Jobs pulls an Oprah -- $12M in iPhones for all Apple employees

We imagine it went something like this: "Oh, and one more thing... a new iPhone for everyone." That's the result of the Apple town hall meeting which just let out. Let's see, a new 8GB iPhone for every Apple employee, both full-time and temporary. That's 17,787 plus another 2,399 (according to Wikipedia) or so for a grand total of $12,091,414 retail. A bit less since only those temps who have been with the company for a year qualify. Still, nice one Steve. Sure, we've seen you do it before, but man, that's a lot of dough. We're just wondering who's going to cover the 2 year service costs?

[Ben @ Jun 28th 2007 3:48PM]

notfair.com

i want a free iphone :(

[travis @ Jun 28th 2007 4:04PM]

no shit. and i want $12,091,414.

[LegendZ28 @ Jun 28th 2007 6:46PM]

Not good news for those of us that own stock, giving away 12 mil worth of a device that we're not even sure will be a hit.... awesome.

[nikster @ Jun 28th 2007 9:03PM]

I own AAPL and I think it's a(nother) great move. Eat your own dogfoog, make employees happy, maximize feedback etc etc etc. Great move.

I don't know it seems like Apple can do no wrong.. next year, they'll bring out 4 more iPhones in all price categories and give Nokia a run for their money.

As for "we don't know whether it will be a hit" - who cares? With the initial hype alone, the development costs are as good as covered. The upside is limitless. Potential outcomes can be good, awesome, or off the charts for Apple. The only question is whether Apple will win less or win more.

[Brad @ Jun 30th 2007 9:53AM]

12 Million is not actually a real estimate of the figure. Each one of the devices is not worth $500 or $600. After taking that into account, realize that it isnt lost revenue either, because half of the Apple employees are college students who couldnt afford an iPhone anyways.

[Euan @ Jun 28th 2007 3:51PM]

What about those members of European staff? Do they get an iPhone too?

[shelterpaw @ Jun 28th 2007 4:53PM]

nope, they get tea and crumpets.

[cyp @ Jun 28th 2007 8:35PM]

hahahaahahahahahh :P

Anyways. Whatever. iPhone, iDon'tCare, iCanAffordiT but iThink it sucks. iVote for Nokia.

[Logik @ Jun 29th 2007 8:17PM]

ssuk,

Don't be so sensitive. That was one pretty good (read, funny) reply.

[ray @ Jun 28th 2007 3:52PM]

It must rock to work in apple but are these 12million iphones going to be included in the yearly results meaning they've already got 12% of the 100million steve jobs promised he'd sell?

[2she @ Jun 28th 2007 3:59PM]

It must rock to work at apple until the day SJ is in a crabby mood and you take the elevator with him, only to find yourself fired by the time you reach floor 'X' ...

[ndirish2001 @ Jun 28th 2007 4:00PM]

Did you not READ the post? Apple has about 12,000 employees, not 12,000,000 of them! Jobs expressed he wants to sell 100 million iPhones, not $100 million in iPhones.

[Chris @ Jun 28th 2007 4:02PM]

It's not 12 million iPhones, it's $12 million worth of iPhones. And I think their goal this year is 10 million iPhones.

[dglaz @ Jun 28th 2007 4:40PM]

Why do people feel the needing to be downright mean to other posters. Ray made a silly mistake. Correct him but don't presume to know too much about his intelligence. Your insults do nothing to make Engadget posting more intellectual. True intellectuals in my opinion correct and debate without insulting or implying superiority.

[jeromefoster @ Jun 28th 2007 5:55PM]

Gabe - another example of Dunning-Kruger syndrome. Woe the day you make a mistake!

[Mr Lizard @ Jun 28th 2007 6:02PM]

Gabe, you're a prick

"a bunch of retards with down-syndrome"

Go play in the road.

[Logik @ Jun 29th 2007 8:29PM]

@Gabe

"I swear, engadget and tuaw are going down the drain, I remember when the commentators here used to be fairly intellectual individuals, now it's like we have a bunch of retards with down-syndrome hooking us up with our flaky fodder, and all we can do is lower ourselves to their mentally handicapped state."

^
|_ By the looks of that run-on, you are clearly not part of that group of "fairly intellectual individuals."

[7of7 @ Jun 28th 2007 3:52PM]

Yikes, I'm glad I don't work there.

[andres @ Jun 28th 2007 4:02PM]

i know, can you imagine the horror.. an actual free device that retails for about 600 bucks, one day ahead before the public can even buy it. Poor souls.

.. you are a freaking idiot.

[arthur barnhouse @ Jun 28th 2007 4:13PM]

Ladies and Gentlemen, Please Meet 7of7: a troll. Please don't feed the trolls.

[anonymous @ Jun 28th 2007 4:22PM]

I'm sure they don't get them today. It'll probably be a week or two in the mail.

[mda @ Jun 28th 2007 3:54PM]

I guess all the jackasses that slammed apple for withholding employees discounts can now tell us all what crow tastes like.

I know there will be those that will find a way to leave a negative comment about this.. but dayum... for once in your life.. can't you just say "well done?"

I dunno about you, but that's the kind of company I want to work for.... where the one at the top is as passionate about the product as he/she is about the bottom line.

Well played, Steve.

[Tyk @ Jun 28th 2007 3:54PM]

Hmmmm .. if everyone has an iFone.. then you lose that elitist, iSheep aura/halo around having the phone... ie. part of the appeal of owning the iFone is being an Apple Elitist and knowing that most people cant afford it.

[absurdio @ Jun 28th 2007 5:57PM]

Hmmmm .. if everyone has an iFone.. then you lose that elitist, iSheep aura/halo around having the phone... ie. part of the appeal of owning the iFone is being an Apple Elitist and knowing that most people cant afford it.

Wrong. Just wrong. People certainly haven't stopped buying iPods now that they're ubiquitous. Also, 20,000 Apple employees is not - by any stretch of the imagination - "everyone." I promise that there's going to be a whole lot more than 20,000 people owning and using iPhones. And - remarkably - I don't think that'll deter still more buyers.

What's more, the more of a public presence the iphone has (that is, the more real in-the-flesh units people see in public), the more people will begin to suspect that the iPhone may be worth its exorbitant pricetag (the rationale being that plenty of other people have decided it's worth the $500-$600, maybe they're right).

[Chris @ Jun 28th 2007 3:55PM]

7,787 plus another 2,399 IPhones, soon to be available on Ebay!

[ethana2 @ Jun 28th 2007 7:11PM]

Yup, that's how it works. You're not from Omaha, are you?

[Malcolm @ Jun 28th 2007 3:55PM]

Retail employees included?????!!?

[Tank @ Jun 28th 2007 3:56PM]

So, AT&T just up to an additional 20,186 subscribers for the next two years?

Who wants to bet that the reasoning is two fold:
1. This was a condition of the deal with AT&T so they can gain the subs.
2. Who better to pimp your super phone then your employees who got it for free?

Good move Steve, good move!

[Kat @ Jun 28th 2007 6:08PM]

Bingo, Tank.

[Varun @ Jun 28th 2007 3:57PM]

boy! steve is doing things that are wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy extraordinary.

god why am I not employed in Apple.

[fred @ Jun 28th 2007 4:18PM]

I'm sorry my Snark Detector 5000 is on the fritz are you being sarcastic?

[yehweh @ Jun 28th 2007 3:59PM]

meh! Isnt that like a $600 bonus? I take that back. It can't be 600 coz they make them.

[Chicksta @ Jun 28th 2007 3:59PM]

Apple also offered a special deal last week on systems, iPods, and accessories to certain 'partners', so they've been pretty generous lately. That discount more than paid for an iPhone!

[Thomas Hoffman @ Jun 28th 2007 4:00PM]

What about the ATT people who have to deal with all the customers for the next 2 years??? I can see it now, call Apple, they then redirect you to the carrier......When was the last time you contacted HTC, Nokia, Moto when your cellphone wasn't working???

[a @ Jun 28th 2007 4:01PM]

"Jobs pulls an Oprah -- $12M in iPhones for all Apple employees"

I do NOT want to bash or be pro-mac/pc but the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating billions (thanks to Warren Buffett)to "enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and, in the United States, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology."

like I said, sorry but I think Microsoft beats Apple in charity...

[Rohit Kapur @ Jun 28th 2007 4:03PM]

lol. . . Damn, man. I guess my comment was just a little too late. I don't think anyone here started a discussion about who beats whom in charity, so unless you're here to comment in relevance on the article, please don't bother.

Thanks!

[bobartig @ Jun 28th 2007 4:34PM]

Oprah does stuff like give away cars and iPods and other nice free prizes to her studio audience. Everyone in the audience gets one. It's not charity, its large-scale gift giving. This is what the article headline refers to. You apparently don't know this, but that's really ok.

What's not ok is this: BillG =! Microsoft. M$ is not donating that money, Bill Gates is. Sheesh. Giving stuff to your own employee's isn't even charity. Bill Gates stopped running Microsoft like a decade ago and is phasing himself out of Microsoft to concentrate on philanthropy. Steve Jobs has been running Apple for 10 years and is still continuing strong.

Microsoft probably still donates a lot more to charities than Apple, simply due to the size disparity between the two organizations, but this is not a point or comparison that you have bothered to make.

Thus, is it meaningless and pointless to compare the charitable contributions of the richest man in the world who is devoting most of his time to philanthropy, which you have mistaken for the actions of a software company, to a company-wide gift at a different company that you subsequently mistook as a charitable act? Yes, yes it is! The fact that I'm pointing this out to you is depressing.

Your post falls in the category of statements that are entirely devoid of any sense or reason, it reminds me of the simpson's quote from Lenny and Carl:

Lenny: If you ask me, Muhammad Ali in his prime, was much better than anti-lock brakes.
Carl: Yeah, but what about Johnny Mathis versus diet pepsi?
Moe: Oh, I cannot listen to this again!

Yay for all my friends at Apple! I'll soon have several dozen people who's iPhones I can muck around with.

[Nikita @ Jun 28th 2007 5:19PM]

Although Oprah does have her Angel Network. She built a school for girls in South Africa and built hundreds of homes for Katrina survivors.

[halfeatenfish @ Jun 28th 2007 5:30PM]

Speaking of Bill and Melinda... they do GREAT work. Unfortunately, not all is as it seems. Irony abounds. A lot of the money for the Foundation is invesed in companies that make money of the backs of precisely the people the Foundation is trying to help.. shame

I'm just putting this here for the sake of sharing info. This is NOT a dig on Gates. Besides, they seem to be trying to fix things.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/12/gates_ethics_review/

[MadCowan @ Jun 28th 2007 6:56PM]

That's lame, dude. Microsoft didnt' start the gates foundation; the Gates did. Plus, Bill is the richest man in the world, so of course he's going to have more charity power. Saying Apple is lame for spending money on employees is the dumbest thing ever. Next time you get a bonus at work, or a raise, tell your boss to give it to charity instead.

[Lori @ Jun 29th 2007 6:45PM]

You should not even been posting anything about Bill Gates. He got all of his money from ripping off, others ideas. Microsoft Sucks!!!!

[derek @ Jun 28th 2007 4:01PM]

haha you aren't first. loser

[Rohit Kapur @ Jun 28th 2007 4:02PM]

Wow. You. . . have to admire that.

I really hope no one brings in comparisons of his philanthropy and that of Bill's. 'Cause that would really just be disgusting.

Anyway, go Steve! That is really nice of the guy, and I guess it's a reward to all the Apple employees for keeping their mouths shut, even from their families, for so long about their work.

Hats off to the guy!

[Ellianth @ Jun 28th 2007 4:27PM]

What makes you so sure the money came from his pockets and not the company's? Furthermore, MSRP might be $600 but that's after the apple markup.

[Razor @ Jun 28th 2007 4:02PM]

Not!

[Mr. Sneakery @ Jun 28th 2007 4:07PM]

First of all Props to SJ for being generous to his employees.

This is what I find funny though. Not that lots of them might end up for sale, or that AT&T just got a boat load of subscribers, or even the fact that giving that many away may make "joe consumer" hunt to find one with a spiked demand, or even the 2 year contract buy-in.
I think it's hilarious that a year or so from now, how much money they'll make selling those extra batteries after the 300-400 charges.
Do employees (meaning corporate) even know how to change the batteries? I see a DIY project in the works... if people aren't too scared to open up their iphone.

[kpluck @ Jun 28th 2007 4:09PM]

Well, the real story here is what this says about iPhone availability. If Apple/AT&T thought they didn't have enough to meet consumer demand, this would never have happened. I am guessing anyone that wants an iPhone will be able to get one without waiting in line.


-kpluck

[Steve @ Jun 28th 2007 4:10PM]

I, for one, welcome our iPhone at Engadget tagged post overlords.

[David @ Jun 28th 2007 4:13PM]

It doesn't cost APPLE $12 Mil for 20,000 phones. Remember, Apple pays the mfg. price, not list.

[Aaron @ Jun 28th 2007 4:44PM]

That's why the summary said $12 million retail...