no doubt.

this rules...but, back in the day i read a similar article about tons of microsoft employees using Palms all over the campus and how it pissed off the management that they weren't using pocket pc. now, i'm sure the tables have turned on that issue, so hopefully apple keeps innovating, because the parallels are there - ipod and palm are both simplified and depend on ease of use and industrial design, while pocket pc and wma players are all frills with color screens and codecs and radios and blah blah blah...

I don't know about you, but if my "higher ups" began to frown on something like using an iPod I would get excitement out of using it more. This could only mean greater usage on their campus. Welcome to the real world MS.

What world do you guys live in? Of course Microsoft would frown on using a competitor's product. Where I work, if I used a client's competing product, I would be fired.

Um, and what MP3 player does Microsoft make, duffs?

Oh wait ... they don't.

So the iPod doesn't represent direct "competition" per se, but DOES signal MS managers that the employees are preferring iTunes over their own crappy music service (quite rightly too).

Might want to think about your comments before posting them next time, dude.

Nice to see that the general rule that 'the bigger the company, the stupider the management gets' is still in effect. Employees found a solution that works better than what they already had? BAN IT! Better design, gets more done, they use it by choice? BAN IT! Goes against this week's corporate bullshit? BAN IT!

Of course, people are smart. They know what works for them and they know how stupid managers collectively are, so they'll keep on doing what works. Companies are probably better off for it -- why else would so many of them do employee suggestion boxes?

Besides, that's not to even mention that Microsoft makes software for Apple's OS X as well, so it's not like they don't profit off of Apple's users as well.

It's just sour grapes on their management's part. They're mad that AAPL is up 250% in the past year while their stock is down slightly...

that the management are tired of shouting for hours after the paper boy because he's got his head drowned out in sound...

it used to be you couldn't park a foreign car at the GM employee parking lot.

That didn't last.

That's 80% of Microsoft employees WHO HAVE A PORTABLE MUSIC PLAYER, not 80% of MICROSOFT EMPLOYEES. So that's not 16000 iPods.
But still, to know that 80% of MS employees with music players have an iPod, that's sweet.

The article said that about 80% of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod. The source also estimated that 80% of Microsoft employees have a portable music player. So that's 80% of 80% of 25,000:

25,000 x .8 x.8 = 16,000

Of course, the percentages are estimates by various people.

...microsoft has 25,000 people on staff and they still cant innovate and get their software right? just sad.

If one more person posts a "Hey, it's not 80%..." comment, I'll smack 'em with an Archos jukebox. One of the big, ugly, old ones with the 2.5" drive (as opposed to the smaller, ugly, new ones).

Yes, folks, it's 80% of 80%. Even if you can't do the math, you should be able to at least read the article. One looks completely ridiculous for lambasting others for not reading correctly when one's own reading is also flawed. Sigh!

Trenchcoat is right. And yet this forum is just RIPE to see 10-20 more such asinine comments.

...Mac Minis start appearing in cubicles.

If you work for General Motors, they really frown on owning a non-GM vehicle and pressure you into buying GM. What a crock. Another company I woudn't want to work for! What they're saying is "we don't make the best, so we're going to strong arm our own people into buying second best". I have a great idea: why not instead bust your butt to make the best stuff, instead of shoveling the same sh*t? Boo hoo to companies like this- its a free world, and the consumer deserves to be able to buy the best.

EVERY auto company pressures workers into driving their own product.

The problem with this is it shows that Microsoft considers Apple to be the enemy though they hardly compete. As someone pointed out, Microsoft does not make an iPod competitor - but they want to be 99% market share in EVERY market.

This memo shows that Microsoft is seriously fighting the iPod... not successful **SO FAR**. Though they haven't always won, they have a very good balance sheet so far. WordPerfect is just about dead, Lotus is just about dead, OS/2 IS dead, there are no serious PowerPoint competitors, Access nearly killed every other desktop database except *maybe* Filemaker, ... and even the XBox is actually a serious platform now. So don't toss off Microsoft's dominance.

And yes, I worked at a Ford plant...and drove a Volkswagen there. The irony is that it was made at a former Ford plant in Pennsylvania. No, people didn't like it. (They made Escorts and many HATED those POS cars...in the pre-Mazda days, that is, the late 1980s...they were pretty failure-prone. But that, like Glasspusher's slams against the mighty GM, is off the subject a bit.)

PS> Remember that slogan posted at the GM factory, "Hungry? Eat your Japanese car!" The economy isn't all creating pretty exteriors and good operating systems for Chinese parts, you know.

.... of Coke to the PepsiCo campus.

Or vice versa.

Still, M$ has always prided itself on being a smarter, more nimble company for its size. It's entertaining to see that they've gotten so sclerotically political and stupid. A smart company would notice this trend and learn from it. M$ sends out CLM threat memos.

What a laugh.

It's embarrassing for MS not because of the iPod, but that MS had the opportunity to buy all of their employees an MP3 player that was WMA based and they didn't and the word got out they missed an opportunity to get all their workers to use an MS based player and not notice how good and intuitive the iPod is, well its too late for that!

Ahhh, c-mere kiddy, wanna try some iCrack. Just a hit, cmon, have some.


he heh he

I should have said AppleCrack. Thats just what the iPod and a Mac is to us: AppleCrack. We are all junkies.

I don't like AppleCrack because that gives me a bad visual of Steve bending over.

LOVE IT. MS is starting to feel the beginning of the end for them. And it's scaring them to death. Loose one market, the rest crumble. Ask any of the old-time computer companies....

"And yes, I worked at a Ford plant...and drove a Volkswagen there. The irony is that it was made at a former Ford plant in Pennsylvania. No, people didn't like it. (They made Escorts and many HATED those POS cars...in the pre-Mazda days, that is, the late 1980s...they were pretty failure-prone."

Now that VW plant makes Sony TV's....

And I had an '87 Escort. Decent little car - made it well past 100k with minimal repairs.

mmmmmm.

And, as if Gates and Ballmer don't also have their own ipods. Gates loves to listen to those Feynman lectures, and Ballmer loves to listen to "the Millionaire Mind" in a nostalgic mood.

Where I work, if I used a client's competing product, I would be fired.

So, for example, if you work at Exxon, they will make sure your tank isn't filled with Chevron fuel?

Earth to MS: whocares?
Is work still getting done?
Are you performing random checks to make sure no one is scooping off some code and storing it on the hard drive to sell on the net?

Why would management even care what type or music player (or radio station) you listened to? It not all monkey boy jumping and deranged doodling in the UK that moves a company forward!

This is actually a sign of failing management - they have real problems and instead of fixing holes in the IE browser and running virus writers out of town on a rail, they are looking at the music transport systems being used by employees. Can't fix the important stuff, so let's micromanage the little stuff that won't add shareholder value or make our product any better.

How sad.

(remember him?) I used to work for him. He drinks diet coke.

Ballmer making an announcement:
"Danger! A Trojan horse virus has entered the Redmond Campus. Repeat. A Trojan horse virus has entered the Redmond Campus! Danger!
Oh shoot! Nobody is listening Bill!
Everyone is glued on their iPods.
What's our next move Bill? Bill? Are you even listeni... Will you turn off that iPod for one sec!"

you can't have management impose a double standard on ipods when bill gates himself uses a blackberry which is a non-microsoft product when in fact there are pocket pc alternatives.

i love it, they feel so sour about it because it's made by apple.

is doomed. Employees of a well-led and focused company would not openly flaunt the use of a competing standard, regardless of what "management" said. Stuff like this gives me the feeling that a lot of MS employees are there just to earn a paycheck. There's nothing wrong with that, but I remember a time not so long ago when MS (and it's employees) gave me the distinct impression that they wanted to take over the world, at all cost. On the other hand, I spoke to many of the Apple employees staffing the mega-Apple showcase at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. THEY were motivated, loyal, and highly focused on making Apple successful.

... once Apple ratchets up production even further, guess how many iPod shuffles they're going to sell to all of those discerning music-minded yet semi stealth-conscious Microsoft employees?

Theres nothing wrong with your employees loving Apple products. Its like us Mac users using M$ office.

I know its strange for you, but believe me:
All out war and total domination sucks;
And there IS life beyond Microsoft.

Oh thats just so funny, you figure that if 80% of the staff are smart enough to use the best MP3 player on the market they would be smart enough to make better products. I wonder how many of them also own Macs?

It's not like MS makes competition for the iPod. I don't see what they're upset about.