March 26, 2012, 8:57 PM —
Microsoft is apologizing for a Windows Phone marketing campaign gone wrong, after a tech writer "smoked" a Windows Phone using an Android handset.
In its retail stores, Microsoft has been running a "Smoked by Windows Phone" campaign, in which participants are challenged to use their existing smartphones to try to beat Windows Phone in basic tasks. For example, users are asked to send text messages to their spouses, look up the weather, or find highly-rated local restaurants.
In most stores, Microsoft was offering $100 to users who could beat Windows Phone. But Microsoft upped the stakes at its Santa Clara location by offering a special edition laptop valued at over $1,000. That's where Skatter Tech's Sahas Katta decided to take up Microsoft's challenge.
Katta's task was to bring up the weather in two different cities. Fortunately, Katta's Samsung Galaxy Nexus already had a pair of weather widgets on the home screen, one for San Jose, Calif., and another for Berkeley, Calif. He had also set the phone to bypass the lock screen when pressing the power button--a built-in option for Android phones running version 2.3 and higher.
