The Windows smoke out challenge is heating up debates and discussions. During the first smoke out at CES by Ben Rudolph, we noted that were Microsoft does it best work is with software. Windows Phone has software brains to make tasks that are more complicated on other operating systems easier and faster for the things most people do frequently.
Photo posting to social networks, local search and camera operations are faster because they take less taps and swipes to complete. The advantage of Windows Phones is that they can start the camera from lock screen by pressing and holding the shutter button.
This promotion fits nicely in the week before AT&T will sell the Nokia 900 and HTC Titan II.
Sahas Kattas was able to win by turning off the unlock feature on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and preloading two weather widgets on the homescreen. He received a lot of media attention for saying that he won and the Microsoft store associate did not agree.
Ben Rudolph tweeted that Microsoft awarded him the $1,000 utltrabook but a free Windows Phone too. Sahas Katta picked up his prizes that he will auction on eBay with the proceeds going to charity chosen by Reddit.
All contests are down on the same Wi-Fi connection which seem fair, so that the contest is not between networks. Only smartphone owners can compete.
Losers have to trade in their old phone for Windows Phone. For AT&T and T-Mobile customers the Microsoft associate swamps out the SIM.
Here's a list of smartphones the Windows Phone smoked out in videos for the $100 challenge.
- HTC EVO 3D
- Motorola Atrix
- Samsung Galaxy S II
- Galaxy Nexus
- Motorola Droid X
- LG Optimus V
- iPhone 4S
- HTC Shift
- Samsung Captivate
Previous losers at CES were the iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, Galaxy Nexus, ATT Skyrocket, Droid Charge, Droid Bionic, HTC EVO 4G, various BlackBerries, Palm Pre Plus.
The only winners at CES were a iPhone 4s (posted a picture to Twitter just a hair faster), Droid Bionic, (got an SMS to a friend a smidge faster than PC Guy), and Galaxy Nexus (also posting a photo to Twitter). Note its is not clear if in these challenges if they were using the same Wi-Fi connection or cellular network.
The BlackBerry-looking HTC Status smoke out the Windows phone for posting to Facebook because it has Facebook features built-in.