Amazon/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

In the tech world, the holiday spirit involves the right cross, the jarring upper-cut, and what they call in England the Glasgow Kiss.

If you're not out there explaining to people why your product is better than an Apple offering, then you simply don't realize what's at stake in stuffing the Christmas stocking.

After Microsoft has offered its consistent pummeling of the iPad, into the ring steps Amazon. And how.

To present its Kindle tablet, Washington state's other tech company decides it's going to compare its graces with the iPad Air.

"This is the magical new iPad Air," the ad begins.

You'll note the word "magical." It's one that Apple uses so much. Indeed, I'm surprised the company hasn't patented it yet.

But why would Amazon want you to believe that the iPad Air is magical? Oh, because it wants you to believe it isn't.

In this quest, it presents the Air with the help of a British voiceover, sounding for all the world like a mockery of the traditional new-product Apple videos narrated by Jony Ive.

When he utters words like "magical" and "astonishing," it's as if he's trying to distort your reality.

The Kindle tablet, you will be stunned to hear, is described by a solid, manly American voice.

The HDX has almost 1 million more pixels. It's 20 percent lighter than Air. And it's cheaper.

"I see," retreats the mock-Ive with typically British understatement.

But what do we really see here? We see everyone feeling the need to compare their wares with Apple's products.

This is understandable to an extent. But Amazon, Microsoft, Nokia, and whoever else is knocking Apple might be better served created an image for their own brand first.

Amazon has tried to do that, by first presenting its friendly Fire female helper, there to save sad, rich men from an uncertain fate. Did it work?

The question is whether such comparison ads are, on their own, sufficiently compelling. Has the Kindle Fire HDX already inspired a legion of buyers? Or is Amazon now doing this sort of ad because it hasn't?

In the end, you can't help wondering how many people will come away from ads like these believing as much that Apple is still some sort of gold standard, as that the products from Amazon, Microsoft, and the rest offer better value.