Microsoft employees hold funeral parade for iPhone, Blackberry

[n2doc]

By Josh Ong
Published: 08:55 PM EST

Celebrating Windows Phone 7's "Release to Manufacturing" status, Microsoft employees held a morbid funeral parade for the iPhone and Blackberry.

The parade through the company's Redmond campus, first reported by NeoWin, included hearses, oversized iPhone and Blackberry coffins, and various Halloween-like costumes.

One truck featured a sign bragging, "Windows Phone 7 OS Platform buries the competition." In doing so, Microsoft takes its place in a long line of products that were billed as "iPhone killers."

Various sources have reported that Windows Phone 7, which went RTM last week, will launch at an October 11 event in New York City, although the first devices wouldn't be available until late October in Europe and November in the U.S.

Microsoft posted a teaser trailer for Windows Phone 7 on YouTube last week, the first in what is expected to be a $500 million marketing campaign for the launch of the mobile OS.


http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-workers-celebrated...

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/09/10/microsoft...

[MrScorpio]

1. So, instead of a busy signal, you'll get a Blue Screen of Death?

iPhones and Crackberries are doomed... Suuuure!

[hlthe2b]

6. LOL

I hear they are really pouring the $$ into this. I owned a windows based smartphone. Not really bad, but certainly not the cutting edge that any of its competitors offered. It will be interesting to see how this "rendition" fares.

[Canuckistanian]

17. No, the BSOD happens JUST before the call is connected

The fix will be available in the next update cycle. It will be mailed to all customers on floppy disks.

[area51]

30. +1 n/t

[dkf]

2. Are they serious? Wow that is so pathetic it makes me depressed.

[Luminous Animal]

3. Poor deluded bastards.

[USArmyParatrooper]

4. Wow. They must have taken it personal when Apple overtook them as the industry giant.

[awoke_in_2003]

5. How many iPhone killers...

have been released so far? Microsoft thinks they can do better? I laugh at this.

[hlthe2b]

7. the only threat to iphone has been their choice of carrier, AT&T

I am hoping that changes soon.

[awoke_in_2003]

9. Same here...

AT&T is the only thing that has stopped me from getting one- I will not deal with this company.

[grace0418]

19. I was even willing to put up with AT&T so I switched from Sprint but wanted to wait

until the iPhone had been out for awhile. So I got another Smartphone in the meantime (I can't even remember which one). Within 6 months I switched to T-Mobile because I couldn't make a single call in my house. In the middle of the third largest city in the the U.S. I work at home so, iPhone or not, AT&T was not happening for me.

I do wish I could have one.

[SpiralHawk]

25. Giga barf on AT & T - will not do iPhone with them as carrier

Apple needs to get a clue...

[Orsino]

10. Hey, they can't all be Zunes. n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

22. ah, Zune...

the iPod killer

[jmowreader]

8. Breaking: picture of Win7 smartphone early adopter

[Swamp Rat]

11. I wish I had an iPhone

I wish I had a lot of neat gadgets, but none made by Microshaft.

[TlalocW]

12. I don't like the iPhone or Mac in general but

One word: Zune.

TlalocW

[Lucian]

13. I think the Droid series of phones killed the iPhone.

The user interface is better. The phones are better. The carriers are better. And I can actually get a signal without the use of a case.

[grace0418]

20. I loved my Droid phone for a few months. Now I kinda hate it.

It's sluggish, it does weird things, the user interface is not better in my opinion. Even if it were, if it takes 45 seconds for the home screen to become active from sleep that kinda wipes out any advantage it may have. Sometimes even to make a call I have to wait almost a minute to get to the "dialer" screen. That would be super great in an emergency situation. "I know you're bleeding badly honey, but wait...hold on...the phone is waking up...ooh, I'm almost on the home screen, I should be able to get to the dialer any minute now..."

It's a year old now and the problems started at about 6 months. I don't overload my phone with apps, pictures, ring tones or other stuff that might slow it down. I think it should work properly for at least 2 years. Now I have to endure another year of this nonsense until my contract is up.

Meanwhile the iPod that I got in 2006 and use every single day at the gym, while I work and on the train still works perfectly and still has a long battery life. Did I mention that my droid phone must be charged every night? Yeah, that's cool too.

[dkf]

23. My iPhone gets charged 3 times a day.

Once is nothing...

[Lucian]

24. I charge my Droid once every two days.

Did you get the Advanced Task Killer in the Android Market? It's free. Running apps in the background can kill battery power really fast. Just pressing the back button or home button doesn't exit the app. So use the task killer to kill the app. GPS programs especially need to be "killed" with the app killer once you're done using them.

As for the sluggishness, it's probably caused by background apps running. The task killer may take of that as well.

I've had my Motorola Droid for almost a year, and it's still alive and kickin'.

[grace0418]

28. Nope, have Task Killer, no apps running. Phone just sucks.

The GPS I only keep on when I'm actually using it for directions, like on vacation.

[Selatius]

26. You might wanna make sure you're not running apps in the background.

Simply pushing the back button to get out of it won't necessarily end the app. If you didn't know this, you're probably running most if not ALL of your apps at the same time, which is killing your phone's speed. Check into that like the other poster said.

[grace0418]

27. Thanks but that's not the problem.

See above.

[Puregonzo1188]

14. Will this be as successful as the Zune?

[POAS]

15. Security patches will be available the next day...n/t

[Touchdown]

16. Why does something always have to be "killed"?

What is wrong with people finding something that appeals to them and the can afford, and be left alone?

The computer industry is filled with arrested adolescents.

[SeattleVet]

18. All I need to know I learned from Yahoo finance.

5-year performance, adjusted for splits.

9/12/2005:
AAPL $51.41
MSFT $26.07

9/7/2010:
AAPL $263.41
MSFT $23.85

Now MSFT is getting ready to spend up to $500 million dollars (1/2 billion) to push their new phone.

If they would actually, you know... INNOVATE something instead of coming in a day late and a dollar short and always trying to play catch-up, they could start to imitate Apple's stock price, too.

[grace0418]

21. Those guys are funny. Tee hee.

Yeah, I'm sure whatever clunky monstrosity they come up with with too much flair and not enough substance is really going to kill the iPhone. I don't even have an iPhone and I know it ain't gonna do that.

[MilesColtrane]

29. Re: $500 million dollar marketing campaign

How much will the inevitable rebranding campaign cost?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojave_Experiment

[L0oniX]

31. Another MS product ...soon to be updated 100's of times ...for security holes.