IBM Fires Back at Microsoft Ad Campaign

"Microsoft kicked off a $500 million marketing push this week, and in the process singled out IBM as its main competitor. The so-called 'people-ready' campaign touts Microsoft products as enabling business users to 'realize their full potential.'
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The campaign is widely considered a curtain-raiser for the forthcoming Windows Vista and Office 2007 product releases.

At an event highlighting the campaign, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took a shot at IBM. 'We're staking out a position quite different than our leading competitor. That's IBM,' said Ballmer. '...IBM is increasingly a services company. At the end of the day, we're a software company,' he said, according to an eWEEK report."