Comments on: All 89,000 Microsoft staff getting Windows Phone 7 devices

By: Adam12

Adam12 — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 23:28:29 +0000

17 Million is a tiny drop in an enormous bucket for MS. i doubt there will be any unhappy shareholders.

By: Marc

Marc — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 22:55:31 +0000

MSFT rank and file are familar with competitive phones. In fact, when I worked there my personal iPhone was integrated with corporate email and calendaring.

By: Zandolee

Zandolee — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 22:08:53 +0000

So what will they do with their iPhones???

By: n900mixalot

n900mixalot — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 21:16:06 +0000

I’d gladly take one. Just really can’t justify paying for something that is so readily given away was all I was trying to say.

By: n900mixalot

n900mixalot — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 21:14:49 +0000

89,000 phones times 200 (unrealized revenue for phones that could have been sold) = 17 million dollars that they will have to justify to shareholders.

That sounds like a massive potential shareholder suit because thought it seems like a drop in the bucket, when ya add on a year of service for each of those phones, say 60/month, we are looking at another 64 million dollars.

Where do you credit that on a balance sheet, 81 million as part of R&D or marketing or …

Damn, how did my post get 28 thumbs down? “Most-hated post of the month” eek.

By: Amir Rafieian

Amir Rafieian — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:36:55 +0000

It`s the best way to force people to use a something called smartphone thats only have a beautiful UI but very weak in technical features:

No system-wide file manager
No videocalling
Limited third-party apps availability
No Bluetooth file transfers
No USB mass storage mode
No multitasking
No copy/paste
Too dependent on Zune software for computer file management and syncing
No music player equalisers
No Flash or Silverlight support in the web browser
No sign of free Bing maps Navigation so far
No DivX/XviD video support
No internet tethering support
Memory cards are not natively supported by the OS
New ringtones available only through the Marketplace

@Chris Davies:
Why don`t you write about these thing in your reviews?
It`s another iOS 1 with some optimization,, microsoft thinks we are still in a situation like 2007 that there wasn`t any real competitor and apple sold many many iphones !!!
————
I know most of people who read this comment give me a down thumb but it`s true,,,, sad but true !!

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:39:51 +0000

Google, RIM, and Apple all give their employees their own phones so I don’t see how the give it away to employees implies they won’t buy it. From Steve Jobs jabbering on last week about how terrible Android is, it might not be surprising to hear that Apple wouldn’t pay for a user’s cell plan if it wasn’t an iPhone. It does seem odd that a Microsoft employee would feel compelled to hide the fact they were using the competition.

By: deion

deion — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 14:43:35 +0000

Ahahah Nobody wants to buy it. They have to give it. That’s the only reason lol

By: Dan'l

Dan'l — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 14:14:03 +0000

Ah, possibly I misunderstood: so what’s with the “disguised” comment? Are MS employees getting their phone bill paid by hiding the fact that they’re using an iPhone on AT&T, or are they disguising the fact that they’re bringing an iPhone to work?

In any case, this is an interesting development. I wonder if they have some sort of internal process for taking feedback from their “captive” audience? That would be a pretty big pool of users to survey to find out how they like the UI and so forth… though I suppose you’d have to somehow guarantee anonymity.

By: Chris Davies

Chris Davies — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 14:02:09 +0000

To clarify, we’re talking about people not wanting to use Windows Mobile 6.5 devices, which isn’t really all that surprising. Microsoft wasn’t forbidding anyone from using an iPhone, or a Pre, or anything else; they just wouldn’t pay that person’s phone bill if the handset wasn’t company-supplied. Again, I don’t think that’s particularly unusual.

But yes, I was already planning to keep an eye out for any “huge” sales figures that might involve 100k handsets sold for internal use ;)

By: Dan'l

Dan'l — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:58:47 +0000

Look for M.S. press release crowing about how they “sold” 100,000 of these in the first week. Then look for the fine print that says 89,000 of those were purchased by M.S. employees who were then reimbursed.

Funny how their own phones are so crappy that they have to actively discourage use of competitors’ phones (come on, employees have to DISGUISE their personal, non-M.S. devices? WTF?) and only reimburse employees who buy M.S. phones. Keep in mind that the employees are being reimbursed, so that means that they don’t even want the M.S. phones if they’re free.

Microsoft, if you’re really interested in knowing what people think about your platform, the answer lies in the fact that your own employees prefer other phones and you have to jump through hoops to get them to take yours. That’s a pretty damning statement about your “Desktop on a 3-inch screen” paradigm right there.

By: emathews

emathews — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:36:20 +0000

This really isn’t a big surprise, when Google introduce their first phone, all of their employees received one.

By: Chris Burns

Chris Burns — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:29:15 +0000

Thats’a'lotta phones

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:26:41 +0000

Well my company issued Blackberry’s, sucks, I’d take anything over this Blackberry, even a Windows Mobile 7 phone. I’m still paying to keep my personal Android phone, so now I carry a personal Android phone (great phone, crappy [but cheap] carrier) and I have a crappy Blackberry on a great carrier. Maybe they’ll ditch Blackberry for Windows Mobile 7, I hope so, or better yet, Android.

By: Mack 2.O

Mack 2.O — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:23:35 +0000

Have no fear, 2 days after they give out the phones, there will be 88,000 of them up for auction “cheap” on eBay.

By: js2001

js2001 — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:23:30 +0000

The problem with that is the corrupted patent system. Somebody will get sued very quickly for something even remotely resembling something another company has developed.

By: Chris Davies

Chris Davies — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:19:17 +0000

From what we’ve heard, there isn’t an issue with getting Microsoft staff to use other platforms – in fact, the problem has generally been getting them to bother with Microsoft’s own!

By: Chris Davies

Chris Davies — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:18:31 +0000

To be fair, it’s not unusual for companies to provide their staff with cellphones and pay for the service. It’s also probably beneficial for the end-user (i.e. you and me) if more Microsofties are using WP7 – feeling invested in a platform is what encourages you to make suggestions, improvements and generally support something rather than secretly use the competition’s products.

I agree that there are questions about recycling, but I don’t think that’s just an issue Microsoft has to address. Plus, I think if they as a company collected in old handsets, they’d probably be more likely to recycle them than the equivalent number of regular, individual end-users.

By: 11786time

11786time — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:13:07 +0000

Maybe Microsoft should encourage a certain portion of its workforce to use Android devices or iPhones as well. This kind of institutional incest stifled innovation in the US auto industry for generations. Getting a user’s perspective on “the competition” not only allows developers to experience other good ideas, but maybe more importantly it lets them see where improvements can be made…Android and iPhone have gained a lot of ground not just with innovative interfaces, but because they have overcome many routine frustrations experienced with legacy Windows Mobile and Palm. MS should actively seek and target the shortfalls that still exist in the more popular devices.

By: bmovie

bmovie — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:06:29 +0000

A joke several years ago when New York City was in the dumps was:

You’ve just won our contest!!!

First prize is a week in New York.

Second prize is two weeks in New York!!!

By: n900mixalot

n900mixalot — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 12:37:05 +0000

That strikes me as a little bit weird and annoying. Why should I pay for one while MS is giving them away left and right?

Kinda burns me a little. 89,000 phones, plus the 1,000 to devs, plus countless others for that competition they had …

And what about the shortage of materials for these things, or the phones people previosly had? Landfill? Swirling out in the pacific?

I’m sure there’s more but something about this seems wrong.

Yeah, yeah, they are MS and can do whatever they want, I already know, but how is it a good idea? Sounds desperate.