The videos all start with the same message from Microsoft employee Ben “the PC guy” Rudolph: ”Hi, I’m Ben, and today I’m showing people why Windows Phone is a better match for them than iPhone and Android.”

In the spots, Rudolph — no red nose in evidence — shows up apparently unexpectedly, surprising iPhone and Android users, and showing them something better about his Windows Phone. Cheeky, but effective, at least in the spots that made it to YouTube.

Here’s one of the iPhone 5 segments, which uses the Nokia Lumia 920, which has an 8.7 megapixel camera to iPhone 5′s 8 megapixels. Yes, that’s the same phone that Nokia famously used in its faked ad — the ad that led users to believe it was shot with the 920, when in fact it was shot with a high-end video camera.

But the camera is, actually, quite good:

A quibble: Ben doesn’t use the iPhone 5′s built-in flash. He doesn’t with the Nokia either, but if the Nokia is optimized for low-light capability, that could be seen as something of an unfair competition. Or, from the other side of the coin, as an example of why you want a diversity of devices in your mobile collection, with differing capabilities for differing user requirements.

Rudolph runs the same script by a family which has a myTouch Android phone from T-Mobile, with a 5 megapixel camera.  This time he uses HTC’s Windows Phone 8X, which has an 8MP camera:

Again, predictably, the Windows phone wins.

How effective these ads will be remains to be seen.

What is clearly visible, however, is that Microsoft is no longer content to take a backseat in the mobile device market, and with Surface and Windows Phone 8 is making a major push to become a significant player.

photo credit: smallritual via photopin cc

So in Skyfall, 007 is using a 13-megapixel-equipped Sony Xperia T, running Google’s Android mobile operating system.

Sony has launched phones with Bond before, showcasing the K800i in Casino Royale and the c902 in Quantum of Solace. Perhaps Skyfall will bring a big dollop of solace to Sony this year, as its latest earnings have shown widening losses.

After selling just 30 million phones in 2012 so far – Apple sold 27 million and Samsung sold 57 million in just the last quarter – Sony is aiming for 50 million for 2013.

Source: Sony

Sony Xperia T

Bond, James Bond, does not use the phone’s built-in NFC, but he does flash the camera in a not terribly subtle product placement. The Xperia’s impressive 13-megapixel camera is fully accessible just 1.5 seconds from standby, records in 1080P high-definition, and includes Sony’s face and smile detection technology. And Sony included a relatively recent version of Android in the 4.55″ smartphone: Ice Cream Sandwich.

One neat feature for Bond fans: Sony is apparently including some exclusive Skyfall behind-the-scenes footage, wallpaper, ring tones, and more.

After all, who wouldn’t want the Bond theme as their ringtone?

Image credit: Skyfall