At Apple "Enterprise" is a Four Letter Word!

[Harbourmaster]

Great read in todays Info world: http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailP...=printThis&A=/article/06/09/22/39FEbizmac_4.html

[ztirffritz]

Good read. Thanks for the link.

[Silencio]

Compare and contrast to David Pogue's theories as to why Apple doesn't fly in the enterprise. Steel cage match!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/16/techno...1159329600&en=c90f153881e18981&ei=5070

Neither one of them offer up one of the most significant reasons why Apple machines don't make a bigger dent in the enterprise: they don't offer real corporate-grade on-site service or 24-hour replacement of any kind for any machine other than the Xserves. Dell and Lenovo and all the other guys have field techs that come out and perform near-immediate repairs and replacements on desktop machines and laptops, if you pony up the bucks for that kind of support contract.

Apple isn't really trying very hard in the enterprise at all, and I don't think they care much about it all at the moment. They're doing pretty well with their traditional market niches, and playing the enterprise desktop game is like playing the $400 consumer PC game: lots of work for little reward (margins).

[Silencio]

Oh, yeah: and I once linked to this guy's blog, where one can find many discussions about how and why Apple refuses to go after the enterprise market (Phil and Steve apparently can't be bothered with it):

http://viewfromthemountain.typepad.com/applepeels/

[SteveJobs]

It's all about

1. sales force
2. enterprise-level maintenance agreements

THEN

3. Price

IMO

[Silencio]

1. Apple craps all over their enterprise sales force. Like lackeys working at any Apple Store, they're the last to know about new products and usually get educated about the products they're supposed to sell by their customers.

2. See my above post.

3. Apple is not going to want to race to the bottom against Dell and HP.

Though Apple has some great products that are very well suited to the enterprise, I've given up hope that they're ever going to make a concerted effort to play in that space. Maybe if Schiller ever gets replaced by someone with credible experience managing enterprise sales, but he seems awfully comfortable where he is now, and Steve doesn't mind.