wraggster
March 27th, 2012, 22:04
Microsoft was forced to apologise after staff in a Microsoft retail store in Santa Clara denied that an Android phone had beaten Windows Phone in a 'Smoked by Windows Phone' marketing event.
The software giant has been running a marketing campaign in retail locations in the US in which store staff challenge owners of Android smartphones to look up information with the chance to win US$100 if successful.
However one Microsoft store upped the ante and also put up a $1000 laptop up for grabs. Skattertech's Sahas Katter headed to the store to challenge Microsoft, armed with a Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 but despite winning the challenge, store staff declared that he had lost "just because".
Describing the event on his site (http://skattertech.com/2012/03/i-won-the-windows-phone-challenge-but-lost-just-because/), Katter revealed how he had placed weather widgets on his home screen and disabled the unlock screen. Thus when the challenge was delivered to display the weather in two cities, a triumphant Katter simply pressed the power button on his Galaxy Nexus and said "Done!".
"After trying to push for a real answer since I clearly won the contest by their rules, another Microsoft Store employee (possibly a manager) came by after noticing me asking more questions," Katter said.
"Thinking on his feet, he quickly gave a ridiculous out-of-thin-air reason that I need to display the weather of different cities in different states and that “my phone could not do that”."
Microsoft manager Ben Rudolph later tweeted: "I want to make things right. So I've got a laptop & phone (& apology) for you."
The Verge later discovered (http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/26/2903838/exclusive-microsoft-smoked-by-windows-phone-android-risks) that Microsoft's marketing campaign was 'tweaked' with techniques for tailoring the challenge "appropriate to your customer" which in this case means avoiding challenges that would result in a loss to certain models of Android phone.
"You should also steer clear of this challenge against an HTC Status (i.e. the Facebook Phone) as it also has a built in pocket-to-picture-to-post feature," Microsoft reportedly told store staff.
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/microsoft-apologises-after-windows-phone-marketing-cock-up/028132
The software giant has been running a marketing campaign in retail locations in the US in which store staff challenge owners of Android smartphones to look up information with the chance to win US$100 if successful.
However one Microsoft store upped the ante and also put up a $1000 laptop up for grabs. Skattertech's Sahas Katter headed to the store to challenge Microsoft, armed with a Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 but despite winning the challenge, store staff declared that he had lost "just because".
Describing the event on his site (http://skattertech.com/2012/03/i-won-the-windows-phone-challenge-but-lost-just-because/), Katter revealed how he had placed weather widgets on his home screen and disabled the unlock screen. Thus when the challenge was delivered to display the weather in two cities, a triumphant Katter simply pressed the power button on his Galaxy Nexus and said "Done!".
"After trying to push for a real answer since I clearly won the contest by their rules, another Microsoft Store employee (possibly a manager) came by after noticing me asking more questions," Katter said.
"Thinking on his feet, he quickly gave a ridiculous out-of-thin-air reason that I need to display the weather of different cities in different states and that “my phone could not do that”."
Microsoft manager Ben Rudolph later tweeted: "I want to make things right. So I've got a laptop & phone (& apology) for you."
The Verge later discovered (http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/26/2903838/exclusive-microsoft-smoked-by-windows-phone-android-risks) that Microsoft's marketing campaign was 'tweaked' with techniques for tailoring the challenge "appropriate to your customer" which in this case means avoiding challenges that would result in a loss to certain models of Android phone.
"You should also steer clear of this challenge against an HTC Status (i.e. the Facebook Phone) as it also has a built in pocket-to-picture-to-post feature," Microsoft reportedly told store staff.
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/microsoft-apologises-after-windows-phone-marketing-cock-up/028132