Smoked by their own marketing
This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.

Earlier today we reported on a small brouhaha that arose when Sahas Kattaa beat the “Smoked by Windows” challenge with his Galaxy Nexus. An employee at his local Microsoft store challenged Katta to see who could more quickly display the temperature in two different cities. Mr. Katta had two weather widgets already configured to do so, and had further turned off the lock-screen, allowing him to win the challenge with the push of his power button. The store employees, apparently caught off guard, claimed his victory “didn’t count” because the two temperatures had to come from different states, even though that wasn't a previously stated part of the challenge.

It turns out that Microsoft may not have been prepared to lose; they had constructed the challenge in such a way that employees with the proper training could avoid losing altogether. They circulated a training guide with detailed instructions on how to conduct the challenges - a guide that fell into the hands of writers at The Verge.
Given the steep price and high embarrassment of a loss, it’s not really surprising that Microsoft would have guidelines on how to conduct the Smoked by Windows challenge. What may surprise you, however, is how bluntly the guide admits that Windows can be smoked by other phones, and how it teaches their employees to "select a challenge appropriate to your customer" so they won’t lose.
The weather challenge, for example, is not recommended for use against Android devices. The guide warns explicitly that “Android users have access to Widgets that can, if properly configured, display the weather and other information in real time.” Apparently they should have spent more time on that aspect of the training. Owners of Apple’s iPhone, on the other hand, do not have access to homepage widgets and as such are perfect candidates for the weather challenge.
