Philips also thoughtfully empathizes with you by saying "Did Santa fulfill all your wishes this year? Or did the presents you get only cause a polite smile?" and adds an illustrative picture of a disgruntled kid with a Christmas hat (see picture above). And with that, Apple and Philips got right to the heart of the Christmas spirit: Christmas is about getting everything you wished for and not having to thank anybody.

I am especially surprised by the email from Apple. I mean, Philips has been pouring out a steady stream of ill-phrased messages with pictures of plastic people (probably supposed to illustrate their user-centredness), so their Christmas message is disturbing but almost as expected. What do you expect from the people that encouraged me to deal with the credit crisis and save money by buying a 999 euro wardrobe care device (picture on the right). Yes, that's probably cheaper than having a housekeeper or a dry-cleaner, but for most people, buying a 999 euro device that you will never use will not save you money.

On the other hand, the tone of voice in Apple's emails is usually spot-on. They almost make you feel thankful for letting you know that they have such cool new stuff (and ironically, in Apple photography there are hardly ever people, not even plastic ones). So what went wrong in Apple's sales department? Maybe in other countries Apple's after-Christmas campaign works, but to me this was just sad.

Really, both Apple and Philips need to get Scrooged.