Microsoft's retail employees apparently don't read the rules to the Microsoft bake-off contest to which they invite customers to compete, and which it uses to attract customers. Making up new rules to disqualify winners with Android devices is so low, one suspects employees are docked if Microsoft's tool doesn't win.
If Microsoft had let the guy win a little notebook with MSFT's OS, he'd have presumably posted instead about his (presumably) fantastic new laptop. Marketing is why the contest was created, right?
UPDATE: A Microsoft evangelist, aware of the negative impact of this press, has apologized for one incident and claimed he stood behind the bake-off. To make sure people understood Microsoft "meant" the apology they threw in the hardware that had been at stake in the competition. Microsoft knew when the test started that it faced some risks, and trained employees on picking a test suited to the specific challenging device. Properly-configured Androids or iPhones – properly configured for speed on the test, not safe use in a security-demanding environment – can beat Microsoft's product at different tests, so the tester needs to be aware which race to announce after the challenger turns off his phone. So Microsoft wants the tester to collect information about the customer and the phone, have the phone turned off, then announce a "challenge" that the particular phone and/or configuration is most likely to lose at. Isn't it great to make the rules?
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