Rumor: Apple Hiring Home-Based Tech Support Team

"Apple appears to be building a large, distributed helpdesk operation, either in anticipation of a major new product, or simply to sustain the company’s growing popularity. Apple this summer is recruiting about 450 “At Home” technical support staff in at least six cities across the U.S., according to a document seen by Cultofmac.com. Instead of locating these workers in a centralized call center, they will work out of their own homes."

If you think about it, the call center really is obsolete in many ways. VOIP phones and remote login software has rendered the need for cubicles and offices mostly moot, and call metrics and such can still be monitored from one central computer.  Any company not taking advantage of the advances in modern tech by outsourcing their support (and by outsourcing, I mean sending it outside their own walls, not outside their own country) is missing an opportunity for huge savings.

It'll be interesting to see if Apple hops on board with Jet Blue and Sears.