Microsoft’s Guy Gilbert overnight told Network World that every Microsoft employee is getting a Windows Phone 7 device. While he didn’t say which devices were going out, the group leader for Windows Phone 7 said all 89,000 full-time workers would receive a phone.
When the iPhone launched, Apple gave out free iPhones to full-time staff both as a reward and to have them get familiar with the product.
Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb of the Xbox Live team is well-known for using an iPhone as one of his devices, for example, while other staff have been teased by Steve Ballmer for owning competing hardware.
Developers attending the PDC10 conference were also getting phones of their choice from different manufacturers, but they need to provide their own service.
