Microsoft has told all its employees in China that they will soon only be allowed to use iPhones for work purposes. The ban on Android devices is part of a security-related Microsoft initiative for providing a unified way of managing and verifying employee identities.
The mandate, set to come into effect in September 2024, was announced in an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. It will require Microsoft’s China-based workers to verify their identities when logging in to work computers or phones. The change is part of Microsoft’s global Secure Future Initiative that is intended, among other things, to ensure that all staff use the Microsoft Authenticator password manager and Identity Pass app.
While Apple’s iOS store is available in China, Google Play isn’t. Local smartphone giants such as Huawei and Xiaomi operate their own platforms in the country, but Microsoft has chosen to block access from those companies’ devices to its corporate resources because they lack Google’s mobile services, reads the memo.
Any staff in the country using Android handsets, including those from Huawei or Xiaomi, will be provided with an iPhone 15, as a one-time purchase. The Redmond giant is designating collection points across China where employees can pick up their iPhones.
Microsoft is also introducing the iPhones-only rule in Hong Kong, despite the Google Play Store being available in the special administrative region of China.
Oh no! Chinese employees must use a better operating system! How dare they!
More like Android has too much freedom, and many things are banned.
While Apple bends over and follow the rules of CCP, so they can keep their manufacturer/supplier.
Simping for a company is sad bro
TIL: Considering one of two major competitors technically better than the other is “simping” now.
Which one is “better” is subjective, so yes it is simping. There are some things one does better than the other, and some things people prefer over the other
Want a fingerprint sensor? Then people would say Android/Galaxy/Pixel phones are better just for that one thing alone. That’s subjective; an opinion
It’s such a childish, stupid thing to want to be “right” over. Like we’re back to the “Xbox or PlayStation is better” conversation
better, lmao. They’re switching to apple because they want their staff to be obedient little guinea pigs that that won’t tinker with their phones but are tracked and monitored just the same like all Apple users.
So better for surveillance, of course they are. That’s why they’re still allowed to operate and bend over to every request by authoritarian nations. But you do you.