Marketing is ubiquitous. You and every single person you meet at some point is a marketer ranging from managing their personal brand to the profession of marketing the world’s most recognizable corporate images.

Its interesting to note that in the world of ‘tech’ there has been a huge marketing shift in the making among the industry’s two major brands, Apple and Microsoft. Philip Schiller replaces Steve Jobs at MacWorld and Steve Ballmer replaces Bill Gates at CES as their leading corporate front-men. Now that they’re here lets see what they talked about:

Philip Schiller, Apple

• New 17 inch Mac book with prices and a general release date for Jan ‘09
• iTunes gets new pricing and goes DRM free with pricing for an upgrade in April ‘09
• iLife ‘09 with pricing and specific features such as facial recognition in Jan ‘09
• iWork ‘09 with new productivity features and milti-pricing levels available now
• iWork.com launches in beta 

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft

• Ballmer speaks about Windows7, best windows OS to come
• Ballmer speaks about Windows7 have touch functionality
• Release of Windows7 in beta on 1/9/2002 (alredy leaked in Dec ‘08)
• Next game in the Halo series coming in Feb ‘09
• Announced partnership with Dell for Windows Live

Its keynote season for a lot of companies and these are two of the best; but looking at how they both use their marketing opportunities.  Its no wonder Apple fanatics are lining up around the corners of the retail stores to purchase what they just heard about from the man at the top.  

It really begs a simple question…

So now that everyone is a marketer, are you a news maker?