Surface Excel billboard snafu reveals error, smugness, denial

Billboard image via AppleInsider

Daniel Eran Dilger at AppleInsider:

Despite the incredible “power” of Office’s productivity, Microsoft’s own depiction of its software running on its hybrid tablet results in a $500 error. Charged with adding up just seven rows of numbers, Microsoft Excel running on the Surface comes up with a total of $9,000, as can be seen in the zoomed in detail below.

I can’t work out who’s the worst person in this story; you’ve got 1) the ad editorial team for not vetting a billboard ad properly. 2) the author of the AppleInsider article for blanketing his article in a thick layer of smug (see below):

The correct sum for the numbers is $9,500, which Apple’s Numbers app has no problem calculating on either an iPhone, a Macintosh, or even the beta version of iWork for iCloud accessible via a web browser.

3) The follow-up from Frank Shaw (communications head honcho at MS) that insisted that ‘Excel calculates after editing’:

4) TechCrunch for testing that assertion in a variety of ways:

I tried as well, on Office Web Apps, Office 2010, and Office 2013 RT on a Surface 2. I also failed to recreate the above screenshot. Then, friend of the blog Brad Sams rode to Microsoft’s rescue, and showed that it was possible in both Office 2013 and Office Web Apps.

Or 5) myself for writing this piece. This is what happens on slow news days — WE ALL SUFFER TOGETHER