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Microsoft Attempting to Lure Away Apple Retail Store Staff?

Mattie Num Nums said:
You're something else. You have no idea how the world works. Apple didn't change anything. Apple took ideas that were already their and made it hip and cool.
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Taking something that's not used because it isn't hip and cool, and making it hip and cool so that it's used, ... is making a change to something.

What's the point of being first with an app store, or first with a smartphone, or first with Unix, ... if the vast majority of people have no interest in using your product?

There's something to be said for the brainiacs that develop new technology. And there's something else to be said for people that can take that new technology and make it so that people want to use it. The world needs both types of people, IMO.
 
aristobrat said:
FWIW, Apple Retail employees sign NDAs as part of their orientation, before they actually start "real" work in the store.
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An NDA for what? For where they keep the broom and dustpan? Seriously, these people that work at Apple stores are not working in the lab designing iPhones and Mac Pros, they're being paid (probably) poorly to sell Apple products; I don't think they need to sign an NDA to ring up purchases.

And on another note, what is with all the posters in this thread thinking people work in an Apple store because they are "passionate" about Apple and "love their favorite fruit company." It's a retail job for cryin' out loud, I would put good odds on most people working at Apple stores because it's "cool" or close to home, not because they are so in love with Apple. Am I to infer then that everyone who works at Bestbuy does so because they are "passionate" about Bestbuy? And Safeway, too? And Walmart?
 
BENI said:
I see what you mean, but how is working for Microsoft comparable to winning the lottery?
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I certainly wasn't intending on comparing working with/for Microsoft with winning the lottery. Admittedly I only have knowledge of what one of those things is like, but I'm still comfortable with the idea that it isn't much like the other.

Sorry if I wasn't making myself clear, I was referring to the thing of "working to live, not living to work". If I became independantly wealthy and didn't need to work any more then I wouldn't do so, no matter how much I enjoy the work I do. The same applies to the idea that you're wed to working for one company or the other... I want to be well paid. If I can double my wages elsewhere I'm going to at least go and take a look no matter how much I like what I do now... Wouldn't you?
 
*LTD* said:
Compare the smartphone industry pre-iPhone to post-iPhone. There's a galaxy of difference. And no, I don't buy the "we were were moving in that direction anyway" argument. It took Apple to show everyone the way, and some *still* can't get their act together. At best, the indusrty was stumbling toward more button-festooned, bad-screened, stylus-based devices with horrible OSes.
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Then you care to explain why RIM OS has not made huge changes since BEFORE the iphone came out. There current bread and butter phone design (curve 83xx) dates back to before the first Iphone anouncement. (Not Stylus based) Even in there upcoming OS 5.0 they are not making huge changes from that set up. Hmm kills that argument there. Yet those same Blackberries are becoming more popular along with the Smart Phone wave.

You are an apple fanboy to your core and to blind to see the truth. I noticed you when people point out the logic where you are wrong you either just pay no attention to it or you pick and choose. That or you degrade to insults.

Some times I find the fanboys worse than the tolls.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
Then you care to explain why RIM OS has not made huge changes since BEFORE the iphone came out. There current bread and butter phone design (curve 83xx) dates back to before the first Iphone anouncement. (Not Stylus based) Even in there upcoming OS 5.0 they are not making huge changes from that set up. Hmm kills that argument there. Yet those same Blackberries are becoming more popular along with the Smart Phone wave.

You are an apple fanboy to your core and to blind to see the truth. I noticed you when people point out the logic where you are wrong you either just pay no attention to it or you pick and choose. That or you degrade to insults.

Some times I find the fanboys worse than the tolls.
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RIM sells to the Enterprise sector. It's what that sector wants. It's the reason RIM is in business. However, it lacks the consumer-oriented features of the iPhone. It's a great corporate e-mail machine, an excellent texter as well. And not a whole lot more.

Which is the reason RIM hasn't changed, but everyone else has. It's pretty simple, really.

And speaking of insults . . .
 
LOLaMac said:
An NDA for what? For where they keep the broom and dustpan? Seriously, these people that work at Apple stores are not working in the lab designing iPhones and Mac Pros, they're being paid (probably) poorly to sell Apple products; I don't think they need to sign an NDA to ring up purchases.
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Ironically enough, the wireless PDA system that employees use to ring up purchases is just one of the systems that Apple uses to set itself apart from the rest of the retail market (and considers proprietorial).
 
Let's put the NDA/non-compete stuff to rest. Even if retail employees are signing these things, no court is going to enforce them to the extent they prevent such employees from working at another job (which should come as a relief to most of the posters on this board). Courts are loathe to do this with executives much less minimum wage workers, so this is a non-issue.
 
So Pibb to Pepper?

siliconm said:
The Zune, the Mobile initiative, the retail stores are all fighting brands. They are designed to weaken a competitor.

As an example, some years ago Coke introduced "Mr. Pibb" a Dr. Pepper taste alike in Dr. Pepper's home town, Waco, TX.
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So what youre saying is MS is Mr. Pibb to Apple's Dr. Pepper?

Thats funny.

I'm gonna go down to MS "Ned Flanders Leftorium" to laugh at the empty isles
 
Maserati7200 said:
ok... who cares? All it shows is that Microsoft feels threatened by Apple, which is silly considering that they still have ~90% market share, and that Apple does not make any computer under $600.

Jai Ho
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Threatened? Hardly.

Business as usual? Yup.

This isn't new, people. It happens in almost every industry. From computer companies to retail stores. Each trying to get a leg up over the competition by luring away human talent. MS is indeed being a little more direct than normal, but hey, that's MS. I was once a manager for a bakery, and a week before a competitor opened it's doors, I received a nice little phone call from the new store's director with an offer for employment. So did a lot of my other coworkers.

Big deal. This really happens in the real world. Oh yeah, and why is this news? Deliciously evil of Microsoft but still...
 
La Porta said:
From the Apple website (and him), you need two of the cards at once in order to drive the two screens. It would be different if you had two DVI screens. The DVI can't drive a MiniDisplay, but a MiniDisplay can drive DVI via an adaptor. The card has one of each. Even the high end ATI can't do it: you would need the high end and one NVIDIA to pull off the dual 24"
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Thats what i wanted to know, if he knew you needed two cards (which is a joke!). When i got my 24" screen all the sales staff were sure the screen would also work with a PC via an adapter. The case gets worse if you buy a 285

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/TW387ZM/A

You cannot use the 24" at all.

Almost a year after the 24" has come out, you will finally be able to use this screen via a ATI 5870 (has 6x mini display port). From a user experience point of view the 24" is a horrible experience :(

As a salesman I would feel like a dick trying to explain to a customer that they need two graphic cards to use 2x screens. Using 2x24 screens is quite handy, especially if you doing video editing
 
aristobrat said:
I know that minimum wage varies a lot by city/state, but when I started there part-time awhile ago, part-timers started at a little more than 2x the minimum wage, and full-timers got benefits + a quite a bit more than part-timers. Regardless of the wage, all employees had varying access to Apple proprietorial information, thus the NDA. Make sense?
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Still not buying it. I used min wage as an example (since most of the employees at my store are university-age students) but anyway what 'proprietorial information' would the average 'genius' know that would be detrimental to Apple if, God-forbid, they left? How many faulty iPods come back? Swap out a HD or add ram?

Perhaps someone at the Regional level, but I highly doubt the store level.
 
Kabeyun said:
I hope they do get a big raise; they're going to need it when they're out of a job in a year or two.

-K
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Have you every seen an Apple employee who has been in the apple store for longer then a year? I hope these people are motivated enough to only use the sales gig to get a better job.
 
aristobrat said:
Ironically enough, the wireless PDA system that employees use to ring up purchases is just one of the systems that Apple uses to set itself apart from the rest of the retail market (and considers proprietorial).
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Is that not windows CE-based PDA? Hardly a secret
 
MH01 said:
Thats what i wanted to know, if he knew you needed two cards (which is a joke!). When i got my 24" screen all the sales staff were sure the screen would also work with a PC via an adapter. The case gets worse if you buy a 285

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/TW387ZM/A

You cannot use the 24" at all.

Almost a year after the 24" has come out, you will finally be able to use this screen via a ATI 5870 (has 6x mini display port). From a user experience point of view the 24" is a horrible experience :(

As a salesman I would feel like a dick trying to explain to a customer that they need two graphic cards to use 2x screens. Using 2x24 screens is quite handy, especially if you doing video editing
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It's too bad apple doesn't use DVI or HDMI. Or even VGA. You can get all sorts of adapters for those three ports.
 
But you want us to believe...

Maserati7200 said:
ok... who cares? All it shows is that Microsoft feels threatened by Apple, which is silly considering that they still have ~90% market share, and that Apple does not make any computer under $600.

Jai Ho
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I just bought a Mac Mini for around $500.
You dont want people to know what computer you have, but you list the name of a car as your screen name? Why didn't you call yourself Daewoo7200?
 
*LTD* said:
It actually sounds funnier when it's about Windows, because that's what they're known for.
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To be honest, not for a long time now. I get more spinny beachballs in os x then BSOD. The last BSOD i had was on a macbook pro, and that was the black screen of death cause the GPU overheated due to bad fan management and shutdown. If you use old PC hardware with flacky drivers it is more common. The last PC BSOD I got was self induced by pushing a 2.66 to 4.5 mhz through overclocking.
 
What I find funny is that Ballmer has just recently said that Apple is not a threat, not even a little bit of one, and then we see a stunt like this, coupled with the millions of dollars of ads they run every month specifically targeting Apple as a direct competitor. In other words, Ballmer is a liar.

I think the reality is that even if MS is far ahead in Market Share they are lagging seriously behind in Mind Share.

The average PC user keeps their computer for something like 5-6 years. The problem that MS has is saturation. People that see XP as 'good enough' with no real compelling reason to upgrade to Windows 7 either in the form of a new box or as a software upgrade.

If Apple follows through with their promise from earlier this year to offer some less expensive options in the Macbook and iMac spaces it could really heat things up even more for the sector.

$799 22" redesigned iMac? $899 MBP? A lot of Windows users believe that Macs are better, and don't buy one simply because of the price. If Apple can get the price down a bit more and put their vampire bite on those people they can succeed in extracting dollars from their wallets for years to come.

I have many friends that have now made the switch to Mac. I have zero friends who have gone from a Mac to a PC.
 
dba7dba said:
I'm sure the Apple Store Managers were able to put food on the table... What you think they were working at the Apple store for free?
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From reading this thread, that what we expect of them ;) Most important is that they love Apple and are really really passionate about it.
 
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