Microsoft's partners also kicked off their own versions of it

Mar 7, 2012 15:26 GMT  ·  By

In early 2012, Microsoft’s Ben Rudolph went to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with a hand full of Windows Phones and a pocket full of $100 bills.

He challenged people to put their handsets to test against Windows Phone devices to see which would be faster.

He actually managed to prove that Windows Phones were faster, and the Smoked By Windows Phone phenomenon was born.

“That’s the happy lesson we’ve been learning these last few weeks as we’ve watched Smoked By Windows Phone challenges spread around the world,” Microsoft’s Michael Stroh explains.

“In January my colleague Ben Rudolph arrived at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas toting a few red signs, his Windows Phone, and a wad of $100 bills. His plan: challenge the techies to a fun and friendly 21st century duel, to see whose smartphone was faster at the everyday stuff people do.”

Smoked By Windows Phone challenges were not exclusive to the CES event. Instead, they’ve swept the California coast and also made it to Spain during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Moreover, the challenge arrived in Hong Kong too, as well as in Indonesia.

“In Jakarta, a 50-person squad from Microsoft Indonesia recently spent three days in a local shopping mall holding Smoked contests (final tally: 640 wins, 50 losses),” Stroh notes. The video embedded below shows some more details on the matter.

Moreover, these challenges have been held in India too, ran by a team of Microsoft student partners. While they did not have cash to offer to winners, the team did offer flash drives to those who managed to smoke the Windows Phone.

And there is also the Smoked-inspired challenge that Nokia is currently running across India, which is called “Blown Away by Nokia Lumia.”

For the time being, the challenge has been running only in Delhi and Pune, but the company is also planning the event for Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bangalore. Those who manage to beat the Lumia 800 get 1000 rupees.