'Smoked by Windows Phone' smoked by Android

An interesting story of unfair play has arisen from SkatterTech. In the US, Microsoft is holding a “Smoked by Windows Phone” challenge: where a Microsoft store employee races your phone against a Windows Phone. If you beat the Windows Phone in accessing a function with your phone, you stand to win a $1000 laptop, and if you lose they give you a choice to trade in your phone for a WP7 device.

However, what happened to Sahas Katta, a writer for SkatterTech wasn’t quite as clear-cut as that. In a test to see who could bring up information about the weather in two cities would win. Katta with his Galaxy Nexus couldn’t believe his luck, as he had previously disabled the lockscreen and had a couple of weather widgets set up on the homescreen. Once the test started Katta unlocked his phone and proclaimed himself the victor.

Sadly the Windows store team took issue with his phone though, and when a manager was asked they made up a term about the Nexus not show the weather for two cities in different states.

It seems like Microsoft may have been a bit too confident about the speed of Windows Phone, but it is a bit of a slimy move to disallow a winner from claiming is prize. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. Microsoft has offered a rematch and an apology, but I doubt they’d enter him into a contest where the Nexus could win quite as easily. The MoDaCo team think Microsoft should relent and give him his prize.

EDIT: Microsoft have issued an apology and given Katta both the laptop and a free phone. It's amazing what a bit of bad PR can do!

Read the whole story at SkatterTech