Yes I am surrounded by Apple microphones and ordered a HomePod on the 26th. I don’t work for Apple though so I doubt they care what I say.
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Apple Employees to Receive 50% Off HomePod
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I doubt if the employees end up not wanting the units themselves, they'll be stupid or desperate enough to 'give them away'..... I expect these newly released products to go for what the market will bear.
Regardless of the discount for the employees, at least this gives the employees who are interested in purchasing the HomePod a chance to share their experiences with the customer and what they like/dislike about it. And the HomePod is a new product for Apple, and what not a better way for employee to give their viewpoints with hands-on experience to a customer who is interested in it.
https://qz.com/1121880/the-technica...t-listen-into-your-private-conversations/amp/
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A microphone in your ear?
25% off 1 each device/computer
(+$500 off every 3 years)
25% off of Apple Care
15% off friends and family
15-50% off accessories
200GB free iCloud space
50% Apple Watch (first 90 days)
Free Apple Pro software
Free SELECT Mac software
...and then the holiday “Wish List” where various Brands/Products sold in the store are 20-75% off
Oh...the healthcare (even for part time) is better than medical professionals get, free mental/wellness/legal professional access, and...that’s all I can think of right now at 4:30am. But that’s pretty much the heft of it.
If you ONLY knew what Apple Employees go through day-to-day. Located in an ultra high trafficked store, being expected to know everything, servicing 30-60 customers in one shift, dealing with personalities of 30-60 customers in one shift, being yelled at constantly, smiling as your rowdy kids wreck the store...and that’s just the front of the store. 90% of customers will wear you out mentally and physically.
So with all that being said...they totally deserve what’s given to them.
I’d be so broke if I worked at an Apple store. It would basically become indentured servitude.
I don't think these companies are eavesdropping, but I also do not think this article helps much against privacy concerns. So the Amazon head engineer says that the Echo is too dumb and that it has just enough audio buffer to handle the wake words. Yet the device contains 4GB flash memory - how can I know that no audio is stored there and then sent away at convenient times? He says it records only when the LEDs are on - so like webcam LEDs that have been hacked before? He says I can check the Alexa app for everything that has been recorded, but how can I know that everything really goes there?
In the end we still have to trust them. The technology is too complex for us to really know what is going on and what is possible or not. And to some degree I do trust them - if they got caught eavesdropping, the customer backlash would (hopefully) be terrible for them. Still, if, say, some agency decided it wanted to listen into some particular person's house, then I am not so sure whether such a speaker could not provide the means for that, maybe even without the company's knowledge.
based on the storm of articles about this tiny mono speaker I wish we are going to see a similar article storm about Macs
[doublepost=1517656617][/doublepost]There are various levels of employee discount, called EPP - Employee Purchase Plan.
EPP1: either 27% or 28% discount (can’t remember) off one of each: iPhone, iPad, Mac, etc per year, this is for personal use only & is monitored.
EPP2: either 17% or 18% discount, up to 10 of each individual line per year, commonly called “Friends & Family”.
EPP+: $500USD or local currency equivalent every 3 years, and does stack with EPP1/2.
They previously did give the iPhone 3 free to all employees.
The first iteration of the watch was available at 50% discount from launch, excluding the Edition.
Dependent upon role you also get whatever Apple products you need, typically refurb however.
VP’s and above get the latest iPhone on day of launch, fee of course.
Apple has, what, 100k employees worldwide? Even if 50% percent of them take advantage of the discount, do you really think selling 50 thousand units will make a dent in Apple's sales? Even for less popular products, Apple deals in the millions, or at least hundreds of thousands.
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I'm sure you don't own a smartphone or computer or any other modern electronic devices that have built-in microphones.
I guess Apple wants employees to have HomePods because it will make it easier for them to spy on them in their homes!
I’m sure many will disagree.
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Is that supposed to be satire? A bit clumsy, if I may say.
Honestly $175 is almost cheap for a good small speaker. I’d buy a few at that price even with all that is still missing.
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You say generous, I say desperate. Apple isn’t so “generous,” with iPhones. This is just a way to easily get units in the wild. It’s in the marketing budget and subsidized buy everyone paying full price.
Typical discount is 27%. 17% for friends and family of an employee and a once-per-3-year discount of $250 off an iPad or $500 off a Mac. The 3 year discount can be combined with the 27% EPP discount.
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You do realise that a whole host of employees get work iPhones, right? You also realise that anyone with a permanent contract at Apple got a free iPhone upon launch in 2007, right?
You're talking a load of nonsense.
Apple gave 50% off of the first gen iPod as well. First gen iPod in 2001 with 5GB 1.8” HDD, FireWire port and click wheel was $400 retail. Interested Apple employees got it for $200.
Seriously! How blind do you have to be to not see this?
By the way, Apple has *never* given an employee discount on the iPhone. HomePod is a high-priced turd and Apple knows it, so maybe if the retail employees have one they can tell customers how awesome it is.
Actually, it’s 100%. It used to be called a keystone, which was more common than not.
Apple.com shows all stores within 200 miles of me having both grey and white available for walk-in pickup on the 9th (launch day)
Make what you will of that.
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Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what price they achieve on the open market. Especially since scarcity won't affect pricing.