Microsoft rumored to stop funding employee purchases of Apple's iPads, Macs

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014


An e-mail claimed to be sent to Microsoft's employees states that they will no longer be able to use company funds to buy Apple's iPads or Macs.



The alleged internal company e-mail, provided to Mary-Jo Foley of ZDNet, claims to come from Alain Crozier, Chief Financial officer of Microsoft's Worldwide Sales, Marketing & Services Group. SMSG represents 46,000 worldwide employees at Microsoft who handle consumer and business sales, along with service and support.



"Within SMSG we are putting in place a new policy that says Apple products (Mac & iPad) should not be purchased with company funds," the purported e-mail says. "In the US we will be turning off the Apple products from the Zones Catalog next week, which is the standard purchasing mechanism for these products."



The note goes on to claim that purchase levels of Macs and iPads with company funds are "low," partially justifying their elimination. Foley reached out to Microsoft for comment, but the company declined.



If the changes are true, it would be an extension of a policy toward the iPhone that Microsoft has held since 2009. That year, Microsoft executives modified their corporate policy to only reimburse service fees for employees using handsets that run the Windows Phone mobile operating system.



Still, one report from 2010 said that about 10 percent of Microsoft employees at the time were iPhone users. Since then, Apple's presence in the smartphone market has only grown, while Windows Phone 7 has struggled to compete with the iPhone and handsets based on Google's Android mobile operating system.





Microsoft SMSG CFO Alain Crozier.







While Windows Phone has tumbled in the smartphone market, Windows on the desktop has remained dominant, even as Apple's Mac platform has outgrown the PC market for years. But Windows faces a new threat with the iPad, as continued growth has led analysts, along with Apple executives, to believe the tablet market will become significantly larger than the PC market.



Microsoft hopes to counter the success of the iPad with its forthcoming Windows 8 operating system, which will offer compatibility with traditional PC form factors as well as touchscreen tablets. The first Windows 8-based tablets are expected to hit the market this October.



[ View article on AppleInsider ]

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 84
    hittrj01hittrj01 Posts: 753member
    I'm not sure why they were funding them anyway. I highly doubt Apple funds the purchase of Dells or Toshibas or Android or Windows Phones for their employees (not that their employees would choose to purchase those products, but still).
  • Reply 2 of 84
    umrk_labumrk_lab Posts: 550member
    Apple is doomed !
  • Reply 2 of 84
    stelligentstelligent Posts: 2,680member
    In retaliation, Apple will now stop reimbursing its employees for buying Windows computers. Tim Cook announced yesterday that the savings would allow Apple to buy back an additional 10 shares.



    Microsoft also announced that their savings would enable to buy shares - Apple shares.
  • Reply 4 of 84
    jd_in_sbjd_in_sb Posts: 1,600member
    What is Apple's policy regarding employee reimbursement for phones and computers?
  • Reply 5 of 84
    What will MS do with all the cash they save,



    A, Invest in security



    B, Invest in Windows Phone



    C, Invest in Tables



    D, None of the Above



    It's funny how even MS uses apple because it just works, and it's cool
  • Reply 6 of 84
    If you intend to be the state of the art, shouldn't you know what the state is? This is like trying to invent a car without knowing what a wheel is.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    An e-mail claimed to be sent to Microsoft's employees states that they will no longer be able to use company funds to buy Apple's iPads or Macs.



  • Reply 7 of 84
    Not a big deal. No reason why they should fund competitors.
  • Reply 8 of 84
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Microsoft apparently doesn't want their employees to be productive or to use the most cutting edge products in the world.



    There's a big difference between somebody at Microsoft using Apple and somebody at Apple using something else. If somebody at Microsoft wants an iPad, that's totally understandable, as the iPad is the premier tablet in the entire world, bar none. If somebody at Microsoft wants an awesome laptop, then Apple is the obvious choice.



    If somebody at Apple wishes to use something else, then that is not understandable, and the employee should be required to undergo a psychological evaluation and possible drug treatment to cure them of their illness. If any Apple employee had an Android phone in their pocket, they should immediately be fired, as that is blasphemy and such people should not work for Apple.
  • Reply 9 of 84
    jumperjumper Posts: 34member
    This morning after reading this story I sold my 138 shares of MS. If MS thinks this is how they are going to beat Apple then I dont want any part of it. I always told my employees that they should use whatever they wanted to beat the competition, just beat them. This just goes to show how bad the management at MS is.
  • Reply 10 of 84
    I suppose with more and more (of their own) people preferring Apple products they need all the help they can get.
  • Reply 11 of 84
    But Mr. Crozier, what if I want to run Windows 8 on my MacBook Pro? After all, we don't make PC hardware, do we?
  • Reply 12 of 84
    kent909kent909 Posts: 731member
    Leave it to a CFO to think this will do anything. What is the point of this?



    Will this make a significant addition to the bottom line?

    Will this finally get the stock price to move upward?

    Will this help solve the unemployment problem in the Seattle area?

    Will this make the equivalent Windows products more successful?

    The answer to all these is no.

    Will it get Alain Crozier a bonus this year? Probably!

  • Reply 13 of 84
    And Apple will stop funding Zunes and such...oh wait...
  • Reply 14 of 84
    dmarcootdmarcoot Posts: 191member
    This is stupid and petty and probably reflects a poor understanding of operations. Any Apple products purchased for MS were bought for a reason. They needed to use them for some development purpose. The fact the levels of these purchases are "low" and that is the justification for it re-enforces my opinion.



    Does anyone doubt Apple has at very least copies of Windows handy for Bootcamp use if not full blown Dells for doing development for Safari, iTunes or for Jonny Ive's team for running CAD or fabrication applications where these is no Mac equivalent?
  • Reply 15 of 84
    jfc1138jfc1138 Posts: 3,090member
    Because they've got an entire division doing MAC software so it's not possible the OFFice for Mac group is being barred from purchasing the applicable hardware.
  • Reply 16 of 84
    I wonder if this also applies to the reverse engineering group that buys apple products just so they can dissect them and feed their R&D ideas
  • Reply 17 of 84
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member
    I guess this means Microsoft can continue it's slide into irrelevance since their employees won't know what they ought to be competing with. Just apply the blinders and ignore the death march. I personally won't miss 'em, would you?
  • Reply 18 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Granmastak View Post


    I wonder if this also applies to the reverse engineering group that buys apple products just so they can dissect them and feed their R&D ideas



    Nah. different department
  • Reply 19 of 84
    About a year ago, while out on a photography shoot here in Seattle, I met a guy who was using a Windows Phone device. It was the first time I'd ever seen one, so I asked him about it. He said he hated it and wanted his iPhone back but that his wife worked for Microsoft and they had recently changed their policy to no longer subsidize the wireless bills of employees using iPhones (apparently BlackBerry and other devices were okay; it was strictly Apple devices that were no longer allowed).



    All I could think at the time was, "gee, our products are so meh that in order to get our own employees to use them we have to provide a financial disincentive to use anything else?"
  • Reply 20 of 84
    jasenj1jasenj1 Posts: 923member
    Microsoft needs to remember they are a SOFTWARE company. Software - that runs on hardware. As in applications (oh, and they make a couple OSes, too). MS should be writing apps and games for iOS and Mac (and Android, if there's any profit). Yes, Apple happens to compete with MS in the OS space, but MS should be happy Apple has millions of devices out there MS can put apps on.



    And now that Apple hardware will run MS's OS, MS should be encouraging people to put Windows on Macs.



    Apple is not a competitor. Apple is a platform MS can put their wares on.



    - Jasen.
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