We’ve all seen the Smoked by Windows Phone advertisements that have been going on for a while now. So far, Microsoft has come out on top on most challenges. One challenge, however, left a bitter taste in everyone mouth.
A guy by the name of Sahas Katta participated in a $1000 Windows Phone challenge in Santa Clara’s Microsoft Store. The prize was a $1000 Special Edition Laptop. Katta used a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which is powered by Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and had his lockscreen disabled with two weather widgets on his homescreen. The challenge was pretty straight forward. “Bring up the weather of two different cities.” Within a millisecond, Katta felt like he won. “I felt like I struck gold since I knew I already had two weather widgets on my home screen: one for my current location (San Jose, CA) and another for Berkeley, CA.,” Katta mentions.
Now here’s the kicker. Katta was told he had lost. “I excitedly thought I won out of pure luck. However, I was quickly told that I lost. I asked for a reason and was told Windows Phone won because “it displays the weather right there.” That was rather unclear. I showed her my device which also was showing off the same information with two side-by-side weather widgets on the center home screen. After pressing for a better reason, I was told that Windows Phone won just because.”
Microsoft’s Ben Rudolph finally issued an apology to the distraught Katta and offered a new laptop, phone, and an apology for the mess, via twitter. (see below)
Was this a fair battle? What do you guys think?
Further reading: Android, Microsoft, Windows Phone 7
