You make it sound like they'll be fired if they don't use their new phones.
I feel 99% confident that won't be the case. I'll give you an anecdote: Google employees got G1's on launch day and I know that my buddy gave his to his wife (a non-google employee). He's still happily employed.
It's an exaggeration. I seriously doubt Microsoft would fire their employees for not using Microsoft technology, but I would also see the phones as serious dog-fooding. Microsoft needs to know what's wrong with windows mobile that makes nobody want it and it's obvious whatever they had been doing prior to w7p wasn't working at all. What w7p will become is unknown and its success is far from sure. It's more likely market share will keep eroding, undermining their desktop market share even further.
Its quite common where I work (Australia) for people to carry two phones: a work-supplied phone (often a Blackberry or cheap Nokia) and a personal phone (often an iPhone).
I would not say that was common at all. Working in several large offices, I have never seen this. I have seen people diverting their home/office number to the other device. I am the only person I know who carries around more than one phone, and people to look at me weird.
That's very common where I work as well (Denver, Co,USA). Many of my co-workers (I work in IT), carry a work Blackberry and some kind of personal phone.
I don't know anyone on my 115 person team who isn't at least excited to give it a shot and see if it's better, including the more ardent iPhone fans among us, of which I count myself as one.
Sorry for the generalization. Among the 10 Microsoft employees I know, 9 of them have iPhones. I was pondering what their behavior might be in this scenario. Given a free brand new phone would they stop using their current iPhone 4 in favor of this new device. (Because I know they don't use their free Zunes.) That outcome could speak to the overall potential success of the phone.
Guess the question is "why?" Is Microsoft trying to re-invent themselves as a phone company? Shouldn't they make sure the phone isn't a flop before doing something like this? Does apple give out iphones? I know Nokia and RIM do (they are phone companies). Giving out 90,000 phones is a chunk of change even for Microsoft. Does MS currently give out phones to everyone? If so then switching to MS phones makes sense.
I also think every Apple employee was given phones, but I am not sure, where I have worked for Nokia and currently work for RIM so I know that they give phones to their employees. I would rather frame it as a question than say it as a truth.
Microsoft is going to land the Windows Phone 7 in a very big way, giving a phone to every employee is just another way they are showing us (their employees) that they were serious about it.
Microsoft does not currently give out phones to everyone, as far as I know, this is the first time they've done so.
I've used a Windows Phone 7 prototype for several days - the phone will not be a flop.
Question: You have just suffered the embarrasement of a incredibly low uptake for a phone (the kin), how do you ensure to get at least 90,000 users straight away?
Answer: Give every employee said phone.
If they want more developers, they are better of offering competitions to attract developers. They are already talking to popular iphone developers apparently.
Why do so many Microsoft tactics (paying for bing users, approaching iphone developers, giving away phones) seem so desperate and tacky?
We knew that the Kin was a mistake before it was launched. I have no idea why it was launched. The Kin is to a Windows Phone 7 as the ROKR was to the iPhone.
You people at Microsoft seem to enjoy making really bad comparisons.
The Kin was based on the same kernel as Windows 7 phones (Windows Mobile 6.5), has a lot of the same cloud strategies as each other, and social media integration. The ROKR was a phone built by Motorola, that happend to integrate with itunes and playback media that you had already bought. It was a standard Motorola phone (E398) that they happened to paint white and add in some software to work with itunes.
Also, the kin was a nice idea, that price itself out of the market. It is exactly the phone my nieces and nephews would love to have, and had great online integration.
I welcome finding out more about the Windows 7 phone, but think it is too little, too late.
I don't think anybody who works at Microsoft should be allowed to make any comparisons anymore, you just don't seem to grasp the concept.
I apologize for the bad comparison, doing so is not something I enjoy, like flossing cats.
I shouldn't have used the crutch of analogy and should have spent more time writing a thoughtful reply, like you did.
I when I joined Microsoft late last year, it seemed to me that everyone I talked to knew that the Kin was going to be dead on arrival. It was well known that the team working on the phone was discouraged and that the phone was going to be nothing like the one they set out to build.
People didn't like the Kin, but they all seemed to make the excuse that they weren't in the target demograph for the phone.
To be honest, I think you are being overly generous in your comments about the Kin.
What I'm trying to say is that the Kin had almost nothing in common with the Windows Phone. But I think you get that.
Except it does have a lot in common with the Windows Phone, as I already said, plus a lot more.
Sure, the 7 phone has a different UI, and apps you can download, and higher specs for the phone. I can't think of much else that is different.
Do you guys really think that people are excited about Windows 7, much more than they were excited about the kin? At least the kin had its special niche, W7 phone is trying to take on giants like the iPhone, Android, whatever Nokia can pull out, revitablised Palm, Blackberry.
Different UI, apps you can download, higher specs for hardware.
What else is left? Oh wait, they're both phones!
The gp was pointing out that for consumers, for service providers and for MS marketing, these are totally unrelated devices. My bet is also that the manufacturing supply chains weren't very similar either.
The mere fact that it has a CE kernel isn't visible to anyone except the people who built parts of the Kin interface (and in any case the kernel was probably customised for the Kin).
What an interesting lens you see the world through. Was it desperate and tacky when Apple gave all their employees free iPhones, or was that a magical maneuver by Steve Jobs?
Maybe the world is somewhere in between. Maybe it's a good thing for an employer to do: makes employees happy, gets a large user and developer base right out the gate, employees are more likely to evangelize a product and give it a shot than the average consumer, etc.
It'd be tacky if Microsoft was requiring or even pressuring employees to buy Windows 7 phones. Giving them away seems like a pretty nice perk for employess, and a good opportunity for MS to "eat their own dog food". If every employee has one, campus gossip should give you a pretty good idea what stuff users really like and what stuff they don't.
The Windows 7 phone so far looks like something that might be able to do well in the market. As an Android and iPhone user, I can say it definitely has more visual appeal than the former. It also appears to run more smoothly and have a better media experience. Now, is it going to be as useful overall? That remains to be seen. Getting Trident's HTML5 support to a better place than it is now is going to be a critical step on that path.
As long as IE can perform well and implements modern features expected of mobile browsers I'm all for the competition. If we can say anything definitive about browsers it's that competition and multiple popular implementations is a good thing.
I like WebKit as much as the next guy and the idea of deploying to a single rendering engine (on mobile) is nice. The ecosystem is more important though.
I don't understand the point of launching something that is inferior to the other things that are already out there. It's one thing if there is no competition, but if there's already stiff competition my instinct is to wait until the product is 100% ready so you minimize your attrition from people who switch then realize they made a mistake.
Good move. With 90K users, Microsoft can test units as well as the Operating System itself. And if WM7 is good, they'll start developing for it (since the learning curve is short, now, that you can use .Net for Mobile)
The most interesting thing with this article and the discussion is the up/down-voting. Here is a (half joking) idea for a startup:
Automatic "correct" voting from employees on discussion web sites.
Two plugins.
In the first, an administrator marks a comment and say +/- 10, or something similar.
The second plugin is run by employees. When the employee opens a page with discussion, it checks if there are votes to be done and automatically votes. (Optionally, if the employee follows the web site, it could open a page automatically.)
Who voted are (optionally) kept secret from the company management, in the interest of employee integrity.
50 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 114 ms ] threadAs someone who lives in Seattle and knows a lot of people at Microsoft it'll be interesting to see if they give up their iPhones so easily.
It's a choice between their jobs at Microsoft and their phones. I'd keep the phone.
I feel 99% confident that won't be the case. I'll give you an anecdote: Google employees got G1's on launch day and I know that my buddy gave his to his wife (a non-google employee). He's still happily employed.
I think every apple employee including store employees were given the first iphone.
Microsoft does not currently give out phones to everyone, as far as I know, this is the first time they've done so.
I've used a Windows Phone 7 prototype for several days - the phone will not be a flop.
Answer: Give every employee said phone.
Answer: Give every employee said phone.
If they want more developers, they are better of offering competitions to attract developers. They are already talking to popular iphone developers apparently.
Why do so many Microsoft tactics (paying for bing users, approaching iphone developers, giving away phones) seem so desperate and tacky?
The Kin was based on the same kernel as Windows 7 phones (Windows Mobile 6.5), has a lot of the same cloud strategies as each other, and social media integration. The ROKR was a phone built by Motorola, that happend to integrate with itunes and playback media that you had already bought. It was a standard Motorola phone (E398) that they happened to paint white and add in some software to work with itunes.
Also, the kin was a nice idea, that price itself out of the market. It is exactly the phone my nieces and nephews would love to have, and had great online integration.
I welcome finding out more about the Windows 7 phone, but think it is too little, too late.
I don't think anybody who works at Microsoft should be allowed to make any comparisons anymore, you just don't seem to grasp the concept.
I shouldn't have used the crutch of analogy and should have spent more time writing a thoughtful reply, like you did.
I when I joined Microsoft late last year, it seemed to me that everyone I talked to knew that the Kin was going to be dead on arrival. It was well known that the team working on the phone was discouraged and that the phone was going to be nothing like the one they set out to build.
People didn't like the Kin, but they all seemed to make the excuse that they weren't in the target demograph for the phone.
To be honest, I think you are being overly generous in your comments about the Kin.
What I'm trying to say is that the Kin had almost nothing in common with the Windows Phone. But I think you get that.
Sure, the 7 phone has a different UI, and apps you can download, and higher specs for the phone. I can't think of much else that is different.
Do you guys really think that people are excited about Windows 7, much more than they were excited about the kin? At least the kin had its special niche, W7 phone is trying to take on giants like the iPhone, Android, whatever Nokia can pull out, revitablised Palm, Blackberry.
What else is left? Oh wait, they're both phones!
The gp was pointing out that for consumers, for service providers and for MS marketing, these are totally unrelated devices. My bet is also that the manufacturing supply chains weren't very similar either.
The mere fact that it has a CE kernel isn't visible to anyone except the people who built parts of the Kin interface (and in any case the kernel was probably customised for the Kin).
You're right, they are both phones. Anything else?
Maybe the world is somewhere in between. Maybe it's a good thing for an employer to do: makes employees happy, gets a large user and developer base right out the gate, employees are more likely to evangelize a product and give it a shot than the average consumer, etc.
It'd be tacky if Microsoft was requiring or even pressuring employees to buy Windows 7 phones. Giving them away seems like a pretty nice perk for employess, and a good opportunity for MS to "eat their own dog food". If every employee has one, campus gossip should give you a pretty good idea what stuff users really like and what stuff they don't.
I remember again, some time back, when Google gave free phones to their employees. I was green with envy, for I was not a Googler.
Now, Microsoft is giving free Windows 7 phones to Microsofties. I couldn't care less.
The Windows 7 phone so far looks like something that might be able to do well in the market. As an Android and iPhone user, I can say it definitely has more visual appeal than the former. It also appears to run more smoothly and have a better media experience. Now, is it going to be as useful overall? That remains to be seen. Getting Trident's HTML5 support to a better place than it is now is going to be a critical step on that path.
I like WebKit as much as the next guy and the idea of deploying to a single rendering engine (on mobile) is nice. The ecosystem is more important though.
This isn't a joke either. I saw him about 6 months ago and he was raving about the thing. He said, "Microsoft could never have made this."
Automatic "correct" voting from employees on discussion web sites.
Two plugins.
In the first, an administrator marks a comment and say +/- 10, or something similar.
The second plugin is run by employees. When the employee opens a page with discussion, it checks if there are votes to be done and automatically votes. (Optionally, if the employee follows the web site, it could open a page automatically.)
Who voted are (optionally) kept secret from the company management, in the interest of employee integrity.
Thanks for info -- but please don't make me more cynical. :-)