[Jarihd]

I wonder how come MS is able to afford giving free hardware to so many of their employees. Earlier they gave the Windows Phone and now the Tablet.

Is it a good marketing strategy. Do non-MS people buy their products, based on word-of-mouth spread by MS employees. Does this strategy really work ???

[wideroots]

It's definitely a win-win scenario (maybe win-win-win): 1. Every employee will implicitly/explicitly become an evangelist for Microsoft products. I'm not talking only about the Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 but all the services and apps that support the platforms and ecosystem. The marketing power and reach won't be as wide as Microsoft's actual marketing effort (there is a reason why Microsoft has a whole division of marketing), but this will certainly do a good job of sparking the excitement for the community. 2. Employee morale will definitely go up. Employees will feel that they are being cared. Employees will feel that they are getting treated well. This would essentially lower the retention rate of the company. If less people are leaving the company because they are unhappy, the less money Microsoft has to throw out to replace those people. 3. (maybe) People outside of Microsoft would start to think that Microsoft is a good place to be. People would start thinking that working for Microsoft is not a bad idea, after all. This kind of decision shows the cult of the company. I think Microsoft has a lot of wrong perceptions. They might have been correct a few years ago, but things have started to change since Windows 7. Then, I keep hearing more changes and more good stuff from Microsoft lately. Definitely, this is going to help making the Microsoft brand better.

[Jarihd]

Well i believe; that for a Software company like MS; it should give software for free to its employees instead of hardware - if it really wants to show that it cares. Most employees will belong the software field and will most definitely feel cared; if software is given to them for free - inorder for them to explore their own development/testing potential along with exploring the product potential. Also by giving the software for free; when an employee leaves the company; due to his/her interest in what the software product can deliver; they become lifelong customers - buy product upgrades and related software.

as far as attrition goes; well I guess it is bound to happen in case of experienced employees, no matter how great the company is; 'cause as one moves up the ladder; number of higher positions(across various teams) start to decrease. Talented employees hungry to explore their capabilities will leave for sure due to lack of opportunity.

As far as people outside MS wanting to join - guess will automatically happen if MS meets their requirements(job satisfaction + money + environment). The case most generally is that a company will find a replacement for a vacant position on its terms(there may be exceptions). But, It need not give hardware for free to its employees - inorder to send a message to the outside world - but rather give Software for free. Software given free to its employees means a opportunity to grow; and guess that would definitely attract outsiders to explore.

[wideroots]

As far as I know, every employee gets a MSDN subscription, which comes with tons of Microsoft software for FREE. Plus, they dogfood their own products. They dogfood Windows, Office, Hotmail (or Outlook.com), SkyDrive, etc, and dogfooding is "free". If you hadn't known, now you know.

When I talked about the retention rate, I was focused on employees who've been with the company for 3 yrs or less. In tech industry, especially in software engineering field, people switch jobs fast. really fast. All my colleagues switch jobs every 2-3 years. For companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple, this is not good. They now have to spend money to find potential candidates, spend more money to interview those potential candidates, make full-time employees to interview potential candidates (5-8 interviewer per candidate), etc.

[seanmcdirmid]

Its probably more about morale than marketing. Getting employees to experience and enjoy the company's products is very important. Also, they might build more apps for WP and Win8 in their spare time. But 90K people...isn't really enough to make a huge impact, perhaps the ~40K in Redmond/Bellevue, but the effect would dilute quickly as you approached downtown Seattle from the eastside.

Edit: morale vs. moral

[Jarihd]

I totally agree with employees being allowed to enjoy and explore company products; and that such experiences should be absolutely free for all employees; but wonder if this experience should be limited within the company premises.

btw, does the hardware belong to the employee or is a property of MS. If the hardware is property of the employee, how does that make sense for MS, when employees switch jobs for their betterment (job + monetary reasons) .

AFAIK, MS at Redmond does not give Windows OS(software) for free; but gives it at a discount to its employees. Why not use the same strategy with hardware – give it with some discount – say 50% discount.

Win Apps - Do you really need to give hardware to build Apps for WP and Win8 or software alone would do ???

[seanmcdirmid]

You need hardware to test and also motivate your work. You wouldn't build an iPad app without an iPad neh?

Hardware discounts are hard when you aren't producing the hardware. You are basically subsidizing cost, and...you could imagine how much trouble that is! Better to just give it away; besides, if it was Microsoft campus store only, it would be only good for the folks in Redmond.

Attrition happens, but honestly losing an employee costs more than a phone and a tablet!

[Jarihd]

well by "software alone" - what i implicitly meant was that most employees would already have some hardware – latptop or desktop – in which case software given for free would motivate and encourage them to develop their ideas and even more apps.

If one has some hardware machine then one can install several OS’s in Virtual Machines for development and testing. one need not have separate hardware to develop apps for different OS’s.

If MS has to give hardware for free for whatever reasons, wouldn't it be a great idea to give the hardware to customers (non-MS) for free. This way if the product is really great; it will cause some buzz in the market and help the company market their product as well.

I just wonder if it’s really worth giving free hardware; instead of software. Once a software is given; and an employee discovers the potential in it; no matter whether the employee remains with the company(MS) or not; the person will become a lifelong investment and asset for the company - as he may/will buy product upgrades and related software – which may not be the case with hardware .

[seanmcdirmid]

I would never use my company provided laptop for non-work (moonlighting) purposes. All of my personal computers are macs running OS X; I'm afraid of buying a PC in my market (China), while the local Apple Store in contrast is a very dependable and safe (Apple is also better about servicing hardware bought out of country). If I was back in the states, I would feel better about buying a personal PC.

The problem with giving free hardware to customers is that you can't really identify who would add value with it, while employees are a better (but probably still not very good) heuristic.

You will always need to test your app on a real device it is intended for; virtual machines and simulators don't really account for the real device experience. For mobile/tablet apps, this means you'll need a decent device in that category.