According to Ars Technica, they might be getting someone at Apple riled up:

Kevin Turner, Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer, told partners during his Worldwide Partner Conference keynote not only about the upcoming Microsoft Stores this fall to be placed near Apple stores but also about how Apple's lawyers wanted Microsoft to take down their Laptop Hunter ads.

Of course, that comes from an exec at Microsoft, with nothing to back it. At the same time, the ads do push the primary PC value proposition over Apple (price), and in a down economy, that's a good message. I think they push HP as much (or even more) than Microsoft, but any such push does implicitly promote Windows.

Technorati Tags: microsoft, windows