This day in Engadget: Microsoft unleashes a laptop hunter

Welcome to ‘This day in Engadget‘, where we crack open the archives and take a whimsical look back at the memories and moments of our storied past. Please join us on this trip down random access memory lane.

On March 27th, 2009, Microsoft outed the first of a new series of ads called the “Laptop Hunters,” starting off its campaign with Lauren, who wanted a powerful computer for less than a thousand dollars. We poked a bit of fun at the ad (well, mostly we poked fun at Lauren herself), but it signaled that Microsoft was taking on its main competitor — Apple — where it hurt them most: pricing. Of course, this was pre-Windows 7, which proved to be a major success by any metric, but certainly against the much-maligned Vista. Apple later called to complain about the ads — saying that the pricing was no longer correct — and Microsoft updated the ads, though Microsoft COO Tim Cook Kevin Turner had something to say about the size of the price cuts.

Also on this date:

March 27th, 2009: Tesla’s CEO said that model S Roadster wasn’t actually that expensive (and we laughed at him), the iPhone 3G became available contract free, and Palm issued a takedown for TealOS (the fake WebOS for older Palm devices.

March 27th, 2008: NVIDIA drivers took the heat for causing 30 percent of Windows Vista crashes, Microsoft Surface was reportedly headed for consumers in 2011, the PlayStation Network had a major security situation on its hands, the OLPC was lovingly overclocked, and a MacBook Air got pwnd.

March 27th, 2007: The as-yet-unreleased first gen iPhone was waved around at CTIA, AT&T sued NASCAR over a paint job, Netflix founder Reed Hastings joined the board of Microsoft, and Texas Instruments showed of its tiny little DLP projector.

March 27th, 2006: Media snacker Robert Scoble showed off Microsoft’s Auxiliary Display on video, Denmark was reported to be joining forces with France in asking Apple to open its DRM, and photos of the supposed iRiver E10 got shown off.

March 27th, 2005: Sony was reportedly going to be forced to stop selling its Dual Shock Controllers over patent infringement, TiVo was said to be testing banner ads during fast forwards, and Palm’s Tungsten E2‘s specs were finally revealed.

March 27th, 2004: Two men in Italy were banned from ever using cellphones again after using them to harass ex-girlfriends, some Palm video game emulators got shown off, and something called the Simputer finally came into existence.

This day in Engadget: Microsoft unleashes a laptop hunter originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Mar 2010 15:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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