Forbidden Fruit: Microsoft Workers Hide Their iPhones

[SecularMotion]

REDMOND, Wash.—Microsoft Corp. employees are passionate users of the latest tech toys. But there is one gadget love that many at the company dare not name: the iPhone.

The iPhone is made, of course, by Microsoft's longtime rival, Apple Inc. 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. What is especially painful is that many of Microsoft's own employees are nuts for the device.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703455804575057651922457356.html

[sakabatou]

1. Heheh

Even their employees know a better product than Windows can make.

[Wapsie B]

2. Well I for one am sick and tired of a phone with Windows Mobil

and the inherent lock-ups and bugs that go with Windows products available to the general public. Don't know if I'd ever want an iPhone or not. Blackberry on the other hand has caught my eye. But more to the point in this day and age where a Coca Cola employee can be axed for drinking a Pepsi at work why in the world would a Microsoft worker bring an Apple product on the premises? Not too bright in my estimation.

[guitar man]

3. I love my iphone

10 years ago if anybody told me I'd have a phone with a Hammond B3 organ on it I would have told them they here nuts. :P

[crikkett]

4. what you have is a phone with a digital model

of a Hammond B3 organ on it.

:)

[guitar man]

5. yes, of course

If the actual B3 was sitting on it, it would be a goner :P

I used to help my keyboard player drag one around back in the day...what a backbreaker :(

[Motown_Johnny]

6. ROFL... I had a similar experience last summer

one of our customers is affiliated with "Monster" energy drink and someone I work with walked up drinking a "Red Bull". (the specifics are not important)


Luckily I was able to just walk away but the good natured ribbing that followed was a little embarrassing

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. I wonder if that applies to Android phones too. -nt

[Xithras]

8. Microsoft actually has a pretty good new phone OS coming out.

They've finally admitted defeat in their battle to move the Windows UI into the phone realm and redesigned the new Mobile 7 to have a completely new interface. Since the unveiling, most of the tech sites have responded with a collective "Holy crap!" because it's not only the sleekest UI MS has ever developed for any platform, but because it was totally unexpected...nobody had any idea that MS was even working on a replacement for Windows Mobile. This isn't an upgrade, but a ground up replacement of the entire OS.

I saw a developer interview with one of the new OS designers a few weeks ago, and he said that much of the motivation for the re-imagining of the Windows Mobile OS was the sudden avalanche of iPhones that started showing up in their Redmond offices. He said that they had Windows mobile DEVELOPERS, and even company executives, who were showing up to work with iPhones in their pocket, and that realization made them pause and rethink what they were doing. Ballmer pulled a bunch of developers from the Zune division (which has an awesome UI, in spite of being a mediocre media player in all other regards), and had them form the core of a new phone OS development group. That group was given simple marching orders...forget about backwards compatability and anything they had done before. He asked them to design a completely new type of communications device that would merge all current private and social forms of communication into a single handset.

I've seen several videos and reviews of the OS now, and I thought it looked pretty good. Good enough to swap my Android phone for? No, but certainly good enough to have given me pause if I were buying my first smart phone today.

[LeftHander]

9. iWipe

I waited. Until it brought all the mobile and handheld utility devices I wanted in one device.

The Goddamn thing does everything except wipe your ass!!!