Microsoft workers hiding their love for the iPhone

Y'all make way to big a deal out of it. I've worked at Microsoft for 16 years. I don't have an iPhone but I regularly use an iPod Touch. Even at work. It's a great MID. I have to admit that I use a Zune for pure music though. The Zune software rocks. Literally and figuratively.

I have a 24 inch iMac sitting on a table in my office. Usually it runs Boot Camp'ed Windows 7 but I leave it in Mac OS often enough. I obviously could not get my job done without Windows. As a second machine I find the Mac extends my workflow nicely. I get occasional comments about it. Most folks are curious. No one has been militant though.

From what I've seen, I'd bet more than 10% of Microsoft employees use iPhones. Maybe as high as 25%. Some folks hide them but they are in the minority.

Steve Ballmer isn't represented very accurately in the press. From what I've seen he's more of a cheerleader for Microsoft products than an unfeeling curmudgeon. I haven't seen him seriously use intimidation at all. He is somewhat playful. I have seen him jokingly do so. I have heard the stories that you all have, I just haven't ever seen him act out poorly in person.

I respect the guy. I don't give up respect freely either. The thing Steve is very good at is sizing up and playing to his audience. What seems odd on video or in a textual description of his antics after the fact, from my observation, is a very different experience than when you're in the room. In person he's an extremely effective communicator. I have to give the man credit where it's due.

Good to use a competitor's product to LEARN from it.

I call shenanigans on the idea that many Apple employees use an iPhone at work. Here are two reasons why:

1) The number of times everyone at a conference table has reached for his or her iPhone when someone got an e-mail would be maddening.
2) The number of times everyone at a conference table has reached for his or her iPhone when someone got an e-mail would be maddening.

Do non-Apple smart phones allow the user to change the incoming e-mail notification sound?

The only reason that some of us have to use Windows in the work place is because our employer does not offer us a choice. My employer prevents me and other Mac users from receiving the company WiFi because the accept button on the log on page will not work in Safari. I update my iPod Touch through our neighbor's free Wifi. In this economy a job is still a job.

// Uncomfortable silence in the room for a moment while Jason gets a hold of himself.

Ballmer's family drove Fords because as a Ford employee his father got a hefty employee discount. Not so for Microsoft employees, there is no equivalent to the GM "Class A" discount my dad (and by extension, I) used to get when he worked there.

When I was at MSFT, I paid retail for WinMo phones just like everyone else. My wife was still there when the iPhone came out, and we voted with our wallets: ditched the WinMo phones and bought what we thought was the better choice.

I really never understood how Apple and Microsoft are truly competitors, especially today. Apple makes mostly hardware, which can also run Windows. If people buy a PC with Windows, Microsoft wins. If people buy a Mac, and buy Windows to run on it, Microsoft wins.

I think Apple and HP, or Apple and Dell are more direct competitors than Apple and Microsoft. I really don't see how Microsoft is all that threatened by Apple. Especially when most of Microsoft's revenue comes from the business sector, and Apple has very little market share in business computing.

Steve Ballmer needs to stop being so paranoid and get back to running his company. Every time he disses Apple he just makes HIMSELF look like an idiot. The best strategy would be to compliment Apple on something they do well, point out a few things that Microsoft does better, and move on. Instead, he acts like iPhones are some terrible contraption that will never amount to anything, and he just looks clueless.

I guess I don't see what the big deal is. This could be spun to say, "At least 90% of employees at Microsoft have rejected the iPhone". 10% isn't that big of a number.

The iPhone is a unique phone that is just now starting to get some real competition. It makes sense that some Microsoft employees would want to own one. I just think this would be a more "shocking" bit of information if it was 50%. But 10%? Meh.

Seriously?

Seriously?

THIS IS AN APPLE NEWS SITE. The reason Windows Phone 7 even came up was because the subject of contention of APPLE iPhone usage inside Microsoft came up, and the subjects were related...

WHAT A SURPRISE that they haven't covered Windows Phone 7! Why would they? So they can unabashedly sideline it saying "Just Buy an iPhone"?

That's clearly what you guys think they should do.
Except they haven't.
And they shouldn't.

What a freaking joke.

LOL @ using the term "frothing adulation" on an Apple themed blog.

Cuz you guys have never done that right?