Breaking into the mobile market is hard, even for Microsoft. Ad campaign after ad campaign has come and gone, but the Windows Phone 8 software maker has yet to make a big impression against the likes of Apple and Samsung. Instead of comparing itself directly to the two phone makers, Microsoft is trying a different tactic: pitting the two against each other and watching from the sidelines.
The latest commercial for the Nokia Lumia 920 and Windows Phone 8 takes place at a wedding where the bride's side is composed of dedicated Samsung Galaxy users while the groom's side seems made up entirely of iPhone 5 owners. As they try to capture the couple's wonderful day on video or in pictures, though, the tension starts boiling over.
As a Samsung Galaxy owner tries to snap some photos, an iPhone 5 user shouts out, "Excuse me, would you mind moving your enormous phone?" From there on out, the situation just gets worse.
"You mean the enormously awesome Galaxy?," he asks.
"Search: one trick pony," says an iPhone 5 owner after two Galaxy users swap info by tapping phones.
"Aren't you a little young to have an iPhone?"
"iSheep!" "Copybots!"
From there the whole wedding devolves into an enormous battle. Galaxy owners are sent flying through cakes while iPhone 5 owners are tackled from behind. The entire time this is happening, two people sporting Nokia's Lumia 920 stand back and watch.
"You think if they knew about the Nokia Lumia they'd stop fighting all the time?" one asks.
And that's the commercial. While it's getting props around the Internet for being funny, can it actually help turn Microsoft's fortunes around? It might have helped if the company actually demonstrated any of the Lumia 920's actual features, but instead the Lumia owners just stand there, snapping photos of the carnage, perhaps, with that fabled PureView lens. But we're not really sure.
Nokia is seeing more success with the Lumia brand, but it's still having trouble converting users from the iPhone and Galaxy. This eye-catching commercial would have been a great opportunity to tout some of the things the Lumia 920 does better, or differently, than its competitors. Instead, we'll have to settle for funny. It could be worse, though. It could be Scroogled.
