Microsoft apologizes, hands out laptop and phone to #smokedbywindowsphone winner

After yesterday’s outcry about Microsoft not admitting defeat in a ‘Smoked by Windows Phone’ challenge that Sahas Katta claims to have won, Ben (“The PC Guy”) Rudolp has now taken to Twitter to issue a public apology to the winner, further offering him a free laptop and phone to make up for his original prize.

Unlike some people claimed, Katta, who was able to pull up weather info on his Galaxy Nexus faster than the Microsoft Store employee, did not root his phone or do anything else out of the ordinary, as he clarified in a comment yesterday. Instead, he just disabled the lockscreen, a native feature of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and one he uses regularly when jogging or hiking, thus beating the Windows Phone ever so slightly.

While we commend Ben and the team at Microsoft for the quick and fair solution, it’s pretty clear by now that the whole PR backlash and negative reactions from the press have cost their Windows Phone efforts slightly more than the original $1,000 over which all this fuss was made.

Source: Ben Rudolp (Twitter)