Microsoft tells employees "no more Apple products"

ZDnet blogger Mary Jo Foley described a Microsoft email memo telling 46,000 employees in marketing and sales that they can no longer use company funds to purchase Macs and iPads. The memo, which Foley says is from an inside source, included this language:

...we are putting in place a new policy that says that Apple products (Mac & iPad) should not be purchased with company funds.

In the US we will be turning off the Apple products from the Zones Catalog next week, which is the standard purchasing mechanism for these products.

Foley also reported Microsoft's response to her inquire about the memo:

I asked Microsoft for confirmation that the email was real. I was told by a spokesperson that the company had no comment. No confirmation; no denial.

The new prohibition on purchasing Apple products appears to apply to Microsoft's Sales, Marketing, Services, IT, & Operations Group. IT does not seem to extend to Microsoft's Mac Business Unit, which creates Microsoft's Mac products, including Office for Mac.

With Windows 8 now in beta for tablets and PCs, its understandable that Microsoft would rather not have its salesforce running iOS on iPads. Of course, Windows can run on a Mac, and can even boot a Mac. Even the very first Windows 8 preview release ran in a virtual machine on a Mac.