Apple’s ‘I’m a Mac’ Guy Returns to Promote Windows on Arm PCs

Former Apple actor in “I’m a Mac,” Justin Long, defected to Intel a few years ago and is now looking to upgrade to a Qualcomm-powered Windows PC. During Qualcomm’s Computex 2024 keynote today, Long appeared in a brief 30-second skit in which he was bombarded with macOS notifications and reminder screens, leading him to start look for a PC powered by Snapdragon.

Nearly 20 years ago, Justin Long starred in Apple’s “Get a Mac” television commercial. Long took on the character of a Mac guy, humorously mocking the PC guy (actor John Hodgman) for detecting viruses and spyware, or for not having access to the creation tools and being too focused on boring work tasks.

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

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon revealed the sketch today during the closing stages of the company’s keynote address on “the renaissance of the PC.” He returned to the stage to conclude the speech by agreeing that “yes, things are changing. Things change.

Qualcomm and Microsoft have made a lot of noise recently about competing with the MacBook Air, with Microsoft presenting benchmarks and battery life claims that demonstrate their confidence in its latest transition to Windows on Arm. The new Copilot Plus PCs, featuring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chips, will debut on June 18.

This latest ad 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 color choices for your MacBook M1. Intel’s ads were a reaction to Apple’s abandonment of Intel processors in its Mac hardware the previous year, when Apple asked John Hodgman to return to his role as head of the PC so Apple could boast about the performance and battery life of the M1.