Apple has begun an interesting project in which employees of the San Francisco store will be lent an iPad 2 to use and learn from. The plan is to help employees become familiar with iOS 5 before its official launch sometime this Fall. The trial will allow San Francisco Apple workers to experience the “magical” device by allowing them take a loaner home with them.
While the trial is currently limited to the San Francisco Apple store, such a program could make it to other stores and even include other devices.
As reported by MacNN, Apple has tried this kind of thing before.
In 2007, Apple did something similar with its (then much smaller) retail workforce by providing all employees with their own iPhone, which they got to keep. Earlier this year, Verizon offered Apple Store employees a specially-discounted plan to entice them to upgrade or switch to the Verizon version of the iPhone.