I want an iPhone !!!!

Posted by Top-Surround-9243@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 175 comments

A company I worked for a few years back back, provided decent Samsung Smart phones for workers that needed a company phone - there were quite a lot that needed a company phone. We do not allow or provide company iPhones - just Android. All of our company software worked on Android - we had no ability to install the apps on an iPhone. Do you think any managers really cared? I would tell these people that iPhones could not provide access to the company software - no cared and wanted the iPhone. I always told them to go to the IT Director to approve the request and give me the approval in writing. Every time this request came I got anxiety because I would always get yelled at, demeaned, or something else because I wouldn't just provide the iPhone without approval. Once approved (if approved) I would always reach out and ask how fast and what color iPhone they wanted. The response was always "I need it yesterday - black is the color I want". 15 minutes later I would respond that the phone would be here the next day, but the only available color was pink for at least a month - and that's what they got. I'll teach them to make my job harder by making me support an unsupportable device.

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TechManSparrowhawk@reddit

I'm always bullying people who request an iPhone and then a week later request training for the iPhone. I always tell them we don't do training. If it's something to do with corporate software please submit a ticket. If it's about the iPhone itself please contact Apple support as I don't have support training for iPhone.

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turtle_mekb@reddit

why would you want an iPhone without knowing how to use it??

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breekdoon@reddit

Bingo! My first smartphone was android. It's what I know, so why change?

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Geminii27@reddit

Because many people don't want to sport (or even buy) equipment based on its functionality, but purely on its appearance or brand name, even if they don't know how to actually use it for anything. Plenty of executives demand the latest high-end brand everything, purely so they can show it off off to other executives or try to convince themselves (or others), deep down, that they're successful. Even if they never use the thing, or only know how to use the very basics. Glitzy salespeople can fall into this category too, using the excuse that flashy equipment like high-end phones, laptops, and company cars will give other people the subconscious impression that they and the company they represent are successful, high-end, high-tech, and provide luxury levels of service/products. Plenty of stories on here and in other places about executives demanding the latest high-end laptop or PC, and then literally never even turning it on (sometimes even plugging it in) before it gets replaced years later. It's just a desk ornament to them.

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Apprehensive_Food938@reddit

Boardroom Jewelry

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Id10t_techsupport@reddit

My first was was a windows phone running win ce 5.0

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newfor2023@reddit

MIL bought an iPad, after BIL did and she called it stupid for 3 weeks. She then complained at us because she didn't know what to do with it. Not that she couldn't make it do x or y thing. That she had no idea what x or y thing to even use it for the begin with.

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Awlson@reddit

So they can say, "Look, I have an iPhone."

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anubisviech@reddit

This happens far too often.

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techie_1412@reddit

WTH is "training for iPhone"?

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Langager90@reddit

iPhone: So simple, even a manager could manage it! For some reason, that slogan never caught on.

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BusAlternative1827@reddit

Apple: Making smartphones for people who aren't since 2007"

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deeseearr@reddit

Too many managers tried to use it.

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frenat@reddit

I think it involves a few smacks upside the head.

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Diminios@reddit

With a giant cluebat? Or just a clue-by-four?

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sharnaq767@reddit

Training is just telling the user, "It just works, right? RIGHT?" Doesn't matter how idiot proof a device is, someone always builds a better idiot.

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MidLifeEducation@reddit

Idiot v3.23.7

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Total-Tangerine4016@reddit

ID 10 T error found.

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deeseearr@reddit

And if it doesn't work, it's because they're holding it wrong.

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DIYuntilDawn@reddit

I worked for a cell phone company doing customer support in the 2000s. And that was actually a real thing. Phone engineers designed phones with the antenna right underneath where 90% of people would naturally put their hand\finger while holding it, and that did actually make the call quality very poor on some phones. Sometimes it is not the end user that is actually at fault, just most times.

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deeseearr@reddit

And that's exactly what I was referring to, but "We designed this phone so that it won't work if you hold it just so, unlike every other phone on the market" is acknowledging a design flaw, not identifying a problem with the end-user.

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land8844@reddit

What a throwback

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Caddmonkey18@reddit

Idiot Resistant

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fascistliberal419@reddit

Siiggggh. People are dumb and helpless. Tech support are their bitches. So we walk them thru shit they could've just googled themselves.

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SheepherderAware4766@reddit

Probably how to use the company apps on iphone

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Responsible-End7361@reddit

The apps that don't work on iphones?

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SheepherderAware4766@reddit

I was referring to a user describing a similar experience, with working, but not internally supported iOS

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TechManSparrowhawk@reddit

I usually do ask "can you get into X, y, z?" And if the answer is yes to all our apps then I start being a bit mean. I'm not fixing your Spotify or helping you pair a Apple watch unless you're a C-suites (these are anecdotes)

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Geminii27@reddit

I mean, for people who have literally never used an iPhone or even a smartphone interface before, they've got to start somewhere. But there are a bunch of How-To-Basics resources on the internet, and most cities will have such training classes somewhere, if mostly aimed at senior citizens. It might be a corporate responsibility to train new hires (or people experiencing a new interface) in how to use corporate-issued equipment no matter how ubiquitous in the industry or the general population, but even if it's equipment IT configures/repairs, that doesn't make it IT's responsibility to provide training for it, any more than Maintenance trains employees to operate company forklifts or Facilities trains people on how to operate an elevator to get to their desk (or how to operate any specialist commercial/industrial equipment specific to their job/team). It's all very well saying "people wear different hats in company X", but ultimately it's up to the specific employee's chain of command to make sure they know how to do anything they're expected to know for their job. If IT is providing training, there needs to be separate funding/budgeting at the very least, and a discussion as to why Employee Training is being handed to IT instead of to any other administrative team or position. If nothing else, keeping it separate on paper and digitally will make it easier and cleaner to hand off to somewhere else when the company grows to that point, gets a specific training position, or decides to outsource it.

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jobblejosh@reddit

Yes but the trouble is, everything you've said there makes logical sense. Furthermore it would mean someone who isn't IT would actually have to do something related to....*computers!!!*

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Material_Assumption@reddit

I always encouraged my family to buy apple phones and laptops so that I don't have to support it. Go to the apple store, an apple wizard (or whatever they call themselves now) will help you.

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corporate_treadmill@reddit

My daughter and I got my mom the same phone we have so we CAN help troubleshoot.

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Top-Surround-9243@reddit (OP)

Which is exactly why we didn't support I phones... We already had Android and the apps for work... None of the apps worked on Apple.. Even email... Had to use the mail app... Couldn't use Outlook...I forget why... Not sure if they had app for Apple at the time

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a4qbfb@reddit

For quite a long time (until around 2015 I would say?) there was no Outlook app for iPhone, nor any third-party apps that supported the Exchange protocol, so you'd have had to enable IMAP on the Exchange server (which doesn't work very well) and use a third-party IMAP client. Then Microsoft acquired a company that had an iPhone email app and rebranded it, but there was a hitch: what that company actually had was not an Exchange client for iPhone, but a cloud service targeted at people with multiple email accounts that offered to fetch email from all accounts, store it in a single place, and present it in a single app. So you'd actually give that cloud service your email credentials and it would fetch and store your email (and your credentials) in their own infrastructure. I worked in infosec at the time and my employer banned that client for that reason; we considered it unsafe and were unsure whether it was even legal since we didn't have a data processing agreement with that Microsoft subsidiary. I vaguely recall that we put an IP block in place to prevent their servers from accessing our email servers and forced users whose inboxes had been accessed from those IPs to change their passwords.

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Geminii27@reddit

Similarly, even for non-Apple stuff, I've tended to tell any non-technical family members/branches to buy through some well-regarded store which is local to them and provides assistance with anything. I don't want to be phoned in the middle of whatever else I might be doing because Uncle Ebenezer forgot how to use Hotmail or his phone again, and from a user-perspective I don't want relatives sitting around like kicked puppies for howevermany days it might take me to be able to free up enough time to drive X hours to their place and find out that "it's just not working" means they somehow set their phone's language to Xhosa. Take it to the local shop, take some local how-to courses, at least have some local options to call if I'm not available for whatever reason.

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glasgowgeg@reddit

>for howevermany days it might take me to be able to free up enough time to drive X hours to their place That's why you set up Teamviewer.

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Geminii27@reddit

Which is great (and I have done this), but it doesn't cover situations where the issue is preventing boot, preventing internet access, or is related to some physical thing like cables being plugged in, which status lights are lit on some piece of equipment, or a printer having had a pen dropped into the paper feed mechanism. It also doesn't prevent family calling for trivial stuff at the most inopportune times, or getting used to you always being their free on-call technical support provider (with scope creep to being their free on-call everything).

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Accomplished_Ad7106@reddit

Yeah, my whole family is iPhone now. They have learned that while I am the tech guy, if it's a phone question go to my sister who uses iPhone as well. She can answer the apple questions.

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Material_Assumption@reddit

Ha you know what's what, us apple wizards stand together.

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TechManSparrowhawk@reddit

Apple "Genius"

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Material_Assumption@reddit

Ah thanks

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Old-Class-1259@reddit

Apple Genius is the name for the Apple store techies. Apple Wizard is my new term for such legends as yourself that deliberately recommend Apple products they can't or won't support, to avoid hassle.

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archfapper@reddit

> request an iPhone and then a week later request training for the iPhone Every fucking MacBook at my job 🙄. "I had one at my last job!" and then two days later "user wants to know how to use Finder"

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prolongedexistence@reddit

I’ve been supporting an online course and I want to rip my fucking hair out because none of these people can figure out how to register for a Zoom meeting. They received instructions no less than 3 times. This is only tangentially related to your comment but I’ve been holding it in and I had to get it out because I cannot fucking handle these people!!!

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Geminii27@reddit

Is that something you should have responsibility for? Or does it inevitably get tangled up with "I can't get to the meeting on my device I don't know how to use, it must be a computer problem!!!!!" I mean, I'd potentially suggest that all attendees be given a pre-prep walkthrough which involves connecting to a test meeting at least a day or so beforehand, so when they don't even try that it can be a statistical point you can present to the course organizer(s) to see if they can do anything, but I don't know how useful such a thing would be given your specific situation/employer/attendees.

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Geminii27@reddit

There should be something official saying that your IT team is not responsible for training employees to use corporate equipment to do their jobs. That's the responsibility of their managers, if you don't have a separate training division. IT/ICT repairs equipment faults, advises management on IT-related issues and anything affecting the IT infrastructure (including effects of proposed changes and upcoming issues), and undertakes IT projects. It's not, and should never be treated as, a training source for anything other than programs/interfaces designed (not just created) in-house *by the IT team*. If it's not IT-related, it's not the IT team's responsibility. If a piece of software signed off by the business is externally-sourced, that source (plus any in-house SMEs or managers) is the source of training. If it's been signed off and was internally demanded/designed by a team outside IT (even if they made IT code it up), the training source is whichever team/person demanded it. There's got to be lines in the sand, and they need to be in writing so that when some self-important mid-level or recent executive hire starts blustering about how it's "IT's JOB!!!!!", they can be referred to the written statement that no, it absolutely is not, and the policy is that anyone wanting training is to seek it from the designated source (which for this case would be XYZ), or have their manager arrange it for that person with the training source (or acceptable equivalent - Microsoft doesn't supply training in using Office or Windows, for example, but plenty of other training organizations in most cities do).

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aj4000@reddit

My employer generally supply iPhones, but will supply a Samsung if it's requested, and they also allow employees to bring their own devices. All the other techs just take the standard issue iPhone, but I absolutely hate iPhones so I went with the BYOD option. Whenever I upgrade my personal phone I'll re-use the old one as my work phone, which is currently a Samsung S21 Ultra. Android devices are just so much better for work purposes. I can do so much stuff on it that you could never do on an iPhone, mainly just because of the USB-C port. When I'm picking up our dropping off parts at our warehouse, I'll borrow one of the USB barcode scanners instead of typing in barcodes manually. I can connect a USB ethernet adaptor to test our outlet gateways and send them commands over SSH. I can update the files on our USB flash drives. I can test the video output of digital signage media players with a USB-C HDMI capture adaptor. I even used to be able to reprogram the old Cisco routers we used to use with a USB serial adaptor. Whenever one of the other guys see me doing this and ask "How the hell are you able to do that!?" I just shrug and reply "Android".

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macprince@reddit

iPhones have USB-C ports and can do that now...

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True_Location2855@reddit

The company i worked for was a windows environment. The company used iphones. For intine and that's all everything was through intine the email teams the time clock. We even had a kba that stated we do not support Android. So nothing sure why.

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GarageZone@reddit

like teens they NEED the "cool" iPhone. They'll cry until they get one and cry when it doesn't do "work stuff". They should buy their own.

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Top-Surround-9243@reddit (OP)

These were grown ass adult oil well men, so yeah, you are correct!

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that_flying_potato@reddit

I got a similar issue while I was working in a high school. Some students enrolling in engineering were reaching to helpdesk because they bought Mac instead of PC (which was explicitly asked not to do in the school's registration form). When we asked them why they did not buy a PC as stated in the document they told us "I bought a Mac because it is just better". Well, if it's better then troubleshoot it yourself idiot...

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Top-Surround-9243@reddit (OP)

That's the thing that amazes me about IT - everyone knows how to do it better, until it's time to do it. Then IT is supposed to fit a square peg in a round hole to compensate for the ignorance of not including IT in the first place !

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that_flying_potato@reddit

Always the same pattern again and again : 1. Don't involve IT or ignore guidelines deliberately 2. Get in trouble and ask IT to find a magic fix for your issue 3. Treat helpdesk like shit because they are unable to fix the problem you ran into by being stupid

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Lieutenant_Scarecrow@reddit

I'm confused. If your company software isn't available on iPhone, why would your director approve it?

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mercurygreen@reddit

Political weakness. If he refused, they'd be mad and go over his head.

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Geminii27@reddit

Why can people over his head approve them?

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mercurygreen@reddit

Because his boss can say "Do the thing because I'm your boss."

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Geminii27@reddit

Sounds like a bad boss/workplace. Time to move on?

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mercurygreen@reddit

Your boss tells you to do a thing you do it or are fired. Same for your boss and HIS boss. This isn't bad, this is normal....

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Geminii27@reddit

Depends on where you work. Most of my career, I've worked in places where there were enough layers of management and strong unions that you could absolutely check any boss command with a union rep and if they said it was bullshit, you did nothing and the union went and tore the boss a new orifice.

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Ich_mag_Kartoffeln@reddit

Because company politics.

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NotYourNanny@reddit

Spinelessness rolls downhill, much like another biological byproduct.

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anubisviech@reddit

But... turds don't roll? Unless you manage produce the sturdiest brick in history of course.

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joule_thief@reddit

At least in my experience, directors would approve the Death Star without really even looking at the request.

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meitemark@reddit

A Death Star can at least be used to clean the parking lot.

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soundman1024@reddit

The corporate software may not be required for the user’s job function. In that instance, issuing a “decent Samsung” may be a higher support burden than the user’s preferred device. This is an exception that’s more understandable than that one user who wants a Mac.

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That_Ol_Cat@reddit

I just hope if the iPhones cost more, they charged the difference to that person's departmental budget.

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Geminii27@reddit

Plus the cost of training, plus organizing the training, plus the labor hours for all of that at MSP hire rates.

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Relatents@reddit

Agreed. I am familiar with Microsoft and Apple. If I got an Android phone I would have to learn a new language. Could I? Yes. Do I want to? No. I also don’t ask our IT to buy me a phone and I use the oldest one that still has sufficient security to not be too much of a risk.

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VernapatorCur@reddit

He probably figures that since the software won't run on it, that's one less person they'll have to provide support for

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FizmoRoles@reddit

Spineless that's why.

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OldPolishProverb@reddit

Note to OP. Have a talk with the IT director to make sure that all these special "custom" hardware requests are purchased with funds from the department requesting them. Additionally, add on loss and replacement insurance, applecare, protective cases, spare cables and chargers (two extra, give them an extra set to keep in their office and keep one set for yourself for when he eventually looses both sets he has) and schedule him for training on how to use the phone, either on line or at the Apple store. Have it documented that this device is not supported by the IT department and they need to get support from the manufacturer.

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onceIwas15@reddit

The newer iPhones (from at least 16 but not as early as 13) have the same charger as androids.

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fascistliberal419@reddit

Here's the thing - if you pay for it, you choose what kind of phone it is. If your company provides and pays for it, you get what they give you. It's pretty simple. My work phone is an iPhone because that's what they provide. My home one is an android because that's what I prefer and got myself. In happier news, I'm okay with having both because I can look at either and figure stuff out, (not that you can't technically sorta do that anyway, because they are really similar. I've done it way for years, before they provided me with an iPhone.) I like knowing stuff, so it's helpful to have both so I can know stuff and walk myself thru stuff so I can walk customers through stuff. But yeah. Not your money, be happy you got anything.

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InfiniteTree@reddit

We don't have any specific apps we need to use on our phones, so our IT will happily provide either iphone or android for a company phone. I asked for an android (not a fan of apple) and my boss ordered me an iPhone anyway because she "didn't think android would be able to do all the things we needed". That was 6 years ago. Thankfully that boss is long gone, but I still have that iPhone 6S as my work phone 😂

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Kilokk@reddit

Oooof the security implications of using a phone that old…

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MidnightAdventurer@reddit

It was probably fine until fairly recently. They only dropped support for the 7 last year and are still putting out security patches for it. The bigger problem will be apps slowly dropping off as the developers stop supporting ios 15

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Kilokk@reddit

The last security patch for iOS 15 was July of last year. There have been quite a few exploits discovered since then.

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MidnightAdventurer@reddit

Looks like you’re right. I just upgraded a device because of this but I thought I’d already updated to 15.8.3 already yet it gave me a nudge recently to install it. The update obviously didn’t complete when I tried it…

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ncc74656m@reddit

Always makes me think of "The less you know, the more you want Apple."

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boukej@reddit

Rule no 1: What?! Did you yell at me? Can't help you, bye!

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Geminii27@reddit

Yep. "OK, here's what I'll be doing to address this. As per policy, I'll be reporting this and your lack of professionalism to HR, and they will be contacting your boss. *You* are now banned from interacting with IT staff and services until your boss apologizes for you. If you attempt to interact with IT before this time, including attempting to continue this conversation, the interaction will be terminated instantly, your *deliberate policy violation* will also go on record, Security will be notified of your breach, and you will be escorted from the premises until your boss convinces *them* that you are not an ongoing threat to other staff. Oh, and all of this will be charged to your boss's budget. Have a nice rest of your day."

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boukej@reddit

This is not the USA. We do have rights here, and you don't have any rights to yell at me and demand an iPhone. Tatata... close the door when you leave. Thanks.

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dudeitsmeee@reddit

"I want the thing!!" "Do you know how to *use* the thing?" "That's *your* job. To TEACH ME!"

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KelemvorSparkyfox@reddit

Your IT Director wasn't worth a used paper coffee cup. Why were they approving the procurment of useless hardware? I started a job in 2003, and there were exactly two models of phone available - the Nokia 3310, and the Nokia 6310. Very few people were allowed the latter, and the IT Director enforced this *hard*. He even used a 3310.

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Geminii27@reddit

Yup. I worked for a government department over 25 years ago which enforced a 30MB limit (fairly substantial at the time) on user drives. If you wanted more than that, you would be filling out a form where you would explain why *you* needed greater personal storage capacity than the actual CEO in order to do your government job.

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KelemvorSparkyfox@reddit

When a former employer migrated to Outlook for email, there was a transition period as everyone's Notes account was converted and their history transferred over. Due to the nature of my role, I used to receive a lot of Excel workbooks and other attachments, and I had been instructed to keep as much as possible for CYA purposes. My mail file was one of the five largest in the company. Amusingly, I worked fairly closely with the other top four.

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SciFiGuy72@reddit

Bc it's not worth the fight. If they said no, the employee would just complain up the food chain in addition to the normal whinging. We used to get similar requests for monitors ( before smart phones when flat panel screens were new) we'd order it then allocate it to a manager when it came in and let the screens flow down until the complainer got a new, to them, screen. (Agreed on lotus notes btw)

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KelemvorSparkyfox@reddit

It's not worth the fight for the *IT Director* to enforce the *IT policy* of only using Android phones? If someone in the company can overrule the IT Director on a matter like this, the company has bigger problems. As described, the policy is in place so that employees of the company can perform company work on company phones that can interact with the company's systems. If a given set of handsets will not interact with the company's systems, then paying for the employees to have them is a really daft idea that will generate no value.

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SciFiGuy72@reddit

Don't mistake me, I agree in principle, but these types of employee can't be taught otherwise and are a pain to get rid of. Whomever is the buck stopper will have a hellish work life of listening to them whine on and on. The only way upper management gets on board with foot planting is to send them their way. Then the employee doesn't see you as a target for ire.

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Geminii27@reddit

Why are they a pain to get rid of. "This is the equipment for doing your job. If you don't like it, have your manager make a suggestion for future infrastructure. If you whine, you become HR's problem. If you whine to us, our managers, or any other managers, you are now DEFINITELY HR's problem. Learn to do the job or find another one." If they were a hire by some golden executive and thus can demand anything they want, add up *all* the costs of dealing with that user - explicit, implicit, knock-on, and anything under a gap analysis - and charge them to the golden executive's budget. If the executive doesn't like this, it's time to have a strong conversation with the CEO (even if they're the same person) about who's responsible for these additional and imposed costs. Either the IT budget gets expanded to cover all of these, or it's going to have an equivalent impact on everything else IT does. Starting with deprioritizing [A, B, and C], which are things the executive uses themselves or they or their team rely on working smoothly. Washington-monument strategy. I've seen it used by an IT manager I worked under to fend off executive meddling, because part of the IT budget went towards an executive-access-only separate IT helpdesk staffed sufficiently so that there were never any call-queues. Any problematic proposed policies were met with "Of COURSE we can do that with our current resources, sir; we'll just move some from the executive helpdesk - they are, after all, consistently the sub-team with the lowest ROI, and we can 100% fold their duties into the regular helpdesk. I'll get on it right away." No-one wants to be known as the executive who made their fellows (and possibly bosses) have to wait up to an hour on hold when their computer doesn't work, like they were a regular pleb.

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SciFiGuy72@reddit

They are generally a pain as they are usually in a money generating position like Sales. Most mid-managers view IT as an expense already. If the employee says that you are the reason they are whining to them, you're still a target for ire. If you sympathize while stating the policy, you're not a direct target for ire. Ire goes to the nameless policy-maker...even if you're the one who made it. Let the Mids and Uppers deal with the whining child. Why fight a battle that you're not paid enough to and take on stress that you can do without?

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NotYourNanny@reddit

> Bc it's not worth the fight. If they said no, the employee would just complain up the food chain in addition to the normal whinging. Which means someone above the IT Director is the real problem.

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CaneVandas@reddit

Good! They can sign off on the bill for a completely separate MDM and software contract because a handful of staff insist on unsupported hardware. I'm sure once they see the ridiculous price tag that comes with that they might change their tune.

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dustojnikhummer@reddit

> Good! They can sign off on the bill for a completely separate MDM and software contract because a handful of staff insist on unsupported hardware. And an extra employee yo manage this.

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Geminii27@reddit

They can also have their budget paying for *all* future training, maintenance, configuration, and compatibility issues for that user's piece of nonstandard equipment, until the equipment is decommissioned. Yes, this includes all IT work-hours sucked up in supporting it, taking phone calls about it, being called over to a desk about it, being stopped in a corridor about it, purchasing/integrating/configuring/supporting any necessary adaptors or additional software (including additions to existing software, such as plug-ins, additional capabilities, external support/repair etc), any hours and training costs for in-house IT personnel to learn anything they need to know in order to do any of this, etc etc...

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NotYourNanny@reddit

I agree.

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mgdmw@reddit

Yes - for sure, which is also evidenced by the culture where managers can shout and whine and bully. That’s unacceptable behaviour in a company with a healthy culture and good leadership.

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pyrusane@reddit

Guarantee that 3310 probably still has a half charged battery today

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land8844@reddit

I have a 3595 hanging around somewhere...

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nerdguy1138@reddit

The Nokia 3310 was famously pretty much indestructible.

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kenikigenikai@reddit

We used them at my old job years after they'd mostly died out in favour of smartphones. My manager had 2 ringing at once, threw one at me which I failed to catch, and it cracked the fake marble floor but survived the entire ordeal unscathed itself. Insane durability.

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Cheech47@reddit

the next logical step then is clear; you replace the fake marble floor with inlaid 3310's.

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kenikigenikai@reddit

presumably would have been a legal nightmare if anyone ever slipped over and shattered every bone in their body

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KelemvorSparkyfox@reddit

Instructions unclear. Entire office now vibrates when the phone rings.

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mafiaknight@reddit

You trying to build a bomb shelter?

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Djembe_kid@reddit

Who's asking? If you're the government definitely not.

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mafiaknight@reddit

>.> <.< Hey kid You wanna buy some Nokias?

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Gadgetman_1@reddit

We had holders with power and antenna for those in a lot of cars at the office, so we tried to keep them alive for years after Nokia stopped selling them. 3rd party batteries and all, loads of them on a shelf at the office. Any one of them got broken? We salvaged the parts from them to fix others. Luckily the first iPhone appeared not long after so managers began whining for an upgrade, and that freed up a few more. So yeah, I was very thankful for the iPhone.

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ThePr0vider@reddit

it's a company phone, surely all it needs to do is be able to be called, use teams, and maybe outlook to see if a email is important enough to get out the laptop. even samsung A devices work well for that

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bonkdonkers@reddit

This story doesn’t make any sense. If your company’s proprietary apps didn’t have an iOS version then there wouldn’t even be an approval process to get one. I’m sure you’ll get lots of upvotes from the people whose whole personality is just shitting on things they don’t like though.

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filthy_harold@reddit

I'm guessing it's because most people don't actually need the corporate apps. My company has a bunch of apps they've made in a private app store on my iPhone. Never installed a single one of them as most are either pretty specific for accessing business tools I don't use, I'm not approved to use (like an app for booking flights on the company jet), or are basically webapps that I can access via safari anyway. 99.99% of my work iphone usage is outlook, teams, and using safari for my timecard. I only asked for the iPhone over the Samsung because I wanted to be able to do iMessage with my wife since my office has shit cell service.

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wombat1@reddit

Company jet! Holy dooley, what the hell kind of company you working for?

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filthy_harold@reddit

Pick any fortune 500 company and they probably have a company jet

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bonkdonkers@reddit

That’s true, so if that’s the case here it just makes OP petty for no reason because ultimately they’ll have to do more support for someone that only knows iOS but was forced to used android. Just a dumb story all around. These brands are not that important, just let em use whatever they want. Unless the whole thing is a fake story written by a kid, which seems like the more realistic answer. “Heh, they wanted an iPhone so I got them pink instead of black. That’ll show em” is pure high schooler logic.

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Illusion911@reddit

But then what reason does the company have to give them an iPhone?

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bonkdonkers@reddit

I don’t know, that’s yet another reason why this story doesn’t make any sense.

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Geminii27@reddit

> an approval process Ah ha ha. 'Approval process.' Approval processes are things which happen in companies which aren't run like crap, and where managers, executives, and salespeople can't just demand whatever they want regardless of whether it actually works or is supported.

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binaryhextechdude@reddit

We issue both Samsungs and iPhones. They demand the iPhone. We give them iPhone SE's. Not the model they were dreaming of.

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TangerineBand@reddit

I worked at my current job during the great pandemic electronics shortage. You couldn't get new anything for months. We had someone break an iPhone 6 hoping for something newer. (For reference, I work in an office setting with like no signal. These phones don't even work if you take them off campus. If you put in a SIM card, it will simply ignore it. They are hooked up to our local network purely because no phone signal) The look on her face when we showed up with an iPhone 5 (literally the only thing we had in stock) was priceless

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wombat1@reddit

Hahaha my company does this too! Whereas our stock Android is now the Galaxy S25

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Da12khawk@reddit

You uh guys hiring?

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dog2k@reddit

yup, had an entire department of instructors request iphones and ipads. They fought IT to get them (went to the board of governors for approval) and literally the day they got them found out the applications they were using\\teaching were windows\\android only. The #1 main reason they wanted these devices and that's the 1 piece of information they neglected to tell IT about. Could have been solved in a 30 second google search.

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Geminii27@reddit

I hope that the cost of the devices *and everything associated with those devices ever existing* was charged back to whoever approved them. Ongoing.

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dog2k@reddit

of course, the guilty are never punished.

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Loki-L@reddit

The problem is that to many iPhone are not a tool, but a status symbol, like an expensive company car or a corner office. They sell some real good prop and replica phones on amazon or elsewhere on the internet for display purposes and for many of the people who insist on a iPhone they would work just as well at 1% of the price.

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owleaf@reddit

Work gives us dreadful cheap Samsung phones that are slow/laggy. It’s full of these random corporate apps I don’t need and whenever I try to delete them, they all redownload the next day. It chews through battery like crazy too.

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teenagesadist@reddit

I had the misfortune of using an apple product recently, and why anyone likes that hot garbage is beyond me. And I'm not just hating to hate, I've given apple a fair shake, and every time I'm at a loss for words on why anyone would willingly subject themselves to that stuff, much less prefer it.

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Kilokk@reddit

That’s about how I feel about Android. I had one for a year, and just couldn’t get used to it.

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adzm@reddit

I love Android but Apple also makes a great product, it's just different.

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teenagesadist@reddit

Sure, it's very different in that it doesn't work 75 percent of the time. I tried logging in to apple tv the other day to watch the new severance. I had to go through 3 different access codes, and then it just didn't respond. Fucking apple sucks.

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Kilokk@reddit

It ain’t much better on the other side. People get PISSED that they can’t have their precious Android phones. Then they get pissed when they set up their work stuff on their own Android and ask for help. I can’t help you. I haven’t used an Android in over a decade and we don’t support Android.

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randypriest@reddit

We had an engineer ask for an iPhone when iPhones first came out. We said no, none of our equipment uses apps on iOS so it won't work. A week later, we received the engineer's device in a box with a note "fell out of my pocket, need a new iPhone" The engineer wasn't getting an iPhone, regardless, as not only did we not support them, the engineer had obviously used a screwdriver and a drill to damage the device he had. We had toughened Windows Mobile devices which you could literally throw across a warehouse, pick up and start using again. When we reviewed the unit and sent photos to his manager, we requested a payment for the device of around £2k as it wasn't accidental damage. The engineer decided to resign instead. Lost his job over wanting a device because it was shiny and new, yet couldn't do his job on it.

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Geminii27@reddit

I wonder if the manager ever took a call as a work reference for a future interview for that engineer, and explained how the first thing he'd done on being hired was to deliberately destroy company equipment.

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MoneyTreeFiddy@reddit

"I don't want to say anything actionable, but let's just say he couldn't resist forbidden fruit"

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thoemse99@reddit

I once had the CFO coming to my office on 30. December. "we just figured out we're very well with the budget and can spend a couple of thousands more for IT equipment. Please order 20 iPhones. But we must receive them until the end of this year." As our supplier wasn't able to provide them until the next day, he had to physically visit a couple of stores by himself.

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Geminii27@reddit

Why it's always good to have a wish-list of things which are actually needed (and compatible). Or at least have an arrangement with an external provider where they can (1) get nearly anything on 24 hours' notice for a massive increase in price, and (2) will accept returns (less a restocking fee of course) as credit towards purchasing something actually useful.

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thoemse99@reddit

Yes, such arrangements come in handy. But it's hard to get that for a company of about 80 users. With that kind of low sales, prices are unreasonable. And this just because some managers don't do their job?

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TheJesusGuy@reddit

This is me every fucking year with general server hardware or workstations. Even though Ive been asking all year long. They will even get invoices backdated.

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cooperboss@reddit

I have a team of people wanting iPhones. My personal devices have switched between android and iPhone over the years. But whatever I’m supplied at work is fine by me. I work for local government and it’s never going to be a fantastic phone. It’s always going to have to comply with whatever IT Director sets out as their policy and so it’s always been android phones and tablets. I always lie to the team and say that I’ll request iPhones when it comes to upgrade time (twice in 17 years) but I never do as I know they won’t ever get them. The one I can’t stand is the laptop. They provide the smallest laptops with the cheapest specs and refuse to accept they aren’t capable. I’ve offered to buy my own on so many occasions and have them install whatever security they need and they refuse. My current laptop can’t even run MS Project. Let alone any kind of CAD software and that’s half my job. Even worse when I sit in a meeting with the IT director and he is sitting there with the latest iPhone as a work phone and a well over spec laptop (pretty sure his last one was a custom build machine) and his latest looks to be a gaming laptop but haven’t had time to see it fully!

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Geminii27@reddit

> They provide the smallest laptops with the cheapest specs and refuse to accept they aren’t capable. Document every example of the provided laptops not being able to let people do their jobs effectively. Estimate hours (and anything else) lost as a result, including hours spent by both employees and IT going around in circles about it, being on the phone, handling tickets etc. Convert that to a percentage of annual work hours for affected employees, and from there to a percentage of their Employee Cost (accounting term, talk to Finance or possibly HR - this isn't just their salary). Add up *all* such costs each quarter and present them to Finance, the CEO, or whoever's able to influence or change the policy based on purely monetary arguments. (There's a case to be made, too, of the amount of time an employee is delayed in their work. Not as a monetary equivalent, but affecting corporate responsiveness, throughput, and other factors.) If this doesn't work... well, at least it's on record what's causing the problem. Someone with appropriate authority might change their mind, or be replaced, or find it politically convenient in future to make the change and easier if it's backed up by figures.

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charlesgres@reddit

At my job too many people did not want the company-issued phone, so they decided to no longer issue a phone, but a monthly allowance, so that the employee could buy the phone they wanted.. No access to the company network and services though, unless you let your device be 'secured', consequence of which you'd no longer be able to access your icloud services.. So I thanked for that and live with no access to company emails and agenda while not on the job.. Suits me very well..

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comrademischa@reddit

Wouldn’t they just be back the next day? “Where’s the company software?!”

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anubisviech@reddit

Depends on if the manager really needs it for their work, or if they really work at all.

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manhattanabe@reddit

Not your fault. But a company that doesn’t support iPhone? In the U.S.?

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a8bmiles@reddit

We're a website company and the Apple shit is just atrociously greedy. Certain stuff that our code team does to support Apple stuff mandates a mac and/or ios device that is less than 2 years old. As in, if it was released more than 2 years ago then the development software will not fucking run, but a new device. The e-waste caused by Apple is just insane.

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Synergythepariah@reddit

...what development software is even being used that requires that?

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Rathmun@reddit

Xcode, it's Xcode. And it will refuse to run on older machines... unless you're comfortable editing app manifests. Not a big deal to actually do, but that just proves u/a8bmiles point, doesn't it? The software runs fine, it's just a field in a file that's not even encrypted, and which can be edited without breaking signing. A tax on the people who want things to just work, which is their target market.

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a8bmiles@reddit

I don't interact with it so I don't know the specific details. I just know that it gets complained about all the time, as well as every 2 years during budgeting.

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Caithus63@reddit

This is the way

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pockypimp@reddit

At my previous job we had both but the Sales Reps had to get Samsung phones because the milage tracking app was Android only. This was also a boon for us because I got to get InTune deployed for the Samsung devices and save the company some money. Every time a Sales Rep would whine "I want an iPhone!" I'd tell them that they had no choice as the milage software was Android only. Then they'd say "What about this other milage software?" and I'd tell them that the approved app automatically worked with Payroll and they'd have to take it up with Payroll if they wanted to support another app. And that's where it would go to die.

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doctor_jpar@reddit

I love seeing IT support specialists bitch and moan about having to provide their peers with the tools they feel most comfortable working with. This entire thread reminds me of a networking guy telling me, in 2014, that he’d never use Apple products because they don’t have the ability to configure and use a right-mouse click. iPhones aren’t impossible to manage. You just don’t know how, or don’t have the tools. Maybe instead of berating your colleagues and “punishing” them with pink phones, you could bundle up all these requests and let the leadership know they may want to start offering a choice of devices. Pretty much every EMM/MDM that works on Android works on iOS. It’s IT’s role to empower their colleagues, not gatekeep.

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TheVisceralCanvas@reddit

You sound like an Apple shill. OP explicitly states that the company software is almost impossible to get working properly on iOS. Besides, why tf do employees feel entitled to demand specific models of phone when it's meant to be ***for work***?

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doctor_jpar@reddit

Oh, I’m platform agnostic. But it’s funny that pointing out how listening to your coworkers and responding to their needs makes me sound like an “Apple shill.” What grinds my gears is when IT dictates rather than collaborates. There’s clearly a use case for iPhones based on employee requests, so use that data to improve IT offerings and give employees what they would like to use. They’re happy. Your department looks good for responding to customer needs. It’s a win-win.

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Selenthys@reddit

You are confusing "what is needed to do your job" with "user preferences" HARD. Please, give me ONE single thing a common user cannot do with an android phone that he can do with an iPhone. Common use is : - email access - instant messaging access - phone calls access - maybe files or drives if the company supports it - maybe camera if the job needs it - any other approved business applications (expenses.. etc) Don't be mistaken, as an IT Director, I've chosen as a policy to let user choose between the 2 at my company. But there is absolutely no reason to get upset if the company policy dictates one or the other. I've had people who bought MACs without asking with company credit card that I refused to set up and configure with access to corporate resources because they did not entered in the framework of our computer standards. Yeah they have a nice Whatsapp and internet machine now. They don't even mail access on it. At one point there are things that are dictated by users and others that are dictated by IT. And users need to respect that. What's simple in my job, is that I just refer them to the head of HR if they are upset. Once she reminds them the standards that we developped together, there is no problem anymore. She's far more mean than me.

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TheVisceralCanvas@reddit

The problem is this line here: >The tools they feel most comfortable with Employees don't get to dictate what tools they use in their day-to-day work. What if someone feels comfortable using a Windows laptop but someone else wants to use a MacBook which doesn't have the appropriate software? Would you completely rewrite your company's applications for this one employee or would you tell them to suck it up? Where is the line drawn? Anyway, the employee in OP's post clearly wasn't "more comfortable" using an iPhone because they asked to be trained on it shortly afterwards. It's painfully obvious that they just wanted an iPhone for personal use and to make the company pay for it. The way you downplay the importance of IT technicians and their role is honestly baffling. IT are the ones keeping organisations running smoothly and part of that involves saying "no" to entitled colleagues.

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doctor_jpar@reddit

To entitled colleagues. Sure. But the tone of this post is painting anyone that wants an iOS device as entitled. That’s unlikely. The post stinks to high hell of old-school IT thinking, which is that the users are the enemy. Just as IT must maintain security and support standards, they must also listen to their customers/peers and provide the platforms that they can be the most productive on. That’s why you see most companies now providing Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices. IT is a business partner, not a technology dictatorship.

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nico282@reddit

So you believe that IT should implement the management of a whole different platform (MDM, policies, assess applications, licenses, write user guides) because some users are "more comfortable"? If you think it's only about buying a different brand, you are plain wrong.

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elldee50@reddit

We don't provide or support iOS devices to any employees. No exceptions.

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tylerderped@reddit

What “company software” doesn’t work on iOS?

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SheepherderAware4766@reddit

Probably some sort of custom app, iOS doesn't allow sideloading. They might have an in house 2FA, payroll, timekeeping and/or scheduling system. On android, you could roll that into an executable sdk to download and install. On iOS, you have to pay Apple to publish it to the app store. As an additional issue, on iOS once it's on the app store, anyone could download it. An android SDK would only be available on the phones the IT team loaded it onto.

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Lumanus@reddit

Talking straight out of your ass. Corporate apps can be distributed without showing up (or even using) the appstore, sideloading is even available to normal users.

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SheepherderAware4766@reddit

I was wrong about the public viewing, but not about having to pay to use the app store. Also, sideloading is [not](https://www.xda-developers.com/apple-eu-dma-changes/) enabled worldwide, only in EU

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gennisa@reddit

You could absolutely distribute those apps internally without the app store. https://developer.apple.com/programs/enterprise/

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SheepherderAware4766@reddit

This only fixes the second issue, you still have to use the app store. You actually have to pay MORE for the privilege.

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doctor_jpar@reddit

Right? Like… it’s 2025.

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Id10t_techsupport@reddit

If you don't know what model of phone and ios version as well know how to check for updates you don't need a phone

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Id10t_techsupport@reddit

For me, my Corp went to ios and made an 80 page,double sided on how to create their apple ID and configure said device via text and outdated graphics by 2 or 3 versions. Also this doc stated to do everything from the 4in (iPhone 4s and above) screen vs cutting things down to installing iTunes on their Corp pc to create your apple ID then configure their device by themselves

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turtleship_2006@reddit

Did they just ask for "and iPhone" or a specific model? I reckon a 1st gen SE or some crap like that should be sufficient.

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joe_attaboy@reddit

I can see the company is really helpful in denying the iPhone requests from the whiners.

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dannybau87@reddit

Not your pig not your farm. You'll need survive in this business if you try and use your head in these situations.

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This_guy_works@reddit

Where I work, its BYOD, and 90% of users have an iPhone based on their personal preference. I think the majority of people just like the iPhone and the Apple ecosystem becuase it is familiar and works well. Now, I can get on board with someone wanting the latest iPhone that just came out three months ago and refusing a model a year or two old that's just as good. That's frustrating. But asking for a phone that they're familiar with and that most everyone else in society uses, that's not an outrageous request. Better than asking for a specific form factory of an old Blackberry or something.

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tacticalTechnician@reddit

At work, we either provide a Samsung phone (and we're using Knox to manage it) or employees can get a small allowance to use their own phone (we don't really care about managing in that case, they just use it to call people, but we can still use Knox as a work profile if we need to). I've had multiple people complaining that we were "cheap" to only provide Android phones (hell yeah we are, people are constantly breaking them and letting their kids play with them when they're not supposed to) and that the allowance wasn't enough to pay for their phone (no shit, it's no supposed to pay for everything, it's still yours). We DID try to support iPhones, but Apple made sure to make it as annoying as possible, Apple Configurator is a fucking nightmare. Fortunately, it's a small business, I can talk directly to the owner and usually, that BS gets managed pretty quickly (and ironically, he is using an iPhone for his personal phone, but he still chose to keep the same Android phone as the rest for its work one because he wasn't interested in paying more for no reason).

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thepfy1@reddit

Apple Configurator isn't that bad. I could look at Apple Business Manager, it's free and works like Samsung KME. Set it up, add your reseller and point it at Knox for enrolment.

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