Microsoft Staff Hide Their iPhones From Executives
Roughly 10 percent of people at Microsoft own iPhones. While most of them aren't shy about their choice of cell phone, some of them hide or disguise their devices while they're at work.
Last September Steve Ballmer sent out a pretty clear message when he pretended to smash an employee's iPhone. Ballmer was reportedly running around, whooping, waving and shouting. When an employee tried to take his picture with an iPhone, the CEO took it from him, made some funny remarks while everyone else booed and then put it on the floor and pretended to stomp on it. The device was fine; Ballmer was just teasing after all. But how do iPhone-toting Microsofties feel about flashing their phones now?
This past weekend, the Wall Street Journal published a report about iPhone use at Microsoft's Redmond headquarters. Roughly 10 percent of Microsoft staff are said to be using Apple's iPhone and apparently, some of them go a long way to hide it.
WSJ reports that while many of them don't care who sees them tapping away on their iPhones in the lobby, the cafeteria or even the conference room, there are those who definitely don't want their devices being seen.
WSJ:
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.
"Maybe once a year I'm in a meeting with Steve Ballmer," said this employee. "It doesn't matter who's calling, I'm not answering my phone."
Though a few executives at Microsoft have said staff members often use rival products to better understand the competition, recent statements made by COO Kevin Turner counter their reasoning. Turner made it clear that "what's good for the field is good for Redmond." It seems Steve Ballmer agrees. If his aversion to iPhones was not made clear enough back in September, Ballmer echoed Turner's comments about company loyalty. Ballmer says that when he was growing up, his father worked for Ford, and his family always drove Fords.
- Google's Plans to Leave China are 99.9% Certain
- Inno3D's GeForce GTX 480 Boxed for Shipping
- HP Spends $40,000,000 to Show You It's Amazing
- Portal's GLaDOS Shows New Blue Screen of Death
- DRM Damages a Game's Value, Says Valve Boss
- New Deus Ex 3: Human Revolution Trailer at GDC
- Microsoft Loses Second Word Appeal, Owes $240M
- EVGA Shows GeForce GTX 480, 470 Boxes Too
- Xbox Finally Outsells Nintendo's Wii in February
- Microsoft Rushes to Patch 'Serious' Flaw in IE6, IE7
- Nvidia Launches Site for Intel-Nvidia Battle
- Top Ten Most BitTorrented Movies Last Week
- FCC, DoJ Investigate NBC, Comcast Merger
- Build Your Own: Tom's Hardware's BestConfigs, Updated!
- Pirate Bay Founder on Prison, Coke, Porn, Google
- PS Move Precise Enough to Control StarCraft
- Nvidia Announces 3DTV Play for GeForce 3D Vision
- Gigabyte's USB 3.0 Contest is Open to the World
wonder how good the M$ employee pricing plan is compared to the plan for pre-crash ford.
Talk about dedication! It would be different if people were using Macs at work...that's something you either need to hide or keep at home if you work in Redmond
Apple propaganda... even so, only 10%, that's a fail.
And btw, Ballmer's father died in a Pinto.
^Not a fact.
Apple propaganda... even so, only 10%, that's a fail.
This is a pretty pathetic argument. That said, imagine how pissed Steve Jobs would be if 1% of Apple employees used windows phones... or if google entered their phone market...
Steve jobs would find a way to use an electronic magnetic pulse (EMP) to target any non-apple phone in the vicinity.
This is a pretty pathetic argument. That said, imagine how pissed Steve Jobs would be if 1% of Apple employees used windows phones... or if google entered their phone market...
Yea well Steve Jobs likes to control everything, so he would probably be pissed off if a computer that is anything but glossy white entered Apple Headquarters.
I don't really see the reason not to expect product loyalty from employees. Though it is not a requirement I am sure the bosses keep those employees in mind even if subconsciously as potential candidates in times of layoffs.
Well, I must say that I haven't really been following cell phone news all that rigorously, but are there even that many windows phones (if any) on the market right now? Maybe when more windows phones are on the market and tested fully it would be reasonable for MS to expect a certain amount of product loyalty from their employees.
i think those people are responsible for all M$ fails...
Don't you just love the corporate attitude? Total disregard for freedom of choice. Its' all about control.
I'm generally not a Microsoft fan, but I have to agree with him on one point: Loyalty is important. In my opinion it's important in all areas of my life, including loyalty to my employer.
In this case, it's even more important as it's a competitor's product with competing logos. In my office for example, clothing with any company logo on it (other than ours) is forbidden. It's not a rule I've ever seen actually enforced, but I noticed it in a recent training class.
Personally I'm surprised a fortune 500 company like Microsoft is allowing cell phones with cameras on the premises. Most do not, for risk of corporate espionage. I am carrying a blackberry 8830 world edition especially because of this and the ability to roam in other countries.
Naturally, the *only* reason to disguise an iPhone is to hide it from management. One would never hide it to, say, discourage theft.
Loyalty to your company. Hmm I would say loyalty is very important to having a well rounded company but its a phone Microsoft is behind in that field lets face it the I Phone is an awesome phone. It wasn't like they are toting around a mac book that i could see as a problem.
I would disagree about Microsoft being "behind" here, at least from a technical perspective. MS has had windows CE (recently renamed Windows Mobile) since 1996. I owned one in 2002, and it did most of the things the iphone does today back then. Touch screen, web browsing (albeit much smaller), played music etc. It also had a SD slot so you could upgrade the storage, and they had an upgraded model (which I did not buy) that had a CF slot so you could put hard drives, or anything else onto it. You could even connect a kb/mouse to it with an adapter in that slot.
No doubt, iphone is far more trendy and probably less than twice the thickness of the WinCE touch phone I had in 2002, but I think if anything Apple just recently caught up (and surpassed in popularity) to MS in the cellphone market.
Better to ask some of these employees why they prefer the competition. Maybe they do have valid reasons. Then work on those inputs rather than sitting on the ivory tower doing wishful thinking.
Don't you just love the corporate attitude? Total disregard for freedom of choice. Its' all about control.
Yep. In the way of corporate mentality: paycheck = control
If Ballmer or any other executive grabbed my non-Microsoft away from me, and they didn't have a contractual requirement of me to only use MS products.
Well, that executive would either have damaged body parts or I'd have them in handcuffs for theft.
You're spot on, though. Seems more and more that companies think because they pay you for your professional talents means that they can tell you what to use, how to act, and what places you can go.
Yep. In the way of corporate mentality: paycheck = controlIf Ballmer or any other executive grabbed my non-Microsoft away from me, and they didn't have a contractual requirement of me to only use MS products.Well, that executive would either have damaged body parts or I'd have them in handcuffs for theft.You're spot on, though. Seems more and more that companies think because they pay you for your professional talents means that they can tell you what to use, how to act, and what places you can go.
This is just taking the whole joke Ballmer tried to crack too far. Honestly if anyone at Microsoft really is offended that an employee uses an Iphone they have bigger issues. What it all boils down to is some employees want to play it safe and don't want to rock the boat. Even if they had their Iphone on their desk it would not matter, not a big deal and I am sure that Microsoft feels the same way. Now when your talking the execs, they may indeed choose to not use one, not because they were told not to, but because they are more loyal to the brand than someone that files paperwork and does data entry.
The days of corporate loyatly are gone. Companies don't give much of a thought to shipping jobs to another country to save a few dollars.
Hopefully employees would be behind the products they sell, and use them as well. However, if their employee discount isn't enough to convince them to buy their own product, that's their choice.
Maybe the executives need to realize why people are buying the iPhone, its much more superior than Windows Mobile phones. If they knew better, they would try to improve on their products to beat the iPhone and hopefully see their employees make their own choice in buying the windows mobile phones not force them to hide the iPhones and deny their products are crappier.
If they are providing you with the service, then they can limit what you use. If you are paying yourself, it's your choice. The local Ford plant here no longer allows non-Ford Family autos to park in the factory lot. They're not stopping you from driving whatever you want, or telling you how to get to work, but they are providing the service (a free place to park) and can tell you that if you want to take advantage of their free service, you have to follow their rules.
Steve jobs would find a way to use an electronic magnetic pulse (EMP) to target any non-apple phone in the vicinity.
I concur.
Why not put Windows 7 Mobile devices in all of their employee's hands in their headquarters then? If they have a problem with it, then put their product in their hands. Otherwise, they MS should just STFU.
We will find out in days to cone that Steve jobs has patented iPhone use in Microsoft offices and is threatening to sue.
If Microsoft employees use the products people like, they're going to be more likely to want to design their own devices and interfaces with those things in mind.
They should hack thoses iPhones and see if it can run Windows 7
Talk about dedication! It would be different if people were using Macs at work...that's something you either need to hide or keep at home if you work in Redmond
unless you work in the Mac BU, which is a major profit center for Microsoft.
You people all forget, other than DOS, most of Microsoft's first software products for for the MAC OS (System X in those days) and that Excel (Microsoft MultiPlan) was on a Mac for near 3 years before it even had a PC equivalent.
For the WINDOWS team, Os X is a target dead in sights. However, for the app teams, OS X is a valued and one of their longest standing customers!
Yea well Steve Jobs likes to control everything, so he would probably be pissed off if a computer that is anything but glossy white entered Apple Headquarters.
Uh, Steve was the one behind all the colors... White is sharp, and semi-modern, but Steve is all about the rainbow of color options... The only color he abhors is beige.
Naturally, the *only* reason to disguise an iPhone is to hide it from management. One would never hide it to, say, discourage theft.
I don't know about you, but I actually hope a thief DOES steal my iPhone. 1, I'm covered under my home-owner's insurance (a rider policy actually), so it's not a big deal as long as I file a police report I'm only out nothing ($50 if i don't file a report, like if I accidentally drop it or loose it)...
2) i can track the damned thing REAL easy. A whole lot of dumb crooks that steal phones are simply less crooks on the street, and since it;s very easy to argue that an iPhone is worth in excess of $500 ($600 cost to replace out of contract, or $300 plus contract extension costs to reset to 2 years), it's not simple theft, its a crime punishable in my state for not less than "one year and one day" in prison.
please, steal my phone... seriously. I have no problem getting a new one for $0 if its stolen, and would love to see one more dumbass in jail for a year (and you've got to be a special kind of dumbass to steal a device you KNOW has a GPS chip in it).
This is just taking the whole joke Ballmer tried to crack too far. Honestly if anyone at Microsoft really is offended that an employee uses an Iphone they have bigger issues. What it all boils down to is some employees want to play it safe and don't want to rock the boat. Even if they had their Iphone on their desk it would not matter, not a big deal and I am sure that Microsoft feels the same way. Now when your talking the execs, they may indeed choose to not use one, not because they were told not to, but because they are more loyal to the brand than someone that files paperwork and does data entry.
Yea, seriously. general employees, this should not be an issue for. however, lets say a lead programmer, team lead, or manager in a department that WORK ON Windows Mobile, THAT might be taken with a odd colored light...
Microsoft actually has Apple programmers on staff, in fact, they've released several iPhone apps, and a slew of Mac based software (and the first ever Microsoft spreadsheet, Multiplan, predecessor to Excel, was for a Mac.) They have a long history of working with apple, not against it, with the exception of the OS market.
I don't know about you, but I actually hope a thief DOES steal my iPhone. 1, I'm covered under my home-owner's insurance (a rider policy actually), so it's not a big deal as long as I file a police report I'm only out nothing ($50 if i don't file a report, like if I accidentally drop it or loose it)... 2) i can track the damned thing REAL easy. A whole lot of dumb crooks that steal phones are simply less crooks on the street, and since it;s very easy to argue that an iPhone is worth in excess of $500 ($600 cost to replace out of contract, or $300 plus contract extension costs to reset to 2 years), it's not simple theft, its a crime punishable in my state for not less than "one year and one day" in prison. please, steal my phone... seriously. I have no problem getting a new one for $0 if its stolen, and would love to see one more dumbass in jail for a year (and you've got to be a special kind of dumbass to steal a device you KNOW has a GPS chip in it).
I think the real "dumbass" missed the purpose of the original post....