Smoked by Windows Phone comes to Toronto, we try our best (and lose)

Smoked by Windows Phone came to Toronto’s Yonge & Dundas Square yesterday, and we were there to try our luck at winning $100. Like the challenges in other countries, they are rather limited in scope and obviously biased towards features that Windows Phone has integrated into the OS — Facebook photo tagging, searching for restaurants, finding the weather — but the demonstration is rather impressive nonetheless.

Our friend Corey took a shot at the $100 prize, his iPhone 4S going against a Lumia 900 in an attempt to find a list of local GTA restaurants. Unfortunately victory eluded him as the skilled Windows Phone incumbent located a Tim Hortons before Corey could even open his Maps app.

The stand attracted a lot of attention at one of the country’s busiest intersections, and as we stood there talking to the various passersby we came to understand the plight of Windows Phone in the North American market. There were countless BlackBerry users, iPhone clutchers and Android fans among the challengers, but we saw very few who knew the Windows Phone brand, and fewer still who owned a handset.

Still, there were several staff members on hand, each equipped with LTE-powered Lumia 900s, showing off in rapid succession the advantages of the Windows Phone OS. Check out our adventure with Smoked by Windows Phone after the break.