News

Apple To Give Free iPhone to Employees

Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 3:25 PM - by

Apple Inc. will be giving a free iPhone to its employees, according to sources requesting anonymity. Apple CEO Steve Jobs made the announcement to employees Thursday via Apple's internal communication system. Though the iPhone is being released Friday, June 29th, employees will receive 8 GB iPhone sometime towards the end of July. Employees we've spoken with were, unsurprisingly, delighted with the news.

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tundraboy said:

member since 26 Jan 2007 with 17 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:55 pm

Can't think of a better way to motivate your workforce when you're rolling out such a crucial product line. Apple is really pulling out all the stops to make sure the whole company gives a 110% behind the iPhone. When the stores open at 6 p.m. this Friday the sales staff will be smiling, highly motivated, and rarin' to go at it. The customers will find the atmosphere in the stores upbeat, exciting and electric. When you know you're getting a free iPhone at the end of the day, even the rudest, jerkiest customer will not wipe that smile off your face. A masterful stroke.

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:17 pm

Yeah... um hopefully they're still smiling a month from now when they finally get their free phones.

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Bosco said:

member since 03 Jun 2002 with 971 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:37 pm

It's good to know that Gene Munster and Shaw Wu won't have to sit in line to get their iPhones. Not good to make them wait until after numbers are in for this quarter though.

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nealg said:

member since 22 Mar 2006 with 120 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:04 pm

I think it is a nice piece of motivation for the employees but I think the real reason for this is to get them up to speed and to have a real good feel for the iPhone. If you know the phone inside out because you use it personally you will show it to its best advantage. A very nice move for Apple to do and a nice thing for its employees.

Are they paying for their contract as well or just the hardware? I wonder what AT&T are doing in this regard? It would be nice for the AT&T store employees to get an iPhone so they can also get to know it very well and learn the ins and outs of it so they can also sell it very well.

Neal

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Burnum said:

member since 17 Jun 2001 with 750 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:28 pm

Does this include Apple retail employees?

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macinnerd said:

member since 15 Jun 2005 with 1621 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:37 pm

The free iPhones must end somewhere in the employee chain, or the costs would become exuberant...

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Terrin said:

member since 29 Jan 2006 with 350 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:48 pm

Move like this are excellent ways to motivate employees. Apple didn't have to do that, and that likely will make employees feel appreciated. I suspect they will have to pay for service, but they will also be able to sell the phone if they want. I suspect retail employees are included, if not, you are making the people who you want to be the happiest, unhappy.

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Terrin said:

member since 29 Jan 2006 with 350 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:55 pm

I suspect all full time permanent employees would be eligible. Apple could give out thirty thousand of these things without any costs worries. First, it gets a tax break. Second, it can count it as a marketing expense. Third, Apple isn't paying full price to give the phones away.

Quote
macinnerd wrote:
The free iPhones must end somewhere in the employee chain, or the costs would become exuberant...

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rjackb said:

member since 08 Dec 2005 with 31 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:36 pm

Quote
macinnerd wrote:
The free iPhones must end somewhere in the employee chain, or the costs would become exuberant...

I think you might have meant to say "exorbitant" instead of "exuberant" but I understand and agree with what you're saying.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:43 pm

Quote
macinnerd wrote:
The free iPhones must end somewhere in the employee chain, or the costs would become exuberant...

"exuberant"!?

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:55 am

Plus, this gets thousands of iPhones out in the public where people will see them being used. Not unlike the way those white earbuds you now see everywhere probably helped fuel the popularity of the iPod. Or for that matter, Moto's RAZR phone really seemed to grow exponentially once a handful of people had them... so much that their TV advertising got pretty sparse. They didn't need it... users became their best advertisement!

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nealg said:

member since 22 Mar 2006 with 120 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jun 29, 2007 9:50 am

Quote
Guest wrote:
Plus, this gets thousands of iPhones out in the public where people will see them being used. Not unlike the way those white earbuds you now see everywhere probably helped fuel the popularity of the iPod. Or for that matter, Moto's RAZR phone really seemed to grow exponentially once a handful of people had them... so much that their TV advertising got pretty sparse. They didn't need it... users became their best advertisement!

If someone comes into the Apple store for a demo of the iPhone, if all employees have one, then all they have to do is pull out their own iPhone and show the customer how they use it. Nothing sells things better than having the salespeople using the product themselves. Even if you put Apple's head count at 20,000 and their cost on the phone as 500 dollars, that is 10 million dollars as a one time expense. Notice that they pushed it off into next quarter so that it becomes a cost in the next quarter when they are hoping for the significant start of revenues for the iPhone. Because of the way they are recognizing revenues for the phone and because of their agreement to get some of the subscriber revenue, I think about 10 dollars per phone per month may be the profit recognized by Apple for each iPhone sold. If you think that they can sell a million in the next couple of days, that would mean that the first month of profit off of the phone could offset the total cost of the employee plan. That doesn't seem exorbitant to me if my math is correct.

Neal

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A guest said: (hide)

Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:05 pm

That's pretty cool! Unfortunately, the only ppl I know bought iPhone to turn a profit. In the US, Cell Phone companies try to control the market so we get phones that are older and locked...blah! Overseas, the market gives opportunities for phone companies to explore innovative products b/c iPhone technology has been around for a while overseas. I'm waiting for Wi-Fi to be more reliable so I don't have to be a lackey for the outrageous cell phone companies.

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