5 ms·

Microsoft apologizes over 'Smoked by Windows Phone' controversy

53 points by Slimy 14y ago

wizzard 14y ago
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...
- rbanffy 14y ago
  Apple wouldn't lose. While I use an Android 2 phone, I must admit an Apple iPhone would be a better choice if all I wanted was a smartphone. What took me to the Android one was the things I couldn't do with the Apple product.
  - talmand 14y ago
    I'm sorry but you need to explain that statement a little more for me. You say the iPhone is superior as a smartphone but you chose Android because it can do things the iPhone doesn't? Isn't it true then, at least in your case, the Android phone is the superior product? Do you use your Android device as something other than a smartphone? Could you specify what that might be?
    - rbanffy 14y ago
      An iPhone is a better smartphone than my Android-based one is. I can, however, develop software for my phone without a Mac and deploy it to actual hardware without paying Apple for the privilege of deploying my software to my own phone.
- FredFredrickson 14y ago
  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?
  - delinka 14y ago
    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 14y ago
      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].
Pewpewarrows 14y ago
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 14y ago
  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")?
  - huggyface 14y ago
    To be fair, I think consumers are pretty well aware that this is a stunt I'm a pretty in touch, technically focused person and I didn't think it was the farce that it actually was. I thought they were legitimately demoing average things that people were doing, from scratch, highlighting the benefits of the platform. That they pre-configure their device for ridiculous scenarios is simply incredible. That the now much more apologetic Microsoft rep originally offered a rematch on the incredibly long odds seemed extraordinary.
  - bradleyland 14y ago
    "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.
r00fus 14y ago
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 14y ago
  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.
  - barefoot 14y ago
    For those of you not familiar with TouchDevelop (like me): http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/touchdevelop/ http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/touchdevelop/
  - cryptoz 14y ago
    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 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 14y ago
      >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 14y ago
        Ha, ha. Very funny. But the beauty of this is that AIDE isn't eclipse, and it takes < 1 second to start up!
danellis 14y ago
Offering him a phone (presumably a Windows one) seems to be entirely missing the point.
- rbanffy 14y ago
  "Here is your laptop and the phone you proved is not as good as the one you currently own". Priceless.
- sp332 14y ago
  What else would they offer? his money back?
  - darxius 14y ago
    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...
manojlds 14y ago
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"? :)
reiichiroh 14y ago
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.
- KeyBoardG 14y ago
  This point would be valid, save for the fact that there a Yelp app on WindowsPhone.
  - reiichiroh 14y ago
    There is but you can't do anything useful with it like login or submit reviews.
    - kcl 14y ago
      Yelp has a policy that bars reviews written on mobile devices. This is done to protect the quality of the reviews. You can't submit reviews from an iPhone either. The functionality doesn't exist.
      - foxit 14y ago
        In Android, you can submit reviews written via a browser, just not via the Yelp app. Via the app, you can write and submit "quick tips" (which are often short reviews) and draft regular reviews with a star rating on your mobile device, but then you have to open the browser to submit them.
      - reiichiroh 14y ago
        Alright, you can't login to the Yelp app then.
      - r00fus 14y ago
        Are you just making this up? I just did that with my iPhone Yelp app right now. Go to a yelp entry, "Add" and "Draft a review".
psykotic 14y ago
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-7-funeral/ http://www.intomobile.com/2010/09/10/microsoft-windows-phone...
- potatolicious 14y ago
  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 14y ago
    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=4DbgiOCTQts http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4...
    - SerpentJoe 14y ago
      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".
shareme 14y ago
Kind of failed just like the rigging of Nokia to choose WP over Android right MS? :)

53 points by Slimy 14y ago

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...

rbanffy 14y ago
Apple wouldn't lose. While I use an Android 2 phone, I must admit an Apple iPhone would be a better choice if all I wanted was a smartphone. What took me to the Android one was the things I couldn't do with the Apple product.
- talmand 14y ago
  I'm sorry but you need to explain that statement a little more for me. You say the iPhone is superior as a smartphone but you chose Android because it can do things the iPhone doesn't? Isn't it true then, at least in your case, the Android phone is the superior product? Do you use your Android device as something other than a smartphone? Could you specify what that might be?
  - rbanffy 14y ago
    An iPhone is a better smartphone than my Android-based one is. I can, however, develop software for my phone without a Mac and deploy it to actual hardware without paying Apple for the privilege of deploying my software to my own phone.
FredFredrickson 14y ago
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?
- delinka 14y ago
  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 14y ago
    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].

Pewpewarrows 14y ago

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 14y ago
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")?
- huggyface 14y ago
  To be fair, I think consumers are pretty well aware that this is a stunt I'm a pretty in touch, technically focused person and I didn't think it was the farce that it actually was. I thought they were legitimately demoing average things that people were doing, from scratch, highlighting the benefits of the platform. That they pre-configure their device for ridiculous scenarios is simply incredible. That the now much more apologetic Microsoft rep originally offered a rematch on the incredibly long odds seemed extraordinary.
- bradleyland 14y ago
  "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.

r00fus 14y ago

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 14y ago
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.
- barefoot 14y ago
  For those of you not familiar with TouchDevelop (like me): http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/touchdevelop/ http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/touchdevelop/
- cryptoz 14y ago
  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 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 14y ago
    >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 14y ago
      Ha, ha. Very funny. But the beauty of this is that AIDE isn't eclipse, and it takes < 1 second to start up!

danellis 14y ago

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

rbanffy 14y ago
"Here is your laptop and the phone you proved is not as good as the one you currently own". Priceless.
sp332 14y ago
What else would they offer? his money back?
- darxius 14y ago
  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...

manojlds 14y ago

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"? :)

reiichiroh 14y ago

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.

KeyBoardG 14y ago
This point would be valid, save for the fact that there a Yelp app on WindowsPhone.
- reiichiroh 14y ago
  There is but you can't do anything useful with it like login or submit reviews.
  - kcl 14y ago
    Yelp has a policy that bars reviews written on mobile devices. This is done to protect the quality of the reviews. You can't submit reviews from an iPhone either. The functionality doesn't exist.
    - foxit 14y ago
      In Android, you can submit reviews written via a browser, just not via the Yelp app. Via the app, you can write and submit "quick tips" (which are often short reviews) and draft regular reviews with a star rating on your mobile device, but then you have to open the browser to submit them.
    - reiichiroh 14y ago
      Alright, you can't login to the Yelp app then.
    - r00fus 14y ago
      Are you just making this up? I just did that with my iPhone Yelp app right now. Go to a yelp entry, "Add" and "Draft a review".

psykotic 14y ago

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

potatolicious 14y ago
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 14y ago
  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=4DbgiOCTQts http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4...
  - SerpentJoe 14y ago
    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".

shareme 14y ago

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