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Company meetings are normally mind boggingly boring affairs, but Microsoft spiced things up a bit at its annual pow-wow, which was held in Seattle yesterday: GeekWire reports that the company plans to give its employees shiny new Windows 8 work PCs along with Windows Phone 8 handsets and Surface RT tablets that can be used for both work and play.

Everyone will get a Windows Phone but only full-time, direct employees of Microsoft will receive a Surface RT tablet, the website reports. Microsoft is advancing its computer update schedule to make the company-wide switch to Windows 8 workstations, all of which will be supplied by Redmond's OEM partners.

Christmas came early in Redmond, but as we see it, the costly decision is a smart one for Microsoft. While the company hopes to capture hearts, minds and mobile market share with its upcoming operating system, the Live Tile-based Modern interface is a drastic change that is sure to temporarily stump some mainstream PC users. Putting the new Windows operating systems of the hands of actual Microsoft employees means the company's staff will have intimate knowledge of the changes when the flood of help requests inevitably come in.