Microsoft: The power behind selling iPhones
- TAGS:Apple, iphone 3G, Microsoft, microsoft ce
- IT TOPICS:Applications, Desktop Apps, Devices, Enterprise Apps, Internet, Macintosh, Mobile, Networking, Operating Systems, Windows
Apple, with good reason, is crowing over the fact that it sold one million iPhones in the first three days the device went on sale. What it's not telling you, though, is that Windows CE devices powers the point of sale solution that Apple uses to sell them.
A recent post in the jkOnTheRun blog, writes about the experience of buying the new iPhone 3G. After talking about how easy it was to buy one, the blog has this to say:
The most interesting part of the entire purchase process was seeing the role that Microsoft played in every single iPhone purchase at the Apple store. You see, Apple doesn't use cash registers or even Macs for the purchase process. No, they use handheld wireless devices made by Symbol, maker of such things, and every single one of them is running the Windows CE operating system. That's right, Apple had to turn to Microsoft for a point-of-sale (POS) solution solid enough to work under such volume sales situations.
Pretty fitting, don't you think? When real work has to be done, Apple turns to Microsoft, which certainly doesn't make flashy software, but somehow gets the work done.
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