

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With the advent of Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, the so-called millennial generation is more adept than ever at sharing the details of their daily lives online.

But there may now be demand to do so in a more artistic way. Manhattan Edit Workshop, a small New York film school, has started a $2,000 class called “From You to YouTube: Filmmaking, Evolved.” In two two-week sessions, Mac-friendly 12- to 18-year-olds will learn the basics of shooting and editing. The goal is to learn how to compress the final product down to a Web-friendly size, according to Josh Apter, the school’s owner.

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Ask Apple (AAPL) what’s in the iPhone and they’ll treat it like a black box, albeit one powered by Apple’s special brand of technological magic. Or maybe elves. Or magic beans.

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As I said in my post last Sunday on Microsoft’s “Laptop Hunter” ads, it’s unrealistic to expect TV commercials to contribute to a thoughtful discussion of anything. An exercise in comparison shopping between Windows and PCs that takes place in a sixty-second Microsoft (MSFT) commercial just isn’t going to be fair and balanced, any more than an Apple (AAPL) commercial is going to explain that it’s possible to get respectable Windows laptops for a whole lot less than the cheapest Macs.

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Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope this morning boosted his estimates for Apple (AAPL), asserting that demand for both Macs and iPhones held up better than he feared in the March quarter.

For the March quarter, he now sees revenue of $7.76 billion and profits of $1.09 a share; his previous forecast was for $7.44 billion and 97 cents. Shope notes that he is now closer to the consensus at $7.95 billion and $1.08. For the September 2009 fiscal year, he now sees $34.54 billion and $5.11 a share, up from $33.17 billion and $4.89. Again, he’s now closer to the Street at $35.28 billion and $5.19.

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Microsoft’s (MSFT) “Laptop Hunters” commercials have generated lots of Mac vs. Windows PC debate. Surely there can’t be enough, so I’d like to generate even more. Quite unexpectedly, I’m a PC.

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Over the weekend, Microsoft (MSFT) unleashed the second TV ad in its “you find it, you keep it” series–this time swapping handsome, “technically savvy” Giampaolo for perky, red-headed Lauren De Long. Once again the camera follows a typical budget-constrained buyer on a laptop shopping spree using Steve Ballmer’s money.

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There’s something about comparing the prices of Windows PCs and Macs that makes otherwise cool and collected people–Windows and Mac users alike–become profoundly emotional and partisan, until steam shoots out of their ears and their eyeballs turn bright red. You can see this passion crop up in some of the comments on Ed Oswald’s two recent posts on Microsoft’s new “Lauren” ad comparing 17-inch Windows laptops to the MacBook Pro.

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Microsoft (MSFT) and its partners are reaping big rewards from the $300 million Windows marketing campaign.

That’s my conclusion after reviewing February U.S. retail PC sales data released by NPD on March 16. Apple’s (AAPL) steep U.S. retail sales declines continued in February, comparatively worse than January’s already dismal showing. Meanwhile, Windows PC sales continued their recent year-over-year growth rally.

The contrast is startling. U.S. retail Windows PC unit sales rose 22 percent year over year in February compared with a 16.7 percent Mac sales decline. By revenue, Windows PCs posted modest 1.4 percent growth, compared with a stunning 23.3 percent Mac revenue decline. It’s not a Mac bloodbath, but massacre.

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Remember when Apple (AAPL) customers felt hip? There was a time when a glowing Apple logo symbolized radical nonconformity. Being part of a miniature customer base was, to Mac users, like being a member of a holier-than-thou, secret society–a “Cult of Mac,” if you will. But when Apple’s ecosystem grew beyond notebooks and desktops to phones and Internet services, that era came to an end.

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Money gets tight. Buyers get picky. Price-sensitive consumers–the kind Steve Jobs  and Apple famously “choose not to serve”–start shopping for bargain basement PCs and Taiwanese netbooks. Mac sales plummet. That’s the conventional wisdom. Or at least that’s the line Morgan Stanley’s Kathryn Huberty pitched in September–when she lowered Apple’s (AAPL) rating twice in two weeks–and reiterated last week, when she earned the distinction of being the first and only mainstream Apple analyst to set a 2009 price target below $100 a share.

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