A Microsoft executive on Wednesday took a dig at Apple and his own company, quipping that the new iPhone 4 might be as problematic for Cupertino as Vista was for Microsoft.

A Microsoft executive on Wednesday took a dig at Apple and his own company, quipping that the new might be as problematic for Cupertino as Vista was for Microsoft.

"It looks like that iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I'm OK with that," Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner said during a keynote speech at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference, a video of which was posted online. "That's another mantle [Apple is] welcome to take. I actually read that headline last week and I just sort of had to smile after I did cartwheels, again."

is of course, the previous version of Microsoft's Windows operating system before , which was plagued by bugs and generally viewed as a poor upgrade from XP.

Turner made his comments while talking about Microsoft's efforts in the mobile space, and the company's .

"One of the things that I want to make sure you know today is that you're going to be able to use a Windows Phone 7 and not have to worry about how you're holding it to make a phone call," Turner said, referring to the .

Turner acknowledged, however, that mobile has been a challenge for Microsoft. His speech comes just one week after the company .

"This has been tough," Turner said about mobile.

With the expected launch of Windows Phone 7 in late 2010, however, "we're back in the game," he said.

"When you look at this phone it's not like any phone you've ever seen from Microsoft, and I think that's a good thing," Turner continued. "We're re-booting ourselves in this area."

Turner also discussed Apple's . The tablet, he said, is "fabulous at content consumption, [but] lousy at content creation."

As a result, most people are not going to dump their laptops in favor of an iPad at this point.

"They're generally a third device for most people. That's a fact and that's not going to change," Turner said. "Productivity matters and you can't maximize productivity if all you're doing is consuming content."