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*LTD*

macrumors G4
Original poster
Feb 5, 2009
10,703
1
Canada
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703455804575057651922457356.html

Roughly 10% of Microsoft employees said to be iPhone owners
Friday, March 12, 2010

"Microsoft Corp. employees are passionate users of the latest tech toys," Nick Wingfield reports for The Wall Street Journal. "But there is one gadget love that many at the company dare not name: the iPhone."

"The device's success is a nagging reminder for Microsoft executives of how the company's own efforts to compete in the mobile business have fallen short in recent years," Wingfield reports. "What is especially painful is that many of Microsoft's own employees are nuts for the device."

"The perils of being an iPhone user at Microsoft were on display last September," Wingfield reports. "At an all- company meeting in a Seattle sports stadium, one hapless employee used his iPhone to snap photos of Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. Mr. Ballmer snatched the iPhone out of the employee's hands, placed it on the ground and pretended to stomp on it in front of thousands of Microsoft workers, according to people present."

"Despite Mr. Ballmer's theatrics, iPhone users are in plain sight at Microsoft. At the sprawling campus here in a Seattle suburb, workers peck away on their iPhone touch-screens in conference rooms, cafeterias and lobbies," Wingfield reports. "Nearly 10,000 iPhone users were accessing the Microsoft employee email system last year, say two people who heard the estimates from senior Microsoft executives. "

Wingfield reports, "Some Microsoft workers take pains to hide their iPhones. While rank-and-file workers tend to use the iPhone openly around peers, some conceal them within sight of more senior executives. One Microsoft worker said he knows several colleagues who try to disguise their iPhones with cases that make them look more like generic handsets."

Wingfield reports, "Microsoft isn't uniformly opposed to employees using Apple products, in part because it makes some software and services for them. Apple's Macintosh computers are common in the Microsoft group that makes the Mac version of its Office software. Still, Apple's ascendancy in mobile phones has been tough to stomach."
 

jaw04005

macrumors 601
Aug 19, 2003
4,571
560
AR
Microsoft has some 90,000+ employees. So not really surprising.

Jobs has mentioned in the past that some of Apple’s best customers work at Microsoft.
 

*LTD*

macrumors G4
Original poster
Feb 5, 2009
10,703
1
Canada
And I would bet that there are some Apple employees who use WM phones.

Sure they do.

rofl.GIF


I think it was those two guys in the mail room.
 

LethalWolfe

macrumors G3
Jan 11, 2002
9,370
124
Los Angeles
Why is this news?
Anything that can in any way, shape or form be spun to make Apple teh roxor and any company that is not Apple teh suxor will be posted by *LTD*. And if any of his ridiculous, unsupported statements are challenged he'll ignore them and just start another thread.

Sure they do.

rofl.GIF


I think it was those two guys in the mail room.
So what you are saying is that MS employees are more likely than Apple employees to be individuals and go against the norm as opposed to being corporate drones that won't think for themselves, fear not 'fitting in' and therefor only use the products their company produces? Got it.;)


Lethal
 

Gold89

macrumors 6502
Dec 17, 2008
263
0
UK
So what you are saying is that MS employees are more likely than Apple employees to be individuals and go against the norm as opposed to being corporate drones that won't think for themselves, fear not 'fitting in' and therefor only use the products their company produces? Got it.;)

More that there are no MS phones that come close to the competition ;)
 

MisterMe

macrumors G4
Jul 17, 2002
10,709
69
USA
It kind of proves that MS employees are no different than the general population. I did have my doubts though. ;)
Microsoft products are intended for Microsoft customers. Microsoft employees and contractors use the best tools available to get the job done.
 

FX120

macrumors 65816
May 18, 2007
1,173
235
Sure they do.

rofl.GIF


I think it was those two guys in the mail room.

Up until the end of last year Windows Mobile was used exclusively for inventory management across their entire retail chain.

Windows embedded and Windows CE still play a critical roll in manufacturing all of their products.

Ect.
 

djellison

macrumors 68020
Feb 2, 2007
2,229
4
Pasadena CA
Windows Mobile was being used by sales people in Apple stores when I last visited one. I've read they intended to replace them with some augmented iPhone device in the future, but they WERE there.
 

LethalWolfe

macrumors G3
Jan 11, 2002
9,370
124
Los Angeles
Up until the end of last year Windows Mobile was used exclusively for inventory management across their entire retail chain.

Windows embedded and Windows CE still play a critical roll in manufacturing all of their products.

Ect.
There you go, ruining *LTD*'s fun...
 

sushi

Moderator emeritus
Jul 19, 2002
15,639
3
キャンプスワ&#
And I would bet that there are some Apple employees who use WM phones.
Agree.

Nothing wrong with getting something that fits your needs.

On a side note, I wonder how many Apple iPhone users to include employees will dump the iPhone when their contract is up and go with something else?

Why is this news?
Slow news day? :)

Up until the end of last year Windows Mobile was used exclusively for inventory management across their entire retail chain.

Windows embedded and Windows CE still play a critical roll in manufacturing all of their products.
Snort. True.
 

R.Perez

macrumors 6502
Feb 16, 2010
400
2,472
Seattle, WA
As if working for microsoft means you can't own anything with an Apple logo on it?

One of my good friends lives in Seattle and has been a long time MS employee he owns an iphone along with an iMac, plus other PC's (mostly laptops)

Not really surprising.
 

roadbloc

macrumors G3
Aug 24, 2009
8,784
215
UK
Sure they do.

rofl.GIF

No, no, I'm sure they do.

I know people who don't like iPhones, me being one of them. I'm sure Apple employees have the freedom of choice, like the rest of the world. If they don't like Touchscreen, or anything else about the iPhone, they won't buy one.

Just because they work for Apple, doesn't mean they love Apple as much as you do.
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,682
43,740
So what.

It's like a Honda employee driving a toyota or gasp an apple employee owning a pc and dollars to donuts there are apple employees that own PCs

here's a little tidbit of info for *LTD* apple used to use window servers for their online presence, this was even true while Jobs was at the helm :eek:
 

MisterMe

macrumors G4
Jul 17, 2002
10,709
69
USA
And Steve Jobs was forced to stop using his Thinkpad and start using a Mac laptop a few years after taking over Apple again, even though they sucked.
Two things:
  • Jobs's ThinkPad ran OpenSTEP.
  • As Intel-based laptops of that era went, the ThinkPad was about as good as it went.
 

slapple

macrumors 6502
Jul 25, 2008
466
21
As if working for microsoft means you can't own anything with an Apple logo on it?

One of my good friends lives in Seattle and has been a long time MS employee he owns an iphone along with an iMac, plus other PC's (mostly laptops)

Not really surprising.

I have 2 friends in Seattle who've worked for Microsoft for the past decade. They seem to be drinking the MS Kool-Aid hardcore. They both refuse to use AOL IM (or any other non-MS IM), and only use MS Messenger. One even said he'd be fired if he used AIM... ok, so he was joking, but I imagine he has many co-workers who are like him and refuse to use any non-MS products.

They both use Windows phones. One of them has an X-Box and I seriously doubt he'd ever consider a Playstation or Wii. Neither uses Macs, and I seriously think they'd rather commit suicide than buy an Apple product. Oh, and they also use Bing instead of Google.
 

kdarling

macrumors P6
I would be kind of curious to see that number against the number in the general population that use iPhones.

Well, let's see. 15 million iPhone users x 92% are adult working age .

= 13.8 million adult iPhone users / ~200 million US adults

= ~7% of the general adult population owns an iPhone

But if we compared against the number of technical company employees that use iPhones, I suspect the 10% is about right.
 

secondhandloser

macrumors member
Jan 14, 2011
64
1
Wash, DC/ HSV, AL
Well, let's see. 15 million iPhone users x 92% are adult working age .

= 13.8 million adult iPhone users / ~200 million US adults

= ~7% of the general adult population owns an iPhone

But if we compared against the number of technical company employees that use iPhones, I suspect the 10% is about right.

That's about right with what I expected. I just think it's pretty interesting to see that they are about consistent (most likely) with other tech companies.
 
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