The old saying go big or go home can now be applied to the ‘Smoked by Windows Phone’ campaign as Microsoft is upping the ante on its direct-to-consumer marketing strategy. Rather than offering up $100 for a chance to see if your phone is faster at performing common tasks, Microsoft is opening the cash registering and offering up a new PC worth over $1,000 if you can best a Windows Phone, via The Verge.
In addition, if you challenge Microsoft and succumb to the speed of Windows Phone, the company will allow you to swap your device for a new, unlocked Windows Phone (excluding the Lumia 800), there are ten prizes per store.
The competition is for this weekend only at Microsoft stores and you must sign a waiver to be used in future promotional material.
The ‘Smoked by Windows Phone’ campaign got kicked off at CES 2012 and has been growing ever since. The basic idea is to show how common tasks can be completed in less time on a Windows Phone device than a competing platform.
While Microsoft has been quiet on the sales for the platform, there are several market signals that indicate that the platform is slowly gathering moss as it slides downhill. This is surely good news for the software giant as it was a late entrant to the smartphone arena and has a lot of ground to makeup.