Considering there’s no love lost between Microsoft and Apple when it comes to rivalry in the tech sector, it may come as a surprise to learn that around one in every 10 Microsoft employees is secretly using Apple’s trend-setting iPhone as opposed to a Windows-powered handset.
This thing is aweseome... but don\'t tell that Ballmer guy. Image: Jim Gehrz/Star Tribune/ZUMA Press.
At least, that’s the view of two unnamed Microsoft workers that recently told The Wall Street Journal they were privy to information from senior executives describing how almost 10,000 Microsoft employees used the iPhone to access company e-mail accounts during 2009.
And if Steve Ballmer’s viewpoint with regard to employee loyalty is anything to go by, running the risk of carrying an iPhone (or any rival device) into Microsoft’s Redmond-based headquarters is probably not a good idea.
Moreover, the article explains that Ballmer is a traditionalist of the belief that Microsoft employees should use Microsoft phones – noting that when his father worked for Ford in Detroit, the entire Ballmer family drove only Ford automobiles.
“Maybe once a year I’m in a meeting with Steve Ballmer,” outlined one iPhone-favouring Microsoft employee in the WSJ article. “It doesn’t matter who’s calling, I’m not answering my phone.”
According to the report, the rank and file population at Microsoft’s Redmond campus openly use their iPhone or BlackBerry handsets, but are quick to secret them about their person should they be in close proximity to a senior executive – even hiding Apple’s iconic design within generic phone cases.
Despite use of rival products apparently being frowned upon by the American software titan, Microsoft has in the past suggested its workers often use a competitor’s product in order to better understand the competition. Hmm.
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