GADAPA SUBHASH's Web Log

Microsoft chief suffers foot-in-Vista disease

Microsoft's Kevin Turner takes a swipe at the company's much-maligned OS while having a dig at Apple's iPhone 4 problems

The iPhone 4, Apple's Vista? Photograph: Eric Thayer/Reuters

Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer, took aim squarely at the iPhone 4's problems in a speech yesterday.

"One of the things that I want to make sure that you know today is that you're going to be able to use the Windows Phone 7 and not have to worry about how you're holding it to make a phone call," he told Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, adding: "It looks like iPhone 4 might be their Vista."

Certainly, Apple chief Steve Jobs could be said to have invited hubris with his fulsome description of the iPhone 4's antenna layout, now reckoned to be a key source of the problem.

But what else has Turner had to say about Vista – about which he's now apparently so dismissive? Looking back at his speeches, he seems to have thought it was a great idea.

Just before it was demonstrated live on stage at the Microsoft Small Business Summit in 2007, he sounded enthusiastic: "I'd really like John Stroiney to come up and really help me demonstrate for you Windows Vista, Microsoft Office, and Office for Small Business 2007, because when you see these products, and the innovation in these products, I think you'll be as excited as I am."

He certainly liked it afterwards: "You know, you saw a lot of functionality, and you saw a lot of ease of use that we put into that technology, and a great user interface, and all the different things. Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System is about safe, secure, a great experience, and improving your productivity."

His mood had apparently changed by April 2009, ahead of the launch of Windows 7: "The toughness, the tough launch that we had with the release of Vista was very brutal. The first 18 to 24 months in market was tough. Why was it tough? Because we locked that product down to fix a lot of the security problems."

And he added: "The reason that Windows 7 will be successful is because of the pain we took on Vista."

So on that score, will Apple's soon-to-be-available iOS4.1 software update be it's Windows 7, the "number one product [they've] ever put out from a quality standpoint"?

Or, possibly, it's just dangerous to make comparisons with products that you once feted.