“A top Microsoft executive today compared Apple’s iPhone 4 to his own company’s problem-plagued Vista operating system,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld. ‘It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I’m okay with that,’ said Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s chief operating officer, in a keynote speech at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), which runs through Thursday in Washington, D.C.”
MacDailyNews Take: You might remember Microsoft’s Kevin Turner, he called Windows Vista “the most secure OS on the planet, including Mac OS X and Linux” in April 2009. Then, just when we’d finally stopped laughing, last July Turner said of Microsoft’s PC ad campaigns, “Wow. Did we punch right back? The PC Hunter ads, the PC Rookie ads clearly have been winners in the marketplace… And you know why I know they’re working? Because two weeks ago we got a call from the Apple legal department saying, hey — this is a true story — saying, ‘Hey, you need to stop running those ads, we lowered our prices.’ They took like $100 off or something. It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I’ve ever taken in business. I did cartwheels down the hallway.”
We’d still really like to see Kevin attempt even a single cartwheel. Of course, Apple’s record Mac sales continued to outpace the PC industry throughout Microsoft’s various ad campaigns. The one to which Turner refers was a case of false advertising, so of course Apple asked for it to be revised, which Microsoft promptly did. That “the greatest single phone call in the history that Turner’s ever taken in business” was that phone call speaks volumes. But, boy, those Microsoft “PC Hunter” and “PC Rookie” ads sure worked, didn’t they? They did if the goal was to increase Mac sales to record levels. Turner is like Ballmer’s Mini Me with a bad mustache. They’re both bad used car salesmen working for a derivative, mismanaged, hopelessly outclassed tech company.
By the way, nobody ever called Windows Vista the best operating system on the market. Nobody.
Keizer reports, “Earlier in his talk, Turner poked fun at the reception problems that have dogged Apple’s iPhone 4 since its June 24 launch. “One of the things I want to make sure you know today is that you’re going to be able to use a Windows Phone 7 and not have to worry about how you’re holding it to make a phone call,” Turner said, referring to the Microsoft mobile operating system set to debut on smartphones this fall.
MacDailyNews Take: Cartwheel Boy is right on that count, hardly anybody will have to worry about holding a Windows Phone 7, uh, phone (smooth naming scheme you’ve got there as usual, Microsoft).
Keizer reports, “The iPhone’s position isn’t unassailable, Turner argued. ‘We’re back in the game,’ he said. ‘And this game is not over.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Channelling Sergeant Hulka: “So, go ahead, give it your best shot… Gutless… Punk.”
For God’s sake, this is the most overblown topic, relative to the reality of the situation, I’ve ever seen.
He who laughs last has the final laugh.
This guy has got some nerve.
Microsoft says iPhone 4 is Apple’s Vista? Does Microsoft still stand by their belief Vista was a smashing success?
So … this MSFT big-wig is telling us there were unintended problems with a product it took them damn near a decade to get out the door? Fracking amazing! Well, since he is not delusional and Ballmer is, it may be a good thing he will be getting fired while Ballmer continues to run the company into the ground.
Fortunately for Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s chief operating office, his company has so many offerings that he could have chosen in Place of Vista for this story…
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows…. Longhorn, MS Bob, Zune, X-Box 360, MS Watch, Windows Mobile, Windows Server, Kin One and Kin Two, Surface, Courier, Internet Explorer, you get where this is going…
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How’s that Kin working out for you, Kevin?
If you actually had an WinMo phone, you have much more to worry about than just how you have to hold it.
Childish mumbo jumbo. Jibber jabber at it’s best.
Is this Ringling Brothers Circus? Microsoft is being run by a bunch of clowns.
he also made the comment, Turner started his routine with the “it doesn’t matter how you hold a Windows Phone 7 phone” bit”
I think this is brilliant, this will help us iPhone 4 users with the antenna issue more than anything that has been said before this!
I think that guy just sealed the deal for us! iCal me!
Microsoft needs to remember that it’s hard to compare software to hardware. Ios 4 is a huge success compared to Vista and the iPhone is less problematic than the xbox 360. Microsoft + hardware = bigger problem than Apple + hardware or software.
Kevin, it “might be their Vista”. Is that the only Microsoft turd you could come up with or was it the only one that Microsoft forced on their customers that wanted to keep there old XP turd?
Windoze smart phones have bigger reception problems, poor market reception.
Waaa? I thought Vista was awesome. M$, didn’t you tell us that? I’m so confused!
The fact that everyone has to pick so hard at this issue is because they have nothing else to try and slam Apple over. Talk about making a mountain out of an anthill
Didn’t MS make Vista? Oh yeah and the Zune and not to be forgotten
Windows ME.
How much Sh@t do they have to make before the PC weenies give up?
Apple, sell the iMac for $399.00 and game over.
Buy a damn bumper. Turn vista into OS X instanly!
Difference is: nobody bought Vista.
You need a product to be in the game.
Microsoft has had to eat crow so many times for their foul-ups that they can’t find any other tactic to deal with their competitors than to sling mud. This only makes them dirtier in the public’s eye, in my book. I recall how windows 7 would solve many of the problems encountered by pc owners but I personally know of nobody who raves about it. I’m a Mac owner and I’ll always buy Apple products!
Wait… I thought Microsoft always maintained that Windows Vista was a smashing success. What a moron; can’t even parrot the corporate mantra.
If he really wanted to make a point, he would have called iPhone 4 Apple’s Kin. But that would be too humiliating (to Microsoft), especially after iPhone 4 continues to break sales records versus Kin being cancelled after selling a few hundred units.
Or he could have called iPhone 4 Apple’s Zune… Ouch!
@ Erk,
You guys with the iPhone 4 problem, both of you, should go get a free replacement or your money back.
That will help you a lot more than a Microsoft Weenie can.
Funny he couldn’t compare it to the XBox red ring of death, which no product has or will ever come close to being as faulty.
The Red-Ring-of-Death on the xbox360, was PROVEN by the 50% failure rate. One of every two are returned.
We aren’t seeing that with the iPhone4, are we?
No. We’re not.