Does Microsoft Play Fair? Of Course Not.

[MissionImprobable]

I Won The Windows Phone Challenge, But Lost “Just Because” | Skatter Tech

Posted up over on XDA, but I thought I'd spread the word. MS has been taking a few pot shots at Android here lately so I'm not feeling any particular love for them anyway.

[tjk629]

The contest sounds "rigged" to begin with.

From what I read it sounds like you turn the phone off then on. They tell you what they want. Then you have to do it.

In this guys case the weather thing. It sounds like the employee already performed the task (adding the two weathers on the tile page). So OF COURSE they're going to win. It was just lucky that he just happened to have two weather widgets up. What about an average user?

I for example don't have any weather info on my home screen let alone for two cities.

So, I would have to open Beautiful Widgets and add two cities. Which of course will add a bunch of time to me performing the task.

So, it almost sounds like these tests are set to make the user fail. Since the WP user has already set up everything in advance.

It doesn't sound like a fair fight. IMO. I think the challenge sounds cool and all, but it sure as hell is set up poorly.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

[Natey2]

Man, that is one useless comparison of Smartphones!

How about:
The actual time it takes to boot up a stock smartphone?
The amount of time a smartphone can run for before it needs to be recharged?
Some standardized benchmarks?
Ease of setup of a new email account, send/read email, etc?
Ease of updating a task/calendar event/etc?
Ease of download, install, update, uninstall apps from the Store?
OS memory overhead, ability to multitask, resource leakage, etc.
Cost of ownership?

And phone voice quality.

Sent from my unrooted DroidX using Tapatalk

[jroc]

Yea...its sounds shady. I havent used a WP7 much...but is weather already on the Live Tiles or does it have to be added?

Now that I think about it...the only thing I want to do smoking fast is have the camera app come up...lol.

I just read some of the comments....seems the 1st party, stock Weather app just got added to the Live Tiles...lol. So basically Microsoft had to wait until they felt they could actually compete to come up with this contest...

Reading the rules..3rd party apps were fine too. This sucks and I probably wont be trying it.

[MissionImprobable]

Looks like spreading the word paid off. Things have been set right:

World demands justice for Galaxy Nexus owner who 'beat' Windows Phone -- Engadget

[jroc]

That's good. If having weather pre loaded in the live tiles is fair, having a weather widget already loaded is also fair.

Maybe it shoulda been add weather info to your screen from scratch. Adding anything from scratch seems more fair. Ms should stick with using the camera app from the lock screen.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using DroidForums

[tjk629]

Good for him. A new laptop and new phone? That's close to like 1500-2000 in prizes!

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

[scott craft]

Checking the weather in two different cities at once is not something usually done, so I think that particular test is irrelavant. WP is fast at going from lock screen to taking a picture and posting it on fb. It can also update twitter and fb at the same time. Of course there are things an android can do faster, this is just about getting more people to be aware of WP.

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[justin82]

I am Glad it all got corrected ..sometimes the media does make a diffrence

[MissionImprobable]

Microsoft Apologizes After Botched Windows Phone Challenge | PCWorld

The latest. The article from "The Verge" linked within is also a very interesting read, detailing how employees were not to challenge certain phones on certain tasks because Android's setup on those devices was known to be faster at completing the task.