WSJ: Microsoft workers have to hide their iPhones from management

Are Microsoft employees “nuts for the iPhone?” According to a Wall Street Journal piece, yup… and that’s starting to cause some problems at Redmond as they prepare to roll-out their own would-be iPhone OS killer, Windows Phone 7.

Essentially, everyone within Microsoft knows that their current smartphone operating system, Windows Mobile 6.5, chonks hoad. Microsoft employees are technology lovers, and so they have naturally gravitated to the best smartphone out there. Microsoft’s done its best to stem the tide of Microsoft employees defecting to the iPhone, initiating a policy early last year that prevents employees from expensing any non-Windows phone, but it hasn’t had as much effect as you’d think.

Now, Windows Phone 7 is on the horizon, and by all accounts, the war against iPhones within Microsoft’s campus is heating up, with several employees feeling the need to hide their Apple handsets from their managers.

Internally, some Microsoft managers think that using the iPhone can only help Microsoft understand the competition and improve their own products, but unfortunately, this is not a view endorsed by Microsoft’s highest: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has reportedly said that when he was growing up, his father worked for Ford and consequently his family only bought Fords, insinuating that he expected the same.

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Well, sure, maybe, but I bet Grampa Ballmer would have driven a BMW if it cost the same as his Pinto. How, then, can you blame your employees for choosing to spend their money on the iPhone, the best smartphone around?

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