A high-level manager at Microsoft anonymously disclosed that 80% of Microsoft employees that have portable music players have iPods (which works out to about 20,000 iPods at Microsoft’s headquarters). Microsoft executives have gone as far as to issue memos “frowning” on the usage by Microsoft employees.

Dave Fester, general manager of Microsoft’s Windows Digial Media division sent the following:

Now Microsoft employees have started to swap the white headphones with after-market black ones to try and “hide” their iPod usage.

The anonymous source at Microsoft had the following to add:

Kind of funny if you ask me. 🙂 If you can’t win, beg your employees to use your products… Microsoft has enough employees that maybe if they all bought what Microsoft had to offer, it could yield twice their current sales. heh