Apple’s iPhone Pushed Aside As Facebook Urges Employees To Use Android

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Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has Droid-painted its walls in a bid to push its employees to shift from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Android-based platforms for their smartphones. “In the early days we gave employees iPhones primarily,” a Facebook spokesperson told Josh Costine of TechCruch.

Apple's iPhone Pushed Aside As Facebook Urges Employees To Use Android

However, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) now seems to be shifting attention from over-reliance on iPhones to a more balanced platform usage. The spokesperson is quoted saying, “we don’t encourage one device over another. We let employees choose”. The spokesperson was also asked of the estimated ratio of Android devices compared to iOS, and said, “I don’t have a ratio, but with the early focus on our iPhone app and the multi-year cycle of carrier contracts we do have more iPhones deployed”.

This is perhaps the reason Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is now urging its employees to acquire more Android devices. The company is using aggressive posters to try and persuade the employees in an act branded “Droidfooding” by Costine in his TechCrunch article. Facebook also admitted having created more awareness about the availability of Android platforms to its employees.

“There’s plenty of people here carrying around both devices, and not just engineers and not just mobile people”, the report said. Nonetheless, it is also noted that they seem attached to their Apple devices.

Android platform usage has been increasing drastically over time and now holds more that two-thirds market share at 68.1 percent, as compared to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s 16.9 percent. This is well demonstrated by one of the posters, which depicts that Android will control twice as much as Apple of the smartphone market share by 2016.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is using posters in its Mountain View, California, headquarters, urging employees to “switch today”, but still admits that even though some employees are acquiring Android smartphones, they seem reluctant to let go of their iPhones. A majority of Android device owners still have their Apple products with them.

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