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

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Comments

  • Reply 61 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mightymike View Post


    Microsoft's best product was Windows XP.





    You must be joking. XP was crap, ugly slow unreliable and insecure. Win 7 is far better than XP. I still hate Windows but 7 is so much better than XP ever was.
  • Reply 62 of 84
    tooltalktooltalk Posts: 766member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pauldfullerton View Post


    Maybe Microsoft's so-called 'R&D' department now have enough iPhones, iPads and Macs to start their reverse engineering work. :-)



    why? just go to Samsung and Sharp and ask them how they did it. (cough)



    At least Microsoft won't pretend it invented (or innovated) everything.



    I don't think you can reverse engineer Apple's marketing innovation.
  • Reply 63 of 84
    Not sure why they would single out the Apple products. On some level, everyone is a competitor to Microsoft. Ten years ago, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs buried the hatchet between them, but neither men work at their respective companies now. Is this Ballmer's way of unburying the hatchet?
  • Reply 64 of 84
    tooltalktooltalk Posts: 766member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ronbo View Post


    But seriously, people. It's their sales & marketing division. I love my Mac, but I think it's legitimate for MS to say that it looks bad if their own marketing people are using Macs.



    Microsoft's promise to continue MS Office for Mac saved Apple back in the late 90's when Jobs returned, so why would Apple be so against MS Office? It's not like there's an alternative to MS Office on Macs.
  • Reply 65 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hittrj01 View Post


    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).



    Apple needs to offer an "Employee Discount" to Microsoft employees that matches what an Apple employee gets... then in a year from now announce how overwhelmingly Microsoft employees buy Macs and iPads compared to Windows8 crapola.



    There's nothing like driving your competitor's management a little crazy in the head.
  • Reply 66 of 84
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tooltalk View Post


    Microsoft's promise to continue MS Office for Mac saved Apple back in the late 90's when Jobs returned, so why would Apple be so against MS Office? It's not like there's an alternative to MS Office on Macs.



    That's not true. There are quite a few alternatives to MS Office for Macs. None of them are 100% transparent drop-in replacements, but there are plenty of alternatives. Start with OpenOffice and iWork, for example.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    Not sure why they would single out the Apple products. On some level, everyone is a competitor to Microsoft. Ten years ago, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs buried the hatchet between them, but neither men work at their respective companies now. Is this Ballmer's way of unburying the hatchet?



    Actually, since Microsoft makes more money on Macs than on PCs, they shouldn't be all that worried about Macs. They should really be going after Google. Block Google IP addresses at their firewalls, for example.
  • Reply 67 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    Not sure why they would single out the Apple products. On some level, everyone is a competitor to Microsoft. Ten years ago, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs buried the hatchet between them, but neither men work at their respective companies now. Is this Ballmer's way of unburying the hatchet?



    I doubt any hatchets are being unburyed... Ballmer wants Microsoft employees to use WIN8 products and by stopping the purchases of Apple iPads now, his employees will be ready to jump on the WIN8 tablets when they become available 7 to 12 months from now. It is also possible that MS employees will get a free tablet from the company when they are available, similar to what MS did when the WinMo7 phones were available. It just makes good sense.



    I'm not sure why the Macs are being blocked since MS makes products for Macs and will need to test them at some point. Also the SDK for iOS devices runs on Macs and if MS is going to make MS Office for the iOS devices they will needs Macs again there too.
  • Reply 68 of 84
    I wonder how many of those employees will just accept the company subsidy for the purchase of a Windows computer and then put Linux on them. There are enough office solutions on that platform to replace Windows 7.



    My Windows OS has frozen more times than my Linux OS on the same computer. It was my total frustration and extreme anger at Windows that got me to switch to Linux. I now like Linux so much that I will immediately put it on my next laptop computer. Eventually I'll have iOS and Linux only. I won't need a Mac in a year or two because iOS is evolving very quickly into a very productivity oriented OS.
  • Reply 69 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    That's not true. There are quite a few alternatives to MS Office for Macs. None of them are 100% transparent drop-in replacements, but there are plenty of alternatives. Start with OpenOffice and iWork, for example.



    I own a small business, so there's no big IT issue involved, however if I create a document here, I need to know my customers (whatever kind of computer they use) will be able to open my documents and they will look EXACTLY like I created them... So I use Macs running MS Office, and using the MS font sets and everything is fine and dandy.



    While using MS Office I can also be confident anyone I bring into my organization is highly likely to be able to use our pre-made templates and operate their own laptop programs without me teaching them word processing and spreadsheet programs.



    Finally, I'm very prone to not use any program that cannot run on both Macs and Windows computers. Translation programs are not reliable and it takes extra time and fussing around to have to go through that. MS Word and Excel are two programs I would buy when they come available on the iPad. If they don't, I'd still buy only an iPad, but the lack of those programs would be felt by me, and may stop some companies from buying an Apple iPad instead of a WIN8 tablet.
  • Reply 70 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Smallwheels View Post


    I wonder how many of those employees will just accept the company subsidy for the purchase of a Windows computer and then put Linux on them. There are enough office solutions on that platform to replace Windows 7.



    My Windows OS has frozen more times than my Linux OS on the same computer. It was my total frustration and extreme anger at Windows that got me to switch to Linux. I now like Linux so much that I will immediately put it on my next laptop computer. Eventually I'll have iOS and Linux only. I won't need a Mac in a year or two because iOS is evolving very quickly into a very productivity oriented OS.



    By late summer Mountain Lion will be more like iOS then it is now, so you may think in terms of the UI and how similar Apple computers and Apple devices feel to the user.
  • Reply 71 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by openminded View Post


    Why wouldn't their employees choose to buy Android or Windows Phone? Steve Wozniak sure did and he CO-FOUNDED the damn company lol.



    The WOZ is very smart, but he's never been accused of being wise.
  • Reply 72 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    Want to bet?



    I would be willing to bet that a lot of Apple employees use Office. In fact, I've received .docx files from some of them, so it's more than likely.



    Maybe, but I doubt that Apple would want their employees using MS products when they have their own in-house software available (Pages, Numbers, etc.). I know you can save files as a Word doc in Pages, though I'm not sure if it can specifically do .docx though.
  • Reply 73 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    Not sure why they would single out the Apple products. On some level, everyone is a competitor to Microsoft. Ten years ago, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs buried the hatchet between them, but neither men work at their respective companies now. Is this Ballmer's way of unburying the hatchet?



    I'd say they have Quebec Canadian syndrome where you can use any language on your store sign except English. Others are not a threat, where apple is. . It probably does not reflect well on them if their sales force visits clients holding iPads and iPhones. It's obvious they are threatened by apples products especially when they are competing in the same market
  • Reply 74 of 84
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Macky the Macky View Post


    I own a small business, so there's no big IT issue involved, however if I create a document here, I need to know my customers (whatever kind of computer they use) will be able to open my documents and they will look EXACTLY like I created them... So I use Macs running MS Office, and using the MS font sets and everything is fine and dandy.



    While using MS Office I can also be confident anyone I bring into my organization is highly likely to be able to use our pre-made templates and operate their own laptop programs without me teaching them word processing and spreadsheet programs.



    Finally, I'm very prone to not use any program that cannot run on both Macs and Windows computers. Translation programs are not reliable and it takes extra time and fussing around to have to go through that. MS Word and Excel are two programs I would buy when they come available on the iPad. If they don't, I'd still buy only an iPad, but the lack of those programs would be felt by me, and may stop some companies from buying an Apple iPad instead of a WIN8 tablet.



    There's some truth to all of that. But the original statement was that there was no alternative to MS Office for the Mac. That's a false statement - there are alternatives, even if they have weaknesses.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Freshmaker View Post


    Maybe, but I doubt that Apple would want their employees using MS products when they have their own in-house software available (Pages, Numbers, etc.). I know you can save files as a Word doc in Pages, though I'm not sure if it can specifically do .docx though.



    I know for a fact that Apple employees use Office. OTOH, you have a blind bias and some fantastic belief that they don't - with no evidence at all.



    Who to believe?
  • Reply 75 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Macky the Macky View Post


    I doubt any hatchets are being unburyed... Ballmer wants Microsoft employees to use WIN8 products and by stopping the purchases of Apple iPads now, his employees will be ready to jump on the WIN8 tablets when they become available 7 to 12 months from now. It is also possible that MS employees will get a free tablet from the company when they are available, similar to what MS did when the WinMo7 phones were available. It just makes good sense.



    I'm not sure why the Macs are being blocked since MS makes products for Macs and will need to test them at some point. Also the SDK for iOS devices runs on Macs and if MS is going to make MS Office for the iOS devices they will needs Macs again there too.



    Once upon a time, Microsoft actually provided specially configured PowerMac G5's to early Xbox 360 developers to test their games, like early builds of Halo 2, because the Xbox used a version of the PowerPC CPUs. Those were the days when Microsoft wasn't desperate to keep its market share from slipping further.
  • Reply 76 of 84
    Microsoft really needs to give it's workers huge discounts on that gorgeous top-end Nokia - you know the one that's shaped like an iPod Nano. And Nokia should come up with a tablet that's Newton sized or bigger.



    Have their employees use them every day, so they can make them better and more focused than Android. \
  • Reply 77 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jumper View Post


    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.



    Agreed. You can't pretend the competition doesn't exist and live in a bubble. If your employees are using a competitor's product that should provide motivation to improve your own product.
  • Reply 78 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MessagePad2100 View Post


    Microsoft really needs to give it's workers huge discounts on that gorgeous top-end Nokia - you know the one that's shaped like an iPod Nano. And Nokia should come up with a tablet that's Newton sized or bigger.



    Have their employees use them every day, so they can make them better and more focused than Android. \



    Bill and Melinda Gates have a no-Apple products allowed in the house policy. I am not kidding. They won't let their kids use iPods, for example; other MP3 players, sure, but not iPods. Tell me that has anything to do with making Microsoft products better, rather than petty jealousy over Apple's success.
  • Reply 79 of 84
    cycomikocycomiko Posts: 716member
    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



    Why would microsoft need to pull apart a computer developed from a line of generic components, to feed their R&D department that does not create any hardware?
  • Reply 80 of 84
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cycomiko View Post


    Why would microsoft need to pull apart a computer developed from a line of generic components, to feed their R&D department that does not create any hardware?



    Let's start with getting your facts right. Macs are not made solely of generic components. In every case that I know of, the power supply, motherboard, and case are proprietary. Furthermore, even the other components are often made to specific Apple specs. For example, Apple has had a higher spec on capacitors for some time. Or look at an Apple monitor screen compared to most other PC screens.



    More importantly, in case no one has explained it to you, computers are made up of hardware AND software. I'm pretty confident that Microsoft would be more interested in Apple's software than the hardware, anyway.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    Bill and Melinda Gates have a no-Apple products allowed in the house policy. I am not kidding. They won't let their kids use iPods, for example; other MP3 players, sure, but not iPods. Tell me that has anything to do with making Microsoft products better, rather than petty jealousy over Apple's success.



    http://www.dshs.wa.gov/ca/safety/abuseReport.asp
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