- Photo: Nokia
Microsoft’s Windows Phone is still a long way from catching on. So what better way to convince people to switch to WP than to hold a public contest against rival phones in Microsoft stores? This is exactly what MS has been doing, but not without controversy.
Prove WP is faster
The so-called Smoked by Windows Phone campaign began as just a sideshow at this year’s CES and has since exploded into a full blown ad campaign by Microsoft. Basically, the premise of the campaign is that Windows Phone is ‘faster’ than rival mobile operating systems, like Android or iOS, and that a Microsoft employee can prove it. When they say ‘faster’ they aren’t referring to processor speed (which is a good thing since the Lumia 800 doesn’t stack up well against the likes of the HTC One X in this regard), but rather how quickly one can accomplish a task, such as uploading a photo to Facebook or checking the weather.
Odds slated in Microsoft’s favour
In the challenge, if the Android or iPhone user is able to do the task faster, they’ll win $100. Sure enough, the Windows Phone user appears to win every time, or at least in the videos of the challenge that Microsoft has uploaded. Of course, the WP user in the challenge knows exactly what task needs to be performed beforehand, has practiced the exact motions to do so, and has also pre-configured the WP7.5 smartphone to accomplish it. Not to mention, many of the Android or other phone users seem quite clueless in how to operate their own handsets. In other words, the odds appear to be heavily stacked against the non-Windows Phone users, but then again that must be why Microsoft is offering prize money as a reward.
HP laptop to be given to winner
Showing full confidence in the ability of Windows Phones to win the challenge, Microsoft recently upped prize the money ante, by offering a brand new Hunger Games PC with a $1,000 value as the reward. The PC in question is actually a special edition of the HP Folio 13 ultrabook and certainly makes a nice payment for participating in a quick contest. There’s just one problem though, a Californian apparently did participate in the challenge with his Samsung Galaxy Nexus, emerged victorious, and was instead escorted out the shop without any explanation or Hunger Games laptop.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Contestant claims they won
Sahas Katta took to his blog to complain and to describe the incident in detail. Apparently, the challenge task was to bring up the weather in two different cities on your home screen. Now, you’re not allowed to use pre-loaded apps, but Katta already had two weather widgets on his home screen and didn’t know exactly what the challenge would be beforehand anyway. Moreover, he disabled the screen unlock for his phone, which allowed him to win the challenge faster than the MS employee. Instead of being congratulated he was promptly expelled from the store. The excuse given later was that he had to show the weather from two different cities in two different states and he only showed two Californian cities.
Other disputed winners
The incident generated a large amount of negative publicity for Microsoft, which soon sought to quell the controversy by offering Katta his prize after all, along with a brand new Lumia 800 Windows Phone. Though resolved, it seems the Katta incident wasn’t isolated, with others reporting that they had in fact smoked Windows Phone but were not awarded the promised prize either.
Propaganda or fun contest?
They say that all publicity is good publicity, but that might not necessarily be the case with this campaign. The Smoked by Windows Phone campaign is still ongoing in Microsoft shops across the US and the Hunger Games PC is still available as a prize until March 29th. Would you support seeing such a contest in the UK, or is it just smoke and mirrors and Microsoft propaganda? Tell us below.