10% of Microsoft employees use iPhone?

It looks like Apple iPhone is becoming a popular device among Microsoft employees, created by Microsoft’s long term rival, Apple Inc. A very interesting story has been published on the Wall Street Journal which reports that almost 10% of Microsoft employees are using iPhone, rather than their own Windows Mobile based handsets.

Wall Street Journal cites two people who said that almost 10,000 Microsoft employees were accessing the company’s email system using an iPhone last year. This makes up almost 10% of company’s work force.

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, is not one of those who like Apple very much. Last year, at company’s private meeting, he caught one of his employees taking pictures using iPhone. He grabbed the phone from him, placed it on the ground and pretended to stomp on it.

On the other hand, if we take a look at Apple employees, they are loyal to their company. People who work in Apple say that they don’t recall any Apple employee using mobile phone other than iPhone. This might be a turning point in the rivalry between Apple and Microsoft. Even people working in Microsoft don’t use their own windows mobile based phones.

What impression will this incident have on the consumers who thought about buying windows mobile based smartphones? That’s the question of the day.