Microsoft COO Knows A Lemon When He Sees One

In his keynote speech at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, company COO Kevin Turner said that Apple’s new iPhone, beset by antenna issues, “might be their Vista”. Self-deprecation suits you well, Microsoft!

Turner started his routine with the “it doesn’t matter how you hold a Windows Phone 7 phone” bit:

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.

But that angle was already covered by the Droid X’s NYT ad and a cheeky spot from Nokia before that.

The real laughs came when Turner compared Apple’s new phone to his own company’s universally loathed OS: Microsoft Vista. That’s like killing two birds with one stone – or maybe making one glass of lemonade with two lemons?

Anyway I’m not sure anyone else is willing to go that far. Apple’s certainly taking a drumming over the iPhone’s reception issues, and their only official statement to date, that it’s all a matter of how the software displays the bars of reception, hasn’t done much to calm people down, but Consumer Reports still had the iPhone 4 ranked as the best smartphone you could buy, even after they said that you probably actually shouldn’t buy it in the first place.

Still it’s always funny to see a big company poking fun at a competitor, and it’s even more fun to see a big company poking fun at itself, so well done, Mr Turner. Get started on some Bob material for your next keynote. [ComputerWorld via Engadget]