If Microsoft Poaches Apple Store Workers, Good Riddance

During the Cold War, other totalitarian states kept their citizens behind walls, but if Apple Store employees want to defect to Microsoft, why not?

My pal, Mac pundit Jim Dalrymple quotes people who don’t want to incur Apple’s wrath, reporting that Microsoft is attempting to woo managers of Apple’s stores to its own fledgling retail venture.

If Microsoft’s propaganda is to be believed, these folks may not have to walk very far to their new jobs. Redmond says it wants to open its new stores right next to Apple’s existing storefronts.

My advice to anyone at an Apple Store who finds Microsoft Money (the real thing, not the dead app) dangled in his or her face: Beware! Microsoft has bailed on a retail concept before. It happened in San Francisco, and while I feel Microsoft is committed this time, failure is quite possible. Though it could be years in the making.

Seriously, if Apple is really a calling and not just a job, the company is better off shedding people who would so easily move to “the dark side.”

I mean, what sensible person would leave working at an Apple Store for a few extra thousand dollars a year, maybe a polo to replace the Apple t-shirt, and the opportunity to work at a company with a better career path than Apple might offer?

A fair number, I suspect.

But, if the Mac, iPod, and iPhone are really a lifestyle and not mere gizmos, then the true believers will stay. And Apple has many more of the truly faithful than East Germany had. If its people want to leave, Apple should wish them well.

Either the Apple is good enough to withstand Microsoft, even a Microsoft with stores in shopping malls, or it isn’t.

Apple has little to fear from these traitors.

David Coursey tweets as @techinciter and can be contacted via his Web site.