Windows Phone Thoughts: Microsoft Providing Employees Windows Phones

Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet has just tweeted that Microsoft will be providing each one of its 90,000 employees a Windows Phone 7 device. Before we get too ahead of ourselves praising Microsoft for its benevolence, I'm sure there are a number of reasons to give out these phones. First, this can serve as a grass-roots marketing initiative. Secondly, it can provide Microsoft with a nice batch of beta users to help stomp out those bugs. And finally, it can prevent Steve Ballmer from threatening anymore iPhones.