When marketing fails: Microsoft’s Lumia 535 page shows off Vine – for Android

Like any customer facing enterprise, Microsoft has various semi-autonomous departments within the company, as well as contracted companies on the outside that assist with any number of items involved in the design, development, manufacturing, distribution, sales, and marketing of a given product.

In this case, the newly availableMicrosoft Lumia 535 smartphone, which is a decent deal at only $149 unlocked, has all the flare one would expect to see on a manufacturer web-site, overview, technical specs, and apps.

The Windows Phone platform has been facing headwinds on the apps front, but Microsoft continues to make the platform as attractive as possible to developers.  Plus, all the big names are present, Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, Netflix, WhatsApp, Minecraft, Vine, take your pick. Actually, we will pick Vine for just a moment because as we browse the page we notice that Vine is the highlighted app on “display” for the page.

No problem with highlighting an app, OEMs, carriers, accessory makers, and the like, do it all the time. Unfortunately, the graphics folks that created and provided the images for Microsoft’s Lumia 535 page are apparently unaware of the less than subtle differences between Vine for Windows Phone, and Vine for Android.

Lo-and-behold, Vine for Android on the Lumia 535! Actually, if you want to take it a step further and interpret the image literally, lo-and-behold, the Lumia 535 running Android 4.x (the blue colored clock means it’s not KitKat).

We get it, it is not all that uncommon a mistake, for carriers and accessory makers maybe. For the manufacturer of the device though? Do we call it a rookie mistake in this case? The devil is in the details, and this is a tough detail to overlook – inadvertently promoting a competing platform while touting all the “apps you love” in the Windows Phone Store.

A little friendly ribbing never hurt anyone.



reference: Lumia 535 (Microsoft)