Consumers purposely failing smoked by Windows Phone challenge to win a WP? Smoked challenge scrapped…
…instead you can recycle your old phone for a voucher towards a WP!
In the last story about the Smoked by Windows Phone campaign (that was picked up at reddit for the silly fail by one employee), I remembered a few comments in Reddit by people claiming to have purposely lost to get a new Windows Phone.
http://mynokiablog.com/2012/03/26/smoked-by-windows-phone-pr-fail-ben-the-pc-guy-to-the-rescue/
Apparently that had become so popular and widespread that instead of giving a Windows Phone in exchange if you lost, you now get vouchers that will discount towards a sale of a Windows Phone. This could mean between $50-$300 towards a new Windows phone when you ‘recycle’ your smartphone.
A little bit like what Nokia did, giving old and broken Nokia Eseries for a new E7, albeit this one would probably be less crazy.
I believe the above was quite chaotic, and caused problems for some as it was a first come first served thing. Well, that’s one way to get a que of people for your products when you lack the reality distortion field.
Conspiracy hat on: Was demand really the reason smoked by Windows Phone got scrapped or because of the backlash to the massive PR fail? Either way, it’s for the best that we possibly don’t see it any more.
Category: Nokia, Windows Phone
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company known for dishing under-handed tactics taking a dose of their own meds
Precisely
Fail…
If WP was “Smoked” by 808, i would be elated..
It already was. By our Ali
Winnings went towards a N9. Smart guy 
As Jay already said, mynokiablog’s Ali already smoked WP with 808
Here’s the article about it (and more): http://mynokiablog.com/2012/02/28/review-of-mwc-day-one-all-the-excitement-plus-how-i-got-a-free-lumia-800/
Be that as it may, WP spiked a bit in popularity. Blogs, people, many were discussing it.
Even though it turned out bad at one point (Sahas), no one can deny that the interest was there.
True. When that happened the discussions reached as far as my FB feed.
I got confused as to whether I was viewing twitter (my geeky peeps) or my facebook feed as I saw some friends arguing about Windows Phones (majority voted it to be a good thing, which surprises me as I didn’t expect any of them to have even heard of it)
LOL
I had the exact same experience 
Ha, FB friends are slowly finding out about reddit. And using memes wrong in the process
I can relate :/
Well they accomplished what they set out to do and that’s get some buzz for Windows going. I’d like to see more contests like this happen in the future.
The real haters hated WP7 before this contest and continue to hate it after, for all the others that lacked awareness this was great. Kudos to Ben Rudolph for doing something different.
This was marketing all along and not a definitive competition and I think it was highly effective. It’s too bad one person who semi-cheated the system generated bad press, especially when Microsoft is more than willing to give some phones/merch away.
lol@corperate stupidity
Massive PR fail? Maybe, it’s the tech blogs that really spun it that way.
While the whole thing wasn’t well enough thought true it was actually not that bad. Yes, all the tests were in favor of MS winning every challenge. But how does that harm contestants? It doesn’t.
Even if you lost you were winning, do the challenge with a beat up old Android/Symbian/iPhone 3G type device, lose and get a free phone. How is that bad? Yes, the chances of winning were slim, bu the again it wasn’t like you lost anything. You didn’t have to pay to enter, apart from standing in line and waiting perhaps.
The only real fail was made by the MS store and its employee(s) that didn’t acknowledge the legitimate win.
Eventhough it hasn’t been smooth sailing, WP has seen exposure for over a week on nearly all major techblogs. Android and iPhone owners (and others) have been in MS stores to get a small taste of WP. There is a risk that people will think badly of MS because of all this, but think a bit rational and there isn’t really anything bad MS did apart from not paying up in that one instance.
And saying that MS only chose WP favourable test to do and that it is not fair to do so is a bit ignorant. Would you expect Apple or Google to highlight poor aspects of their OS’? No, they wouldn’t do that either.
Completely blown out of proportion all this.
People don’t go to lose on purpose, it’s still better to win, but rather they don’t mind losing and go in fully expecting to trade some old device.
It’s not fail at all, failing would be if nobody would want to trade.
tl;dr; this is a good thing and I am sure MS loves it
Seems like win if you win and win if you lose. Typical MS throwing money at a problem and not really thinking about why there is so much resistance against WP.
The name sucks. There is no clear and definitive selling points re Iphone and Android.It seems to change all the time. At first it was “glance and go” – that bombed and now its “smoked by WIndows phone” which has also ended in controversy. They need to sit down work out the benefits of a WP phone and keep it consistent not change with the wind. When people consider “Windows” they assume PC and their experiences – not always good.
more fud by the masters of fud
this has nothing to do with smoked by windows
if you notice, this is a deal that has been place since november
nothing has changed at the microsoft stores regarding the competition, you can still do a exchange of phones
you guys really want wp to fail eh
it’s not our fault they set themselves up the bomb
What would it matter if people were losing on perpose? Surely they are expecting to beat them anyway?!
This is all about is this wise to trust Windows and M$. Windows is shitty system, and you can trust only if M$ wins, if not game rules can be changed in a friction of second. Here is the deal: you pay and if not we will make you pay, no matter weather you like or not want to.
That is why I used to use previously Symbian and from a few months Nokia N9. I have also tried Lumia in meanwhile but this is just useless for me, marketing product promoting dead but walking like zombie system, I mean windows. Also Lumia is hiding many problems with windows, battery, audio, worse equipment etc. etc.. This just waste of time, buying phone can’t be like mine field walking. And it is very big pity Nokia is going nowhere wasting time and resources for windows-zombie. I am also deeply disappointed that Nokia so easy left all Symbian, MeeGo, Maemo, SXX users so customers when only was given some dollars by M$. This is like partner who had been telling how much love you but has left you for money. Still can be attractive, but is it worth to trust again? As windows after 10 years in mobile market has reached outstanding success of about 0.5% of market and Nokia is going to make suicide with windows – then good luck Nokia, you really need it. But I will never buy any windows in mobile, and not fair competition just shows this right.
Oh. You again. Different name, same drivel.
Here’s a hint. The instant you use M$, or crApple or LinSux or any other stupid and juvenile substitution your post becomes meaningless because everyone just assumes you have the IQ of a retarded hamster.
Of course, you could explain why you think Windows – either Windows 7 or WP7.5 will do – is a ‘shitty’ system when both have very high customer satisfaction rates or why you think ‘Also Lumia is hiding many problems with windows, battery, audio, worse equipment’ when these faults have been corrected by firmware updates which were publicly announced.
Or you could just stop spamming the same crap under different names.
Shoo.
Please stop spamming my blog with your tirade of idiocy hidden under various usernames! Seriously, please stop. You’re just being annoying.
hey, i think the idea went south the moment they tried to go mainstream! when Ben was doing it was cool, since it was targeted to geek and people that took pride of their own smartphone! the challenges were decided on the spot, but then corporate marketing dummies spoiled everything! oh well it was fun while it lasted!