
Microsoft apologizes over 'Smoked by Windows Phone' controversy - Slimy
http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/26/2903250/microsoft-smoked-by-windows-phone-apology-sasha-katta
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Pewpewarrows
I find it more interesting how incredibly shady and underhanded the entire
"challenge" is to begin with. They get to choose the exact rules and
conditions, for which they've specially customized their phones beforehand,
even if it's completely outside the bounds of what an average consumer would
ever do.

In this case, it was to show the weather of two different cities. The only
reason the contestant won was because he happened to need that information
enough in his day-to-day life to warrant the two separate weather widgets on
his home screen. The Microsoft representative obviously knew what the
challenge would be going in, and already had the tiles ready to go.

~~~
ajross
To be fair, I think consumers are pretty well aware that this is a stunt. No
one I can see is looking at the results and claiming any kind of objective
superiority. What MS wants is just to get you into the store and show you
their cool phones -- "Can your phone do this?" stuff. So they dangle a carrot
(the prize) to get you in the door.

Where it went off the rails is that somehow the store staff didn't feel
comfortable actually _awarding_ the prizes. That is shady, and it implies that
the incentives are screwed up internally: if the stores get punished for prize
awards, do they likewise get hurt for providing other stuff with dollar values
attached (what would normally be called "good customer service")?

~~~
bradleyland
"To be fair, I think consumers are pretty well aware that this is a stunt."

Does that really make it OK though? Do you feel OK giving your money to
companies that use "stunts", if you're aware of the stunt? I don't. I find it
disingenuous. It feels like those door-to-door vacuum salesmen who dump crap
on your carpet. Blech, no thank you!

Show me the product. Let me try it out. _Trust_ me to recognize where you've
done well. Feel free to point out areas where you think you've done well, but
these "head to head" contests are just silly, and they can easily turn around
and bite you, as we've seen here. Just skip it and let people make their own
assessment.

~~~
ajross
I guess. But in a world where you can't even watch a youtube video or read a
web forum without getting hit by the same kind of nonsense product marketing,
it seems like awfully mild sauce to be condemning Microsoft for pulling the
same tricks. The marketing itself (but not the refusal to honor the prize)
just doesn't tickle my outrage meter, sorry.

The

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psykotic
Smoked by Windows Phone? Is anyone else reminded of the funeral procession
Microsoft held for iPhone a few years ago?

[http://www.intomobile.com/2010/09/10/microsoft-windows-
phone...](http://www.intomobile.com/2010/09/10/microsoft-windows-
phone-7-funeral/)

~~~
potatolicious
Not just the funeral procession, but also the recent Google-salesman ad, and
just about every attempt at marketing MS has done in the last few years.

I really have to wonder, how is it that Microsoft is seemingly so _completely_
disconnected from reality? In what crazy world did the Seinfeld ads look
amazing and awesome? Where the iPhone funeral procession would look like
anything other than premature celebration? Where the anti-Google ad looked
anything other than sleazy and underhanded?

Though I have a theory. MS's marketing stunts have been known to be
unnecessarily hostile to the competition, overly self-congratulatory,
seemingly unaware of why people choose the competitor, has overtones of
arrogance... remind you of a CEO? :)

~~~
stumm
I thought this ad was pretty good and makes fun of the old versions of IE:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4DbgiOCTQts)

~~~
SerpentJoe
Well, except that the protagonist is an obsessive ideologue nerd who would
rather hate a Web browser than be happy. If that's supposed to be an apology
then it's the ultimate "I'm sorry you feel that way".

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r00fus
The point is, how does it sell to your customers to do weird things like "show
weather in 2 cities"? Are these valid common uses of the device?

The root issue is the competition itself, seems to be a bizarre way of
marketing a mass-produced device OS... done right, it could be a great way to
tout the qualities of your devices, but done wrong it has so many downsides.

~~~
freehunter
That is but one of the challenges they use. This one might not be of interest
to you, but what if the challenge was "open an IDE and create a 'hello world'
application"? Microsoft's TouchDevelop just may win out on that.

~~~
cryptoz
I can build a Hello World app on Android in under 2 seconds. It takes another
2-3 seconds for my phone to compile, install and run the package locally.

<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aide.ui> is really, really
slick.

I would love to see a race. I very much doubt WP7 could win but I'll be very
impressed if it does. Anybody have the appropriate collection of devices and
the time to film a demo? :)

~~~
Karunamon

      >I can build a Hello World app on Android in under 2 seconds.
    

Doesn't it take Eclipse at least 20 times that long to even start up? ;)

~~~
cryptoz
Ha, ha. Very funny. But the beauty of this is that AIDE isn't eclipse, and it
takes < 1 second to start up!

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manojlds
What happens if I go in with a Windows Phone ( yeah, I do have a Windows Phone
and I think its good and all, but am sure an Android phone can smoke a Windows
Phone in reasonable tasks.)

When I lose, do I get to say - "My Windows Phone was smoked"? :)

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reiichiroh
Maybe Microsoft could try a challenge of uploading a review to Yelp from your
Windows Phone. The lack of apps and full functionality as compared to their
iOS and Android equivalents is crippling.

~~~
mrspandex
Yelp has a Windows phone app. Even if it didn't, you can do that from a web
browser too.

~~~
azakai
Regardless, the point stands, WP7 receives a lot less app attention - which
makes sense since it has 1.7% market share.

For example, the new Angry Birds launched on iOS and Android, and has no plans
to port to WP7 due to the need to rewrite it for that platform,

[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-22/-angry-birds-
space-...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-22/-angry-birds-space-
edition-skips-windows-phone-in-blow-to-nokia.html)

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wizzard
Good on them for making it right. Although at first he just told Katta to go
in for a rematch.

@therobpoz is probably right, I don't think Apple would have gone back and
given him the laptop. Of course Apple doesn't need to give away their products
in the first place...

~~~
FredFredrickson
Apple does give away their products - they give them to production studios for
TV shows and movies.

Why do you think almost every movie and show made over the last few years
features a laptop with a glowing Apple on the back whenever a shot calls for
someone to be using a computer?

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delinka
It's been said many times that Apple doesn't pay for product placement. That
it's just a consequence of the show's writers and designers using Apple
products. I tend to believe that. But I still suppose it's possible that
providing free products is considered "not paying."

~~~
shrikant
I'm not sure how true this is.

If you see the credits roll at the end of the show or movie, there is
invariably a line that says "Promotional consideration: Apple" [and others].

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danellis
Offering him a phone (presumably a Windows one) seems to be entirely missing
the point.

~~~
sp332
What else would they offer? his money back?

~~~
darxius
They could offer a cash prize, which he could use to pay his telephone bills.
I agree that it makes no sense to give him a phone he just "beat".

I guess he could sell it on eBay or something...

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shareme
Kind of failed just like the rigging of Nokia to choose WP over Android right
MS? :)

