How are Apple's products viewed upon at Google and MS?

[frosse]

Let's face it, Apple's products are sexy and everybody wants them. If they say they don't they're lying. Well, maybe except for Ballmer and Schmidt.

But what about all the employees at Google and Microsoft? Are they viewed as traitors by their non-apple-using colleagues?

I mean, it's in both Ballmer's and Schmidts best interest to have their employees use its company's products? I would think that Google has far more iPhone users than Microsoft.

 

[*LTD*]

With a mixture of envy and confusion.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Chances are google employees will own iPods but chances are good most of Google employees use Android phones for their phones and prefer using Android phones.

As for companies to work with I have a feeling Apple is by far the worse as for not allowing non-Apple products in the work place.

 

[frosse]

Chances are google employees will own iPods but chances are good most of Google employees use Android phones for their phones and prefer using Android phones.

As for companies to work with I have a feeling Apple is by far the worse as for not allowing non-Apple products in the work place.

1. So you're saying that all the employees who had iPhones prior to Android now have switched? That doesn't make sense. I mean, Google is a pretty open company, I'm sure that there are still a lot of people who have iPhones. And of course I'm sure that a lot of people at Google use macs for their work, don't you think?
2. Doesn't Apple allow others brands?

 

[hakuryuu]

Google has quite a few employees using Macs (there was a bit of noise caused by Google stating they were switching more employees to Macs and Linux a while ago) and Microsoft's Mac unit obviously uses them.

As for the iPhone Ballmer is notoriously anti-iphone but I have read nothing about Google.

 

[ChazUK]

I've seen plenty of demonstrations from Google where they use Macs. They've also demonstrated some of their software and features on iPhones and iPads.

All Google really care about is you using their online stuff mainly so locking out the competitions hardware would be a bit silly.

As fir Microsoft, I can imagine they push their wares more than Apple's but I'd hope that some employees uses the competitions products.

 

[Melrose]

As fir Microsoft, I can imagine they push their wares more than Apple's but I'd hope that some employees uses the competitions products.

They say Bill Gates won't allow his kids to have iPods, and I think there was a guy who worked at MS that got fired for posting a snap of where he worked that had a Mac set up in there.

But that's lame corporate culture. When I worked nights at the grocery store, the store manager got pissed off when I said I shopped somewhere else to get better prices.

 

[Scuby]

You need to distinguish between different things:
- what is their "standard" corporate IT system? Apple will almost certainly use Apple hardware and OS X - Microsoft will use Windows on some sort of hardware, and Google will use something...
- do they use their competitor's products in some areas? Well of course they do, how could Microsoft write Office for Mac without some Macs? How could Google test it's websites without also testing on Macs? How can Apple develop iTunes for Windows without some PCs?
- what do employees use at home? No doubt they use whatever they prefer, I don't imagine any huge amouht of loyalty for staff for the products of the company they work for. Though presumably staff discounts will make them slight more keen to choose their own stuff. But do Tesco/Walmart staff only ever shop at their own store? Does someone who works for Amazon do all of their online shopping on that site? Do you think all Dell employees use Dell PCs at home? I'd be very surprised!

David

 

[maflynn]

With a mixture of envy and confusion.

You also forgot about derision.

Like any other multibillion dollar corporation, both google, MS have a wide variety of people who have a wide variety of needs and priorities. So much so presumably some own apple products. Heck Microsoft has a very committed, vibrant contingent of Mac users within their Macbu department.

I believe both google and MS give their employees their respective phones, so most (not all) have their own phones.

 

[frosse]

You guys remember this move by Ballmer? He placed a bin at the Zune office for people to throw their ipods in. He failed miserably.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fimoculous/503637222/

 

[Synchromesh]

I recently worked with an ex-MS employee who had the first gen aluminum MB. When I asked him if MS employees are allowed to use Apple products he said that in general yes, although it's somewhat frowned upon.

Oh, and yes, he left on his own - he didn't get fired for using his Mac.

 

[tablo13]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Google uses iPhones on some of their mobile service demonstrations. Like the voice search ad, which was 10 mins long with a guy saying "pizza" 2047 times

 

[Epsilon88]

I remember a big splash in the news about Google shifting to Macs.

 

[maflynn]

You guys remember this move by Ballmer? He placed a bin at the Zune office for people to throw their ipods in. He failed miserably.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fimoculous/503637222/

No I hadn't heard that, its too funny.

 

[frosse]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Google uses iPhones on some of their mobile service demonstrations. Like the voice search ad, which was 10 mins long with a guy saying "pizza" 2047 times

That's because the demo was for the introduction of their iphone support for voice search, wasn't it?

 

[tablo13]

That's because the demo was for the introduction of their iphone support for voice search, wasn't it?

No. It was for their "Google Search with My Location", not necessarily only iPhones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n4-oVOKoLY&feature=player_embedded

 

[yg17]

They say Bill Gates won't allow his kids to have iPods, and I think there was a guy who worked at MS that got fired for posting a snap of where he worked that had a Mac set up in there.

He probably got canned for posting a pic of his office, not his office with a Mac. Some companies don't like having any pics of their offices out there for whatever reason.

Obviously Microsoft has Macs in their office. They do make a Mac version of Office after all...

 

[lbro]

I think that all Microsoft employees have PC's at work (except for the once working on office for mac, etc.) and they have whatever they want at home. I'm sure most of the guys at the top all have Microsoft stuff but the general staff will have what they want in terms of mobile devices.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

He probably got canned for posting a pic of his office, not his office with a Mac. Some companies don't like having any pics of their offices out there for whatever reason.

Obviously Microsoft has Macs in their office. They do make a Mac version of Office after all...

I looked up and found the article. He got canned for violated security claus in his contract.
It was not the photo itht was taken but the fact that it was a photo taken in a secure area and posted on the web.

 

[wirelessmacuser]

I have a several close friends that are engineers at Google, in a variety of departments.

Despite the "public acrimony" fueled by the CEO's, the day to day environment on the Google campus is quite Mac Friendly.

Being engineers, it's natural that Google would give them developers Nexus One Android's ... yet they are welcome to bring in their iPhones along with the company provided MacBook Pros they use.

The doodles department is nearly 100% Mac and happily supported by the CEO when not being taunted by Jobs...

 

[Melrose]

He probably got canned for posting a pic of his office, not his office with a Mac. Some companies don't like having any pics of their offices out there for whatever reason.

If memory serves me correctly, other MS employees had posted snaps of their workspaces and went unharmed.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

If memory serves me correctly, other MS employees had posted snaps of their workspaces and went unharmed.

You should google it. It was not the macs that they were pissed about. It was for violating a security clause and posting a picture of a secure area.