Apple’s ‘I’m a Mac’ guy returns to promote Windows on Arm PCs

Apple’s former “I’m a Mac” actor Justin Long defected to Intel a few years ago, and now he’s looking to switch to a Qualcomm-powered Windows PC. During Qualcomm’s Computex 2024 keynote today, Long appeared in a brief 30-second skit where he was bombarded by macOS notifications and nag screens causing him to start searching for a Snapdragon-powered PC instead.

Justin Long used to star in Apple’s “Get a Mac” TV commercials nearly 20 years ago. Long took on the persona of a Mac guy, humorously mocking the PC guy (actor John Hodgman) for picking up viruses and spyware, or not having access to creative tools and being too focused on boring work stuff.

“Things change,” jokes Long to camera, after searching for a Windows on Arm PC following the pop-up notifications in macOS. The pop-ups include warnings about app compatibility, low disk space, battery, and more.

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon unveiled the skit during the closing stages of the company’s “the PC reborn” keynote today. He returned to the stage to wrap up the keynote by agreeing that “yes, things change. Things do change.”

Qualcomm and Microsoft have both been making a lot of noise about competing with the MacBook Air recently, with Microsoft showing off benchmarks and battery life claims that demonstrate confidence in its latest transition to Windows on Arm. New Copilot Plus PCs, featuring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chips, will debut on June 18th.

This latest commercial comes just a few years after Intel briefly hired Justin Long to create new ads praising PCs in 2021, mocking Apple’s Touch Bar, lack of multiple monitor support, and the color choices for its M1 MacBook. Intel’s ads were a reaction to Apple’s move away from Intel processors in its Mac hardware the year prior, when Apple had John Hodgman reprise his role as the PC guy so that Apple could boast about M1 performance and battery life.